By Oana Pop,
Project Weight Loss Editor
July 18, 2008Despite the modest weight losses healthy diets have shown to have a bigger benefit on our health. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study on Thursday which was supposed to show which of three types of diets are more efficient.
However, the results of the study weren`t actually the ones doctors expected. During the over controlled dieting experiment, people dealing with weight problems have lost an average of six to ten pounds over the two years of the experiment.
The 322 dieters, 45 women and 277 men, were distributed for: a Mediterranean diet, a low fat diet and the Atkins diet plan. Low - fat diets had shown great results on dieters with heart problems, the Mediterranean diet proved to be effective for participants dealing with diabetes and the Atkins diet determined more weight loss.
The weight loss results weren`t impressive, but what draw the attention of the public was the fact that a healthy diet program helped dieters over come health issues like cholesterol problems and other health markers.
The most successful diet was the Atkins diet which proved to be the most surprising. A Mediterranean way regime and a low - carb diet helped dieters lose more weight than the traditional low - fat diet in one of the largest and longest studies made to compare weight loss techniques.
The experiment took place at the Nuclear Research Center in Dimona, Israel, were the dieters had an isolated camp with its own medical sector. The basis of the experiment were meeting and telephone calls with the participant`s nutritionists.
The dieters program included nutrition counseling for spouses and a revamping of the dishes served in the cafeteria. “In order to keep participants on the diet for long term as a way of life, we did not impose extreme diet protocols,” said Iris Shai, the study’s lead author and a registered dietitian at Ben - Gurion University.
This healthy diet became a way of living for the dieters even when the experiment ended. The eighty-five percent of the dieters got stuck with the same eating diet after the two years of the experiment, not only because of the health improvements, but for the permissive way of eating.
“This suggests that healthy diet has beneficial effects beyond weight loss,” according to Mr. Shai.
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