That’s good news for people who’d prefer to try the Mediterranean diet – which includes healthy fats – over a diet that’s low in fat. There were almost 7,500 older adults in the study, the majority of whom were overweight or obese and all of whom had either type 2 diabetes or at least three risk factors for heart disease.
Advertisement
“Modern scientific evidence supports an emphasis on eating more calories from fruits, nuts, vegetables, beans, fish, yoghurt, phenolic-rich vegetable oils and minimally processed whole grains; and fewer calories from highly processed foods rich in starch, sugar, salt or trans-fat”.
But remarkably, none of the patients on the Mediterranean diet relapsed, according to the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Carnivores on the diet keep poultry and lean cuts of meat on the menu. “Our findings certainly do not imply that unrestricted diets with high levels of unhealthy fats such as butter, processed meat, sweetened beverages, deserts or fast-foods are beneficial”, Estruch added.
The research, published in the journal Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, tracked almost 7,500 men and women in Spain for five years. About 90% of the people in the study were overweight or obese when they started the trial and either had type 2 diabetes or had high cholesterol or high blood pressure or were smokers.
[3] The Mediterranean diet groups received either 1 L of extra-virgin olive oil per week per household, or 30 g of nuts per day (15 g of walnuts, 7.5 g of almonds, and 7.5 g of hazelnuts) with additional 1 kg sachets of mixed nuts every 3 months to account for family needs. Another group was advised to avoid all dietary fat.
After five years, total fat intake fell from 40 percent to 37 percent in the low-fat diet group, and rose in both Mediterranean diet groups, from about 40 percent to 42 percent. None of the groups was given advice about exercise.
“A long-term intervention with an unrestricted-calorie, high-vegetable-fat Mediterranean diet was associated with decreases in bodyweight and less gain in central adiposity compared with a control diet”, the study concluded.
Study leader Dr Ramon Estruch said: ‘More than 40 years of nutritional policy has advocated for a low-fat diet but we’re seeing little impact on rising levels of obesity.
She added: “Overall, the differences between groups in terms of fat intake were relatively small and the weight changes, unsurprisingly, not very different”. The low-fat dieters saw the biggest increase, of 1.2 centimeters (about 0.47 inches), compared with 0.85 centimeters (about 0.33 inches) for the olive oil group.
The advice doctors used to give patients about avoiding all fat in order to have a healthy heart and lose weight or maintain your weight isn’t accurate.
This is not the first study to suggest that eating more plant-based fats does not lead to a larger waistline.
‘Dietary guidelines should be revised to lay to rest the outdated, arbitrary limits on total fat consumption, ‘ he said.
“They don’t have caveats with fruits and vegetables but do with fat”.
In April, a study said replacing animal fat with vegetable oil seems not to lower heart disease risk, and may even boost it.
He points to a study he did that looked one high-fat food: cheese. But not all fats are created equal, and in the latest study on the subject, scientists found that eating certain fats, no matter how many calories they contain, won’t lead to significant weight gain.
Additionally, researchers at an Australian University found that men interested in boosting fertility, a recent study found that men who consume antioxidant-rich foods such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and mangos have healthier sperm, which can help their baby-making abilities.
Advertisement
A health study came to the defence of certain dietary fats on Tuesday, adding fuel to a scientific row over low-fat guidelines that have bedevilled dieters for almost half-a-century.
