Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

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According to Reuters a new study connects consumption of fruit and fiber with healthy body weights, and linking foods higher in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol to obesity. Researcher Dr. Jaimie N. Davis of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles explains:

Davis' group found marked differences in the dietary habits of the two groups. The overweight and obese subjects consumed more total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, and less carbohydrate, specifically dietary fiber and complex carbohydrate, than normal weight subjects.

The differences in diet composition "may have played a vital role in promoting or preventing obesity," they write.

The research shows lower body fat percents are a result of increased dietary fiber consumption:

Normal-weight adults consumed an average of 33 percent more dietary fiber and 43 percent more complex carbohydrates daily than their overweight and obese counterparts. Dietary fiber and complex carbohydrate intake were inversely related to body weight and "most strongly" to percent body fat.

Compared with normal-weight subjects, overweight and obese subjects consumed about one less fruit serving daily, which may partly explain their lower fiber and carbohydrate intake.

For readers of DiseaseProof this information is nothing new, according to Dr. Fuhrman certain foods (especially leafy greens) actually make you thin. Consider this excerpt from a previous post:

Green vegetables are so incredibly low in calories and rich in nutrients and fiber that the more you eat of them, the more weight you will lose. One of my secrets of nutritional excellence and superior healing is the one pound-one pound rule. That is, try to eat at least one pound of raw green vegetables a day and one pound of cooked/steamed or frozen green vegetables a day as well. One pound raw and one pound cooked—keep this goal in mind as you design and eat every meal. This may be too ambitious a goal for some of us to reach, but by working toward it, you will ensure the dietary balance and results you want. The more greens you eat, the more weight you will lose. The high volume of greens not only will be your secret to a thin waistline but will simultaneously protect you against life threatening illnesses.

Now, the research team does acknowledge the social allure of popular high-protein, low carbohydrate diets, but offers this warning about them:

"The public is still attracted to popular weight-loss strategies that emphasize decreasing carbohydrate and increasing fat and protein," the study team notes in their report.

"Although there is evidence that high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets produce substantial weight loss in the short-term, to date there are no long-term studies that examine the effects of these regimens."

For information on the dangers of high-fat diets check out this previous post: Short and Long-Term Dangers of High-Fat Diets

High-fat diets are unquestionably associated with obesity, and eating meat actually correlates with weight gain, not weight loss, unless you radically cut carbs from your diet to maintain chronic ketosis.1 Researchers from the American Cancer Society followed 79,236 individuals over ten years and found that those ate meat more than three times per week were much more likely to gain weight as the years went by than those who tended to avoid meat.2 The more vegetables the participants ate, the more resistant they were to weight gain.

1. Sherwood, N.E.R. W. Jeffrey, S.A. French, et al. 2000. Predictors of weight gain in the Pound of Prevention study. Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord. 24 (4): 395-403; Astrup, A. 1999. Macronutrient balancers and obesity: the role of diet and physical activity. Public Health Nutr. 2 (3A): 341-47.

2. Kahn, H.S., L. M. Tatham, C. Rodriguez et al. 1997. Stable behaviors associated with adults’ 10-year change in body mass index and likelihood in body mass index and likelihood of gain at the waist. Am. J. Public Health 87 (5): 747-57.