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Med diets 'as effective' as low-fat diets

17/07/2008

Mediterranean and low-carbohydrate diets are just as safe and effective as a low-fat diet for weight loss, new research suggests.

The two-year study found that Mediterranean and low-carb diets resulted in greater weight loss than a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet.

Mediterranean diets include fruit, vegetables, dairy products, olive oil, fish and poultry and are low on red meat and alcohol intake.

For today's study an international collaboration of scientists assigned one of three diets to 322 moderately obese people.

These were a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet; a Mediterranean calorie-restricted diet with the highest level of dietary fibre and monounsaturated/saturated fat; or a low-carbohydrate diet with the least amount of carbohydrates, highest fat, protein, and dietary cholesterol.

The low-carbohydrate dieters had no caloric intake restrictions.

Although participants actually decreased their total daily calories consumed by a similar amount, net weight loss from the low-fat diet after two years was 6.5lbs compared to 10lbs on the Mediterranean diet, and 10.3lbs on the low-carbohydrate diet.

The low-fat diet reduced the total cholesterol to HDL ('good cholesterol') ratio by only 12 per cent, while the low-carbohydrate diet improved the same ratio by 20 per cent.

In all three diets, inflammatory and liver function biomarkers were equally improved.

"Clearly, there is not one diet that is ideal for everyone," said Dr Iris Shai from Ben-Gurion University, Israel.

"We believe that this study will open clinical medicine to considering low-carb and Mediterranean diets as safe, effective alternatives for patients, based on personal preference and the medical goals set for such intervention.

"Furthermore, the improvement in levels of some biomarkers continued until the 24-month point, although maximum weight loss was achieved by six months. This suggests that healthy diet has beneficial effects beyond weight loss."

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.