While many Americans believe that the lower the fat in your diet, the better the results that will be achieved, a new study has found that a low-carbohydrate or Mediterranean-type diet may actually be more effective and just as safe.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston conducted a study of 322 moderately obese employees of a research center in Israel, 86 percent of whom were men, and found that the low-carb and Mediterranean diets were more effective that the low-fat diet in both weight loss and health benefits. The new study can be found in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Study participants were randomly assigning to three diet groups and were provided with encouragement and instruction over a two-year period. The three diet regimens included a low-carb diet, a low-fat diet and a Mediterranean diet. Those on the low-carb diet lost an average of 12 pounds in two years while those on the Mediterranean diet lost about 10 pounds. However, participants on the low-fat diet lost only 6.4 pounds after two years.

Researchers also found that those participants on the Mediterranean diet showed the most improvement in blood sugar levels, noting that this diet would provide the most health benefits for those at risk for diabetes, with the low carb diet being the best choice for people with cholesterol problems as it showed the most improvement in cholesterol levels. Both the low-carb and the Mediterranean diets promoted better cardiovascular health with the low-fat diet offering the least health benefits of any of the diets.

Dr. Meir Stampfer, co-chair of Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Channing Laboratory, and lead study investigator said the study provides hard evidence that a low-fat diet is not necessarily the best diet. The main findings are that low-carb and Mediterranean diets are good (as long as the protein and fat sources are healthful), and even preferential diets for weight loss, as well as the fact that they are safe. Stampfer concludes, “The take-home message should be that we should abandon the idea that low fat diets are the number one way for people to lose weight - it wasn’t the best diet. It can be helpful for some people, but overall I think the first choice should be the Mediterranean or the low carb.”

Study participants met with dietitians periodically throughout the two years and usually ate lunch at the same cafeteria, where foods were color-coded with labels that corresponded to the diet type. The low-fat group participants were directed to eat low-fat grains, vegetables, fruits and legumes, and to avoid sweets. The low-carb group participants were advised to eat vegetarian sources of fat and protein and to limit intake of carbohydrates. It was recommended that the Mediterranean diet group eat a diet high in fish, poultry, olive oil and nuts. Calories were not limited for the low-carb diet, but for the two other diets, women were expected to eat a maximum of 1,500 calories daily with men consuming a maximum of 1,800 daily.

One of the great strengths of the study was that 95 percent of participants were still following the diet after one year, with 85 percent staying on it after 2 years which suggests that diets connected to the workplace may be particularly effective. Some businesses are now taking steps to write caloric limits or nutritional guidelines into their contracts with food service providers. Stampfer said “It’d be nice if employers institute this kind of thing more broadly. It’s really in the employer’s interest in having healthy employees and a modest investment in nutrition and support would benefit everyone.”
(By: Drucilla Dyess healthnews)

Diet Advice
A balanced diet coupled with regular exercise is still the best way to lose weight and reduce fat. The Belly Fat Diet is an excellent plan with lots of practical advice about dieting, exercise, diet-motivation and long term weight control. For more information, click Diet Preview

When it comes to fat, trans fat is considered by some doctors to be the worst of them all because of its double-barreled impact on your cholesterol levels. Unlike other fats, trans fat — also called trans fatty acids — both raises your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol and lowers your “good” (HDL) cholesterol.

A high LDL cholesterol level in combination with a low HDL cholesterol level significantly increases your risk of heart disease, the leading killer of men and women. Learn more about trans fat and how to avoid it.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A regimen of supplements and lifestyle coaching is just as effective as statin medication for reducing levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol, and more effective in helping people lose weight, new research shows.

People with high cholesterol who took red yeast rice and fish oil daily and received counseling on diet, exercise and relaxation techniques showed the same 40 percent drop in LDL cholesterol seen among people taking 40 milligrams of simvastatin daily, Dr. David J. Becker of the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s Chestnut Hill Hospital and colleagues found. And they pared off an average of 10 pounds over 12 weeks, compared to less than a pound for patients taking the statin.

Becker has run a lifestyle program for people at risk of heart disease for 13 years. “People had a uniform desire to get off statins, and when they did their cholesterol was only going down maybe 5 percent at most,” he told Reuters Health. The cardiologist decided to launch the current study after seeing many patients have success in lowering their cholesterol with red yeast rice and fish oil.

With a grant from the state of Pennsylvania, Becker and his team randomly assigned 74 patients to receive 40 milligrams of simvastatin (Zocor) daily along with printed information on lifestyle changes, or to three capsules of fish oil twice daily and 600 milligrams of red yeast rice daily along with the 12-week lifestyle program.

LDL cholesterol levels fell by 42.4 percent in the red yeast rice group and by 39.6 percent in the simvastatin group, not a statistically significant difference. Triglyceride levels didn’t change in the statin group, but fell 29 percent in the red yeast rice group, probably because they were taking fish oil, according to Becker and his team.

People in the red yeast rice group lost an average of 4.7 kilograms (just over 10 pounds), compared to 0.3 kilograms (less than a pound) in the statin group.

Red yeast rice comes from fermenting red yeast with rice. Known as hong ku, the substance has been used as a medicine and food garnish in parts of Asia for centuries, Becker said. It contains a substance called monacolin-K that is nearly identical to the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin (Mevacor), as well as several other monacolins that may also have cholesterol-lowering properties.


People in the red yeast rice arm of the study were taking the equivalent of 10 to 15 mg of lovastatin, Becker said. “This lovastatin dosage is quite small, yet the effects we saw with the red yeast rice were akin to those one would generally see with a much higher dose of lovastatin.”

“However, it is not risk-free, and it must be used carefully and in conjunction with your physician.”

If more studies bear out the current findings, he added, the supplement/lifestyle intervention he and his colleagues tested could offer an alternative to people with high cholesterol who don’t want to take statins, or who can’t tolerate the drugs. However, he added, people who actually have heart disease should stick with statins, because they have been shown to reduce mortality.

Becker noted that a recent analysis by ConsumerLab found red yeast rice products varied sharply in their potency, and some were contaminated with a toxic byproduct called citrinin. “This paper is a call for better regulation of this supplement as well so that we know consistently what’s in it,” he said.

Diet Advice
A balanced diet coupled with regular exercise is still the best way to lose weight and reduce fat. The Belly Fat Diet is an excellent plan with lots of practical advice about dieting, exercise, diet-motivation and long term weight control. For more information, click Diet Preview

(source: mayo clinic)

Eating foods with soy protein has been promoted as a way to lower cholesterol, but a new study finds it has no significant effect on cholesterol levels.

The findings “do not support the current health claims for soy protein in a general population,” said study author Peter R.C. Howe, director of the Nutritional Physiology Research Centre at the Sansom Institute for Health Research at the University of South Australia in Adelaide.

He’s referring to the health claims approved for soy foods in both the United States and the United Kingdom that link daily consumption of 25 grams of soy protein to a reduction in heart disease risk through a lowering of LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol.

Howe’s team studied 35 men and 58 women, average age 52, who had mildly high cholesterol levels. He assigned each participant to rotate through one of three diets for six weeks each. Each diet had varying amounts of soy protein and isoflavones, substances in soy that some experts say may have cholesterol-lowering powers.

One diet contributed 24 grams of soy protein and 71 milligrams of isoflavone equivalents, one had 12 grams of dairy protein and 12 of soy protein, with 76 milligrams of isoflavones. The dairy diet, which served as the control, had 24 grams of dairy protein without isoflavones.

Howe’s team measured each person’s blood cholesterol — LDL, HDL and trigylcerides — at the start of the study and after each six-week diet.

They found no significant effect of the diets with either 24 grams or 12 grams of soy protein on LDL levels.

In his research, Howe also looked closely at whether a person’s ability to maximize the body’s response to soy protein had a better cholesterol-lowering effect. These people are termed “equol producers” because of their above-average ability to make equol, a substance produced in the intestines as a metabolite of a potent soy isoflavone called daidzen. Equol is thought to inhibit LDL.

When Howe compared the cholesterol-lowering effects of those who were equol producers with those who were not, he found no differences.

Howe’s study was confined to those with mildly high cholesterol; he said it may have an effect on those with higher cholesterol levels. And the soy diets did lower triglycerides, a blood fat, by 4 percent.

The findings were published in the August issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Even though the study found no effect of the soy protein on LDL cholesterol, Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, called the research interesting. One facet he finds especially intriguing, he said, is the finding that equol producers have no benefit either.

After a series of studies on soy and its effect on cholesterol, the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee, of which Sacks is vice-chairman, reviewed the evidence and issued an advisory, saying there is “nothing special” about soy or isoflavones for improving cholesterol and that the heart association doesn’t recommend isoflavone supplements.

However, “there are other benefits to soy foods,” Sacks said. They are healthy due to high levels of polyunsaturated fats, fiber, vitamins and minerals. But, he added, “forget soy protein for lowering LDL.”

source

Diet Advice
A balanced diet coupled with regular exercise is still the best way to lose weight and reduce fat. The Belly Fat Diet is an excellent plan with lots of practical advice about dieting, exercise, diet-motivation and long term weight control. For more information, click Diet Preview

From Laura Dolson,
Your Guide to Low Carb Diets.

Many low-carb diets talk about the glycemic index. What does this mean? The glycemic index is a way of trying to figure out how much a food will raise your blood glucose. Since low-carb diets work by producing a smaller rise in blood sugar (all carbohydrates are broken down into sugar in your body), knowing the right foods to eat is important.

However, the glycemic index has real problems when it comes to predicting how any one person’s blood glucose will react to a food. Come learn about the glycemic index — its promises and problems, and the GI of some common foods.

Let’s Eat Local!

Yesterday when I picked my daughter up from school, she fairly bounced into the car. “The Farmer’s Market starts today!” Every Tuesday from May to November, our Farmer’s Market is the place to be, and I felt a thrill of pleasure as we rounded the corner to the sights, sounds, and smells of the farmers’ stalls, the music, and the friendly people. We chatted with friends, enjoyed the lovely day, and got the makings for a truly local dinner — fresh fish from local waters, vegetables, and strawberries for dessert (with whipped cream from a local dairy).
So often I have seen that people start out on a low-carb diet to lose weight, and then keep doing it for health…and then as time goes by they become more and more interested in the fresh ingredients which make up the bulk of our eating…where did they come from? How did they get to me? What’s in them? How can I get the highest-quality ingredients?

There are so many reasons to find local sources for our food. It’s better for our local economies, better for the environment…and we get the tastiest meals, to boot! To find local farmers near you, check out localharvest.org and http://www.fat-loss-foridiots.com today!

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