Dietary
Quality in Doubt
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Not
all weight loss plans are good for our health, a new study reports.
There's no shortage of weight-loss plans to choose from, however, some of the most popular ones fall short in dietary quality, according to a new study. In an analysis of eight popular diets in the US, researchers found that the Ornish plan, the Weight Watchers High-Carbohydrate diet, and the New Glucose Revolution plan came out on top in terms of nutritional quality and potential effects on heart health.
What the plans all had in common were high amounts of fruits, vegetables and fiber, and low amounts of artery clogging types of fat, researchers found. At the bottom of the list came the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins plan, for its more liberal view towards red meat, saturated fat and trans fats, and low amounts of fruit and fiber. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
For overweight and obese adults, it’s important not only to shed pounds, but to do it by eating heart-healthy foods, explained Dr Yunsheng Ma, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. “Obese people already have a higher risk of heart disease,” Ma told Reuters Health. So it’s particularly important that they make heart-healthy diet changes that can be kept up for the long haul, the researcher noted.
For their study, Dr. Ma and colleagues used a measure called the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) to judge the quality of eight widely-used diet plans. They picked six of the diets from the New York Times bestseller list; they also included the Weight Watchers plan, as it is the largest commercial plan in the US, as well as the federal government’s 2005 Food Guide Pyramid, since it offers public diet guidelines. The AHEI evaluates a diet’s potential heart benefits based on factors such as the amount of fruits, vegetables and fiber, and the ratio of heart-healthy polyunsaturated fats to cholesterol raising saturated fat.
The top score went to the Ornish diet, a low-fat, largely vegetarian plan that allows some non-fat dairy and egg whites. The diet, developed by Dr Dean Ornish, is intended to prevent and treat heart disease, so its high score – 64.6 out of 70 points – is not unexpected. Also scoring well, at just over 57 points, were the Weight Watchers High-Carbohydrate and the New Glucose Revolution diets – which, like Ornish, contain high amounts of fruits, vegetables and fiber-rich grains. The Glucose diet is based on the concept of the glycemic index; it limits simple carbohydrates that cause quick blood-sugar spikes – like potatoes and white bread – but allows complex carbohydrates higher in fiber and other nutrients.
The Atkins plan and some other low carb, high-protein diets, including the Weight Watchers High-Protein option, were deemed less heart-healthy. Surprisingly, Dr. Ma said, the government’s Food Pyramid landed in the middle. Though the Pyramid was revamped in 2005, it still falls short of the top-ranked diets as far as fruits, vegetables, fiber and limits on “bad” fats.
The researchers are not advocating any one brand of weight-loss plan. But, Ma said, people who are trying to lose weight can look to the components of the top-scoring diets to help fashion a hearthealthy eating plan.
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