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| Advice to shift to low-fat diets may have been counterproductive Why1 #371618 Encouragement over the last 30 years to shift towards low-fat diets as the key to healthy weight and good health may have been misguided—as evidence suggests that low-fat diets don't make it easier to lose weight and don't appear to offer any special health benefits—and counterproductive as low-fat diets are often high in carbohydrates (especially from rapidly digested sources, such as white bread and white rice) which increase the risk of weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease. | |
+Citations (1) - CitationsAdd new citationList by: CiterankMapLink[1] Beyond Willpower: Diet Quality and Quantity Matter
Author: Harvard School of Public Health, Obesity Prevention Source
Publication info: 2014
Cited by: David Price 4:39 PM 5 January 2015 GMT
Citerank: (3) 371621Type of calories consumed is significant (as well the quantity)Emerging research suggests that some foods and eating patterns may also make it easier to keep calories in check, while others may make people more likely to overeat. Many of the foods that help prevent disease also seem to help with weight control—foods like whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. And many of the foods that increase disease risk—chief among them, refined grains and sugary drinks—are also factors in weight gain.648CC79C, 399906Advice to shift to low-fat diets may have been counterproductiveEncouragement over the last 30 years to shift towards low-fat diets as the key to healthy weight and good health may have been misguided—as evidence suggests that low-fat diets don't make it easier to lose weight and don't appear to offer any special health benefits—and counterproductive as low-fat diets are often high in carbohydrates (especially from rapidly digested sources, such as white bread and white rice) which increase the risk of weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease.555CD992, 399940Type of calories consumed is significant (as well the quantity)Emerging research suggests that some foods and eating patterns may also make it easier to keep calories in check, while others may make people more likely to overeat. Many of the foods that help prevent disease also seem to help with weight control—foods like whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. And many of the foods that increase disease risk—chief among them, refined grains and sugary drinks—are also factors in weight gain.648CC79C
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| | Excerpt / Summary Low-fat diets have long been touted as the key to a healthy weight and to good health. But the evidence just isn’t there: Over the past 30 years in the U.S., the percentage of calories from fat in people’s diets has gone down, but obesity rates have skyrocketed. (1,2) Carefully conducted clinical trials have found that following a low-fat diet does not make it any easier to lose weight than following a moderate- or high-fat diet. In fact, study volunteers who follow moderate- or high-fat diets lose just as much weight, and in some studies a bit more, as those who follow low-fat diets. (3,4) And when it comes to disease prevention, low-fat diets don’t appear to offer any special benefits. (5)
Part of the problem with low-fat diets is that they are often high in carbohydrate, especially from rapidly digested sources, such as white bread and white rice. And diets high in such foods increase the risk of weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease. (See Carbohydrates and Weight, below.)
For good health, the type of fat people eat is far more important that the amount (see box), and there’s some evidence that the same may be true for weight control. (6-9) In the Nurses’ Health Study, for example, which followed 42,000 middle-age and older women for eight years, increased consumption of unhealthy fats—trans fats, especially, but also saturated fats—was linked to weight gain, but increased consumption of healthy fats—monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat—was not. (6) |
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