Beijing, May 3 (IANS): Eating low-carbohydrate diets may raise the risk of early death, claimed a study while noting that food products low on fat can prolong life.

Short-term clinical trials have shown the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets and low-fat diets for weight loss and cardiovascular benefits.

Low-fat diets include whole grain food, lean meat, reduced fat dairy, vegetables, lentils and fruits.

Low-carbohydrate diets,on the other hand, restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet.

Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low carbohydrate foods.

The study, led by an international team of researchers from universities of Peking in China, Harvard and Tulane in the US, included 371,159 participants aged 50-71 years.

The participants were followed for 23.5 years, and 165,698 deaths were recorded.

The findings, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, showed that adopting a low fat diet could slash the risk of death each year by up to 34 per cent.

Meanwhile, low carb diets increased mortality risk up to 38 per cent. People on keto-like diets were 28 per cent more likely to die from any cause when compared to their high-carb peers.

"Higher mortality was observed for overall low-carbohydrate diet and unhealthy low-carbohydrate diet, but slightly lower risks for healthy low-carbohydrate diet," the researchers wrote in the study.

"Our results support the importance of maintaining a healthy low-fat diet with less saturated fat in preventing all-cause and cause-specific mortality among middle-aged and older people," they added.

Moreover, following a healthy low-fat diet was associated with significantly lower total mortality by 18 per cent, cardiovascular mortality by 16 per cent, and cancer mortality by 18 per cent, respectively, versus the lowest.