Tag Archives: western diet

Diet Choices, Weight Loss

The Best Diet for Weight Loss: Or Maybe Just Questionable Experimental Design?

The Western-style diet (higher in sweets and heavy on the meat) is often associated with higher risks of developing a variety of health problems, with obesity and diabetes two of the more highlighted diseases related to consumption of this type of diet.

A new study aimed to compare a variety of plant-based diet to the Western/meat-heavy diet, to determine if there were advantages to any one or more particular diet on weight loss.

Photo by Flickr user TipsTimesAdmin (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tipstimesadmin/11375928206/)
Photo by Flickr user TipsTimesAdmin (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tipstimesadmin/11375928206/)

Overweight adults between the ages of 18 and 65 from South Carolina were recruited for this study. Adults were randomized into one of 4 plant-based diets: 1) vegan; 2) vegetarian; 3) pesco-vegetarian (probably closest to a Mediterranean-style diet); and 4) semi-vegetarian. A 5th omnivorous group served as the control. 50 adults completed the study.

Participants were given instructions and consumed their respective assigned diets for 6 months. Instructions did not include any caloric restrictions, but instead guided the participants to what types of foods they could eat.

Participants in the plant-based diet groups attended weekly group meetings, while participants in the omnivorous control group attended monthly group meetings and participated in weekly email sessions.

Weight and BMI were measured for each participant at baseline, 2 months, and 6 months after beginning the study.

Important Findings:

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Mental Health and Cognition, Metabolism and Metabolic Disease

Mediterranean-like Diets Associated with Lower Risk of Depression in Patients with or without Type 2 Diabetes

With an ever increasing number of obese adults in the west and throughout the westernized world, there is an associated increase in the numbers of adults (and children) with Type 2 diabetes. People are at high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes related to lack of exercise, unhealthy dietary choices, and excess weight or obesity.

Often occurring in association with Type 2 diabetes though not

Photo By Sander van der Wel from Netherlands (Depressed Uploaded by russavia) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Photo By Sander van der Wel from Netherlands (Depressed Uploaded by russavia) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
exclusively is depression. Since the two diseases often occur together, a group of scientists recently aimed to examine whether or not diet, an important risk factor in developing Type 2 diabetes, had any effect on the prevalence of depression in patients with the disease.

4588 adults over the age of 18 were studied. Depression and diabetes statuses and usage of diabetes medications were determined via self-reported questionnaires. Fasting blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin levels were also measured. Results were determined after controlling for the following factors: gender, age, marital status, education, race, “food insecurity level”, family income-to-poverty ratio, and serum C-reactive protein.

Diet types were categorizes by: healthy (i.e. Mediterranean-like diets), unhealthy (i.e. western diets), sweets, “Mexican-style”, and breakfast.

Important Findings:

Continue reading Mediterranean-like Diets Associated with Lower Risk of Depression in Patients with or without Type 2 Diabetes →