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Is There an Ideal Diet? Some Insights from the POUNDS Lost Study
by
George A. Bray
George A. Bray 1,*,
Lu Qi
Lu Qi
Dr. Lu Qi earned an MS in Nutrition from the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and an MD from He [...]
Dr. Lu Qi earned an MS in Nutrition from the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and an MD from Peking University Health Science Center. He obtained a PhD in Nutrition and Epidemiology from Tufts University. His research focuses on the genetic, nutrition, and biochemical risk factors and gene-environment interactions in relation to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Lu Qi is now the HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and Professor at Tulane University and adjunct professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research interests include nutrition, genetics and epidemiology.
2
and
Frank M. Sacks
Frank M. Sacks
Dr. Frank M. Sacks is a Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Departmenta of Harvard [...]
Dr. Frank M. Sacks is a Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Departmenta of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health. He is also a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a senior attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he has a specialty clinic in hyperlipidemia within the cardiovascular division. He is involved in research and public policy in nutrition, cholesterol disorders, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Sacks was the Chair of the Design Committee of the DASH study where the DASH diet was designed, and Chair of the Steering Committee for the DASH-Sodium trial.
3
1
Department of Clinical Obesity, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA
2
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orlean, LA 70112, USA
3
Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2024, 16(14), 2358; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16142358 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 16 June 2024
/
Revised: 9 July 2024
/
Accepted: 17 July 2024
/
Published: 20 July 2024
Abstract
Diets for weight loss have a long history but an ideal one has not yet been clearly identified. To compare low-fat and lower carbohydrate diets, we designed The Preventing Overweight by Novel Dietary Strategies (POUNDS) Lost study. This is a 2 × 2 factorial study with diets of 20% or 40% fat and 15% or 25% protein with a graded carbohydrate intake of 35, 45, 55 and 65%. Weight loss, overall, was modest at nearly 6% with all four diets, and no significant dietary difference. The variability in weight loss in each diet group was significant, ranging from greater than 20% to a small weight gain. Studies of genetic variations in relation to weight loss showed that the diet that was selected could significantly affect weight loss, emphasizing that there is no ideal diet and more than one diet can be used to treat obesity. Weight loss was also influenced by the level of baseline triiodothyronine or thyroxine, and baseline carbohydrate and insulin resistance. Achieving a stable Health Eating Food Diversity Index, eating more protein, eating more fiber, engaging in more physical activity, sleeping better and eating less ultra-processed foods were beneficial strategies for weight loss in this trial. Although there is no “ideal diet”, both the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet have clinical trials showing their significant benefit for cardiovascular risk factors. Finally, the lesson of the “Last Chance Diet”, which recommended a diet with protein from gelatin, proved that some diets could be hazardous.
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Bray, G.A.; Qi, L.; Sacks, F.M.
Is There an Ideal Diet? Some Insights from the POUNDS Lost Study. Nutrients 2024, 16, 2358.
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16142358
AMA Style
Bray GA, Qi L, Sacks FM.
Is There an Ideal Diet? Some Insights from the POUNDS Lost Study. Nutrients. 2024; 16(14):2358.
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16142358
Chicago/Turabian Style
Bray, George A., Lu Qi, and Frank M. Sacks.
2024. "Is There an Ideal Diet? Some Insights from the POUNDS Lost Study" Nutrients 16, no. 14: 2358.
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16142358
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