Nutrition research
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This article describes the use of operations research methods to study the minimum possible cost of a low-carbohydrate diet. The study compares this cost to the minimum cost of a diet with no limitation on carbohydrate. The rationale for this study is the popularity of the low-carbohydrate diets and their perceived high cost. ⋯ Furthermore, the minimum cost of a diet low in both carbohydrate and fat is 5 to 10 times the cost of the cheapest diet, depending on the relative amounts of these nutrients. As carbohydrate and fat are constrained, cost increases dramatically and nonlinearly. The study identifies which nutrients had the greatest effect on cost for a low-carbohydrate and low-fat diet.