New Year, New Diet?

For many of us, the first week back at work after the long festive break is almost over. But, how many people have stuck to their New Year resolution to eat more healthily or follow the latest celebrity juice diet plan to lose weight? Many of us will have already given into temptation and broken our resolutions because most diet plans tend to focus on extreme kilocalorie restriction. With recent reports in the Lancet confirming that poor diet now contributes to a greater number of diseases than smoking, alcohol and a sedentary lifestyle combined, can one month of energy restriction (or one week in some cases!) really make a difference to overall, long term health? It is generally agreed that diets focused on kilocalorie restriction work in the short term, however, there is less consensus about their longer term health effects and sustainability. One recent systematic review examined the efficacy of some of the most popular ‘fad’ diets. The study compared long and short-term weight loss across four diets. The review found that all diets were moderately effective for short-term weight loss but the loss was not sustained in the long- term (ie. more than 12 months). No diet was found to be superior for weight loss in either the short or long-term. A further review published in the British Journal of Nutrition compared high-protein diets to low fat, high-carbohydrate diets. The study reported greater weight loss over 6 months in the high-protein diet, but all diet p...
Source: The Nutrition Society - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: news