Posted on 11/10/2003 1:33:29 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - No matter what diet you are on, if you eat less and lose weight you also lower your risk of heart disease, doctors told a conference on Sunday.
Weight Watchers, the high-fat Atkins diet, the extremely low-fat Ornish diet and the high-protein, moderate carbohydrate Zone diet all help people lose weight and all reduce cholesterol, but in different ways, the researchers said.
"On average, participants in the study reduced their heart disease risk by 5 percent to 15 percent," Dr. Michael Dansinger of Tufts University in Boston told a meeting of the American Heart Association. "Instead of saying there is one clear winner here, we are saying they are all winners."
And, as might be expected, the closer dieters followed the plans, the more weight they lost.
Those who stuck it out for a full year lost, on average, 5 percent of their body weight -- or about 10 to 12 pounds.
While the dieters reduced heart disease "risk factors" such as cholesterol levels, overall blood pressure did not drop much and the study did not last long enough to see if this translated into a lower long-term risk of heart disease.
Instead, the researchers used statistics that show lowering cholesterol by a certain amount, for instance, reduces the risk of heart disease overall.
Dr. Robert Eckel of the University of Colorado, who heads the Heart Association's nutrition committee, said the message is clear -- lose weight however you can to reduce your risk of heart disease.
WEIGHT REDUCTION
"I think weight reduction trumps a lot of other stuff," Eckel said.
For the study Dansinger and colleagues chose 160 overweight people and randomly assigned 40 to each of four different diets. They weighed an average 220 pounds (100 kg) and needed to lose between 30 and 80 pounds.
All agreed to follow the diets to the best of their ability for two months, although none were enrolled in the full programs that Weight Watchers and Dr. Dean Ornish advocate.
They include exercise, group meetings and food diaries for Weight Watchers and stress reduction for the Ornish diet.
After two months 22 percent of the dieters had given up. After a year, 35 percent dropped out of Weight Watchers and the Zone diets and 50 percent had quit the Atkins and Ornish plans.
Dansinger and other researchers said the study suggested there is no one-size-fits-all diet best for everyone.
"The type of person who is going to go for a low-fat, vegetarian diet is not, in my experience, the kind of person who is going to go for a high-meat diet," Dansinger said.
But for people with high cholesterol levels, the Ornish diet might be the most beneficial, Dansinger said.
"The Ornish diet, low-fat vegetarian, was best for lowering the bad LDL cholesterol, while other diets were better at raising the good HDL cholesterol," Dansinger said. Low density lipoprotein cholesterol is the stuff that clogs arteries, while high density lipoprotein carries fat out of the blood.
"Atkins reduced LDL 8.6 percent, Zone 6.7 percent, Weight Watchers 7.7 percent and Ornish 16.7 percent," Dansinger said in a statement afterwards. He said the Atkins and Zone diets diet raised HDL by about 15 percent, Weight Watchers by 18.5 percent, and Ornish by 2.2 percent.
Ornish said doctors often place too high a value on high HDL levels. "If you reduce fat, there is less garbage, less saturated fat and cholesterol, so your body needs less garbage trucks," he said.
But Dansinger said his study was one of several that has suggested the high-fat Atkins diet, in the short-term, does not raise the risk of heart disease.
HDL- that's the GOOD stuff.
Breadmakers feel pain from Atkins diet
Atkins Web site http://atkins.com
National Bread Leadership Council www.breadcouncil.org
Wheat Foods Council www.wheatfoods.org
National Pasta Association www.ilovepasta.org
Tortilla Industry Association www.tortilla-info.com
It's for the children.
Junk science on the menu***Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, introduced a bill last week that would require fast-food and chain restaurants to display nutrition information for food choices on their menus. But experience with food labeling and a new study suggest the bill's rationale may be based more in wishful thinking than fact. "Obesity is one of our nation's most pressing health issues," Ms. DeLauro says. "This bill ... will give consumers the necessary nutritional information to make healthy choices for themselves."***
OK I will try it fr the rest of the day!
Is Obesity A Disease? Insurance, Drug Access May Hinge on Answer By Rob Stein Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 10, 2003; Page A01 ***The rising number of Americans who are seriously overweight has triggered intense debate among scientists, advocacy groups, federal agencies, insurance companies and drug makers about whether obesity should be declared a "disease," a move that could open up insurance coverage to millions who need treatment for weight problems and could speed the approval of new diet drugs.
Proponents argue that new scientific understanding has clearly established that obesity is a discrete medical condition that independently affects health. Officially classifying obesity as a disease would have a profound impact by helping to destigmatize the condition, much as the classification of alcoholism as a disease made it easier for many alcoholics to get treatment, experts say. But equally important, the move would immediately remove key economic and regulatory hurdles to prevention and treatment, they say.
Opponents contend that obesity is more akin to high cholesterol or cigarette smoking -- a risk factor that predisposes someone to illness but is not an ailment in itself, such as lung cancer or heart disease. Labeling it a bona fide disease would divert scarce resources, distract public health efforts from the most effective countermeasures and unnecessarily medicalize the condition, they say. ***
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