Pass me the bread basket, will ya?

As has been previously reported, low-carb/high-protein diets may pose health risks in the long run. But this current report from the BBC highlights a startling finding:

Scientists have found high fat, low carbohydrate diets can reduce energy to the heart.
[...]
They found that the energy stored in the heart was reduced by an average of 16% among those who followed a high fat, low carbohydrate diet.
[...]
In some people the energy reduction was as much as a third.

Their hearts also became slightly 'stiffer' - not relaxing quite as well as before the diet.

Sixteen per cent. Stiffness in the heart tissue. That's pretty freaky. The good news is that the condition can be reversed when returning to a more-balanced diet.

I remember trying one of those Atkins/South Beach diets a year ago. All I remember is the willingness to maim someone for an orange. And while I typically frown on white flour and processed food (although my latest fried calamari/beer-drinking binge proves otherwise), any extreme tilt to either side just - intuitively - can't be healthy. And I had been contemplating a return to the low-carb livin' (after the holidays, of course, heh heh). But after reading this article, not so much.