Originally published June 11 2005
Low food variety keeps weight off longer, study says
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers recently found that people who lost weight and kept it off had diets without much variety. The higher the variety of foods, especially high-fat foods like sweets and oils, the more difficult it was for people who lost weight to keep it off. Researchers said most of the variety in the maintenance diet was in the lower levels of the federal food pyramid -- breads, grains, pastas, fruits and vegetables.
Variety may be the spice of life, but it may also sabotage your diet.
A new study shows that reducing variety in the diet may help people lose weight and keep it off for good.
Researchers found that people who have successfully maintained major weight loss for several years ate less of a variety of foods within each food group than those who have recently lost weight.
They say the results show that reducing the number of different foods, especially fatty ones, may aid in long-term weight loss maintenance.
Prior studies have shown that eating a greater variety of high-fat foods and lesser variety of low-fat foods tends to make people eat more calories and hampers weight loss efforts.
But researchers say it's not clear whether food variety affects long-term weight loss and maintenance.
In this study, which appears in the May issue of Obesity Research, researchers looked at the variety of foods eaten by people who have successfully maintained weight loss and compared it with those eaten by people who recently lost weight.
The more than 2,200 successful weight loss maintainers were part of the National Weight Loss Registry.
They had lost an average of 70 pounds and kept at least 30 pounds of it off for nearly six years.
The comparison group consisted of 97 individuals who had recently participated in a behavioral weight loss program and lost at least 7% of their body weight.
The study showed that successful weight loss maintainers ate less of a variety of foods in all food groups, especially those that were high in fat, such as fats, oils, and sweets, and consumed fewer calories overall than the others.
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