Veggies or meat in low-carbohydrate diets? Vegetable protein is likely safer than animal protein in low-carbohydrate diets, according to a prospective study of the relationship between two types of low carbohydrate diet and death. A vegetable based low-carbohydrate diet was associated with a lower risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease-specific death. The investigators, whose results appear in the September 7 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, evaluated almost 130,000 men and women from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study. These cohorts generally have higher educational status and availability of health care coverage, which limits the findings to people with similar characteristics. Despite this limitation, the authors concluded that "a [low-carbohydrate] diet that includes mostly vegetable sources of protein and fat is preferable to [one] with mostly animal sources of protein and fat."