The latest issue of the journal Nutrition Reviews highlights just how effective a vegetarian diet can be for weight loss. Overweight people can shed around one pound per week and the results are not dependent on exercise or calorie-counting, said the researchers. The review, based on data from 87 previous studies, noted that vegetarians tend to generally be slimmer than meat-eaters, and they experience lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other life-threatening conditions linked to obesity. "In vegetarians, obesity prevalence ranges from 0 percent to 6 percent," said Susan E. Berkow, author of the review. And it seems that the benefits are available to anyone, as the weight of both male and female vegetarians was around 3 to 20 percent lower than that of meat-eaters.
Berkow noted that the best of the previous clinical studies had isolated the effects of diet by keeping exercise levels constant. Even without additional exercise, it was found that a low-fat vegan diet leads to weight loss of about 1 pound per week, and that's also without the need to limit portion sizes or count calories. "Our research reveals that people can enjoy unlimited portions of high-fiber foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to achieve or maintain a healthy body weight without feeling hungry," added Berkow.
And it seems that a vegan diet can actually help change the way our bodies deal with nutrients, allowing them to more rapidly enter the cells of the body to be converted to heat rather than to fat. "There is evidence that a vegan diet causes an increased calorie burn after meals, meaning plant-based foods are being used more efficiently as fuel for the body, as opposed to being stored as fat," said review co-author Neal D. Barnard.
Source: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
