Women who cut dietary fat lose weight

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Women who cut dietary fat lose weight

Thursday Jan 5 16:06 AEDT

Post-menopausal women who cut their fat intake and eat more high-

fibre, high-carbohydrate foods such as fruits and whole grains tend

to lose weight, not gain it as some diet books claim, according to a

new study.

Some popular diet plans have blamed high-carbohydrate diets for

expanding waistlines and the explosion of obesity rates.

The seven-year study involved 19,000 women who followed a low-fat

diet without any weight-loss goals. In the first year, they shed an

average of 2.2kg and maintained a modest weight loss in succeeding

years.

" A low-fat dietary pattern may help attenuate the tendency for

weight gain commonly observed in post-menopausal women, " said the

study published in this week's issue of the Journal of the American

Medical Association.

The results " demonstrate that long-term recommendations to achieve a

diet lower in total and saturated fat with increased consumption of

fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and without focus on weight

loss, do not cause weight gain, " wrote lead author Barbara of

the MedStar Research Institute in Washington.

Recommendations to cut dietary fat are usually aimed at reducing the

risks of heart disease and cancer associated with being overweight,

the report said.