The study found that the moderate-fat diet produced a 14 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease risk, while the low-fat group experienced a nine percent improvement. Both groups of the study lost 2.4 to 2.7 pounds a week on average because the researchers controlled the diets.
The study consisted of 53 overweight or obese people with cholesterol levels elevated above 200 at the start of the diet. The participants ate either a low-fat or moderate-fat diet for a six-week period to determine weight loss in each group. After the six weeks, they ate similar diets designed for maintenance for four weeks. The participants' food, which was provided by the research team, consisted of 18 percent of calories from fat in the low-fat diet and 33 percent of calories from fat in the moderate-fat diet.
During the study, researchers found the low-fat diet group experienced a 12 percent decrease in HDL (good) cholesterol, whereas the moderate-fat diet group had no change in their cholesterol. Researchers say that this indicates that a moderate-fat diet blunts the decrease in HDL cholesterol during the weight loss.
Researchers also found, after the decrease in HDL cholesterol, triglycerides rose greatly during the four-week maintenance phase for those participants on the low-fat diet, but not for those on the moderate-fat diet. When triglycerides elevate they become a cardiovascular risk factor, which means even though the low-fat diet successfully reduced the risk factors during the six-week weight loss phase of the study, those factors rebounded during the last four-week maintenance phase of the study.
Researchers believe the outcome of this study is significant because it demonstrated clearly that lowering total fat intakes could have adverse consequences on reductions in the risk of cardiovascular disease.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February, 2004;79(2):204-212
It is great news that scientists are beginning to question the benefits of the low-fat diet.
However, many Americans are concerned about their weight, and with all the types of diets out there it is hard to know which one is the right one for you. The truth is that no one diet, whether high-fat or low-fat, works for everyone because we are all unique on a biochemical level, and we all need different amounts of macronutrients--fats, protein and carbs--to help us function optimally. How do you do what ratio of macronutrients is right for you? You'll first need to determine your nutritional type.
Your nutritional type lets you know how readily you convert excess carbohydrate to fat or how able you are to digest protein efficiently. People who are carbohydrate nutritional types will be able to tolerate grains far better than protein types, who are naturally suited to a diet with little or no grains.
Determining your nutritional type, whether you are a carb nutritional type, a mixed type or a protein type, will allow you to choose foods that your body can utilize and digest properly. You may need a high-protein diet, or you may need a high-carb diet (mostly vegetable carbs) to reach your ideal weight. As I said above, there is no one approach that will work for everyone, but once you eat the food that your nutritional type was meant to eat, you will naturally lose weight, or gain it depending on your need, and you won't feel hungry or deprived and your cravings for unhealthy food will naturally disappear.
To get full details on this essential principle and to assess your nutritional type, I highly encourage you to read my new book. Along with 150 brand-new delicious and very nutritious low-carb recipes geared toward your nutritional type, the book includes a test and the means to learn and understand your own nutritional type and gear your diet precisely toward the foods that are right for you (and that also satisfy you!).
Also, for more information on nutritional typing that you can read this moment check out 10 Profound Ways nutritional typing Will Help Your Health.
Related Articles:
New Dietary Guidelines to Prevent Heart Disease Low Grain and Carbohydrate Diets Treat Hypoglycemia, Heart Disease, Diabetes Cancer and Nearly ALL Chronic Illness How to Determine Your Cardiovascular Health Do Low-Carb Diets Work? High-Protein Diets May Damage Your Kidneys 20% Of Heart Attacks Go Undetected -- How Can You Check Your Risk? Carbs Are Primary Cause of High Triglycerides
New Dietary Guidelines to Prevent Heart Disease
Low Grain and Carbohydrate Diets Treat Hypoglycemia, Heart Disease, Diabetes Cancer and Nearly ALL Chronic Illness
How to Determine Your Cardiovascular Health
Do Low-Carb Diets Work?
High-Protein Diets May Damage Your Kidneys
20% Of Heart Attacks Go Undetected -- How Can You Check Your Risk?
Carbs Are Primary Cause of High Triglycerides