A low-carbohydrate diet that has some extra fat won’t harm a person’s arteries, according to new research.

The diets – known as the Atkins, South Beach and Zone diets – remain popular and researchers say some have worried the extra fat was a heart-heath issue.

“Overweight and obese people appear to really have options when choosing a weight-loss program, including a low-carb diet, and even if it means eating more fat,” said Kerry Stewart, a Johns Hopkins exercise physiologist and the studies’ lead investigator, in a statement.

Stewart, a professor of medicine and director of clinical and research exercise physiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart and Vascular Institute said his research looked at the low-carb, higher fat diet and the high-carb, lower fat diet. Stewart believes his team’s analysis is the first direct comparison of either kind of diets’ effects on vascular health. He studied 46 people trying to lose weight with diet and moderate exercise.

The results will be presented June 3 at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Denver. It found a group of 23 men and women weighing an average of 218 pounds showed no change in vascular health after losing 10 pounds. They also appeared to lose weight faster than those who were on the higher-carb, lower-fat diet. 

Stewart said the study can reassure both camps that weight loss is effective and the low-carb, higher-fat diet doesn’t seem to pose heart risks, at least in the short term. He also said an over-emphasis on low-fat diets may be contributing to the obesity epidemic by encouraging over-consumption of high-carb foods that are less filling.

He also emphasized that moderating the number of calories, rather than the specific diet, and exercising was important for diet and heart health.

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