DIET REALITY CHECK FROM NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

[Guest guest]

rawfood , " Anne Kaspar " <bodybybliss wrote:

>

> New York Times Magazine

>

> January 28, 2007

>

> Unhappy Meals

>

> By MICHAEL POLLAN

>

> Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

>

 

 

Sorry, I haven't had time to read all this article, and the bit I've

left in seems a pretty good summary, and good advice.

 

I did get as far as the comments regarding the study released last

February if memory serves, stating that there were few if any

benefits from a low fat diet.

 

This study would appear to have been a monumental waste of time and

money. The diet the participants were asked to follow was not really

very low fat (20% of calories from fat), hardly any of them actually

even achieved this (the figure achieved was 29% according to one

article I've just quickly googled), and there was no distinction made

between 'good' fat and 'bad' fat - i.e. for the purposes of the study

lard was treated the same as olive oil.

 

Although the participants were supposed to have significantly reduced

their calorie intake, the 'low fat' team only lost on average 1 lb in

weight over 8 years. Their dietary intake was monitored by them

supposedly keeping a diary of everything they ate over this period. I

have no idea whether people are paid to take part in these programs,

and whether they don't get paid if they don't 'stick to the rules'.

 

Many articles refuting the massive headlines this report generated

can be googled (I think Ornish, McDougall and Esselstyn amongst

others have commented) if you want to investigate further (as I did

when it first hit the news). One of them likened the study to

comparing the health of two groups, one who continued to smoke 60 a

day, and the other who cut down to only 50.

 

I'm afraid if you want to know whether there are real benefits to be

provided by a very low fat plant based diet, this report helps not

one jot. Whether the other studies mentioned in the article were any

more sensible, I do not know.