An analysis of 53 weight-loss studies that included more than 68,000 people has concluded that, despite their popularity, low-fat diets are no more effective than higher-fat diets for long-term weight loss.
And overall, neither type of diet works particularly well. A year after their diets started, participants in the 53 studies were, on average, only about 5 kilograms (11 pounds) lighter.
“That’s not that impressive,” says Kevin Hall, a physiologist at the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. “All of these prescriptions for dieting seem to be relatively ineffective in the long term.”
The study, published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology[1], runs counter to decades’ worth of medical advice and adds to a growing consensus that the widespread push for low-fat diets was misguided. Nature looks at why low-fat diets were so popular and what diet doctors might prescribe next.
This has been known for at least ten years by nutritionists, but is only starting to creep into popular consciousness. A few months ago a friend turned down eating ‘Chinese food’ because he wanted to eat something ‘healthier’. When I asked what he meant by ‘healthier’, he said ‘low fat, like a salad’.
It will take generations for the propaganda about fat to degrade. Like Freudian psychotherapy, it will persist despite no evidence whatsoever supporting dubious claims.
from Stowe Boyd http://stoweboyd.com/post/132334021482
