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Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D Responds:
Miriam E. Nelson, PhD, of Tufts University and the best-selling author of the Strong Women book series, responds: If you're overwhelmed by all the diet recommendations available in books, on the Internet, in the news, and in magazines, you're not alone. Ultimately, you simply want sound guidelines that tell you how much of which types of food are good for overall health. Right?
Fortunately, nutrition scientists have been hard at work to provide those answers—and with success. In one study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005, researchers in Boston examined the weight-loss and heart-health effects of four popular diets—Atkins, Zone, Weight Watchers, and Ornish—on 160 overweight men and women. These diets range from one extreme to another: Atkins is high in fat and protein, yet low in carbohydrates; Ornish is very low in fat and high in carbohydrates; and the other two diets fall somewhere in between.
After one year, the participants had lost 5 to 7 pounds and had improved heart-related measures, such as cholesterol, regardless of the diet they followed. What did matter was how closely they actually followed the guidelines of their prescribed diet—and not surprisingly, the more closely they stuck to the diet, the greater the benefits. Overall, findings from this study and others parallel the MyPyramid Food Guidance System (www.mypyramid.gov). The most significant factor for weight maintenance is energy balance (eating the right amount of calories for your activity level); for weight loss, reducing intake by at least 500 calories per day is recommended. For both weight management and general health, stay within the MyPyramid recommendations: Eat 45 to 65% of calories from carbs, 10 to 35% of calories from protein, and 20 to 35% of calories from fat. And don't forget to include exercise—at least 30 to 60 minutes every day.
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Miriam E. Nelson
Ph.D
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