Low-carbohydrate diets like the popular Atkins plan can lead to rapid weight loss but tend to rely heavily on animal protein, and studies suggest they may do little to lower LDL, or low-density lipoprotein, the “bad” type of cholesterol linked to heart disease. Enter what researchers are calling the “eco-Atkins” diet, a high-protein, low-carbohydrate and entirely vegan diet.

A small, four-week randomized controlled clinical trial that tested the new regimen found that overweight adults who consumed a high-protein, entirely vegan diet were able to lose about the same amount of weight as a comparison group of dieters on a high-carbohydrate, low-fat vegetarian dairy diet. But while those on the high-carbohydrate dairy diet experienced drops of 12 percent in their LDL cholesterol, those on the high protein vegan diet saw cholesterol reductions of 20 percent.

“We felt this was quite remarkable,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. David J. A. Jenkins, a professor of medicine and nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital. “The early statins reduced cholesterol by 30 percent,” he added, referring to the first generation of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

Results of the study were published in this week’s issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.

“The idea preyed on me for a long time: Heavens, if the Atkins Diet looks good, and it’s got so much saturated fat and cholesterol in it, suppose we took that out and put vegetarian protein sources in, which themselves may lower cholesterol,” Dr. Jenkins said. “We know that nuts lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease, and soy is eaten in the Far East, where they don’t get much heart disease. So we put these foods together as protein and fat sources.”