While the Atkins Diet continues to hog the headlines, dieticians behind the scenes are quietly working on other eating plans that can also yield dramatic weight loss. The results from a study into vegan diets, published in The American Journal of Medicine, make interesting reading. Dieticians have known for some time that obesity is far less prevalent in populations that follow a plant-based diet. A previous study of more than 50,000 Swedish women found that 40 percent of meat-eaters were overweight or obese while only around 27 percent of vegetarians and vegans were. Additionally, vegetarians experience lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other life-threatening illnesses.
Now, it has been shown that a diet based around low-fat, plant-based foodstuffs appears to be more effective at helping women lose weight than a diet that includes meat. The new vegan diet was recently trialed on overweight, postmenopausal women where half of the participants followed a vegan diet and the other half followed a control diet based on the National Cholesterol Education Program.
Unlike other diets, the participants of the vegan diet enjoyed no limits on portion size. "The study participants following the vegan diet enjoyed unlimited servings of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthful foods that enabled them to lose weight without feeling hungry," says Neal D. Barnard, the lead author of the study. "As they began to experience the positive effects, weight loss and improved insulin sensitivity, the women in the intervention [vegan diet] group became even more motivated to follow the plant-based eating plan."
The researchers said that the simplicity of a vegan diet should appeal to women who are busy with work and family, and many familiar recipes are easy to adapt. The researchers added that it can take several weeks for the body to become accustomed to the transition to a vegan diet but that patients give the low-fat vegetarian diet a high rating in terms of acceptability.
Based on a media release from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
