Weight loss programs take off in
the United States, but success rates vary
January 6, 2005
Numerous weight loss programs wooing the growing ranks
of obese Americans are long on promises of a slender,
healthy future but short on good results and reliable
science, experts say.
To date, well over a thousand slimming methods are
being touted as the end to obesity in magazines and
newspapers all over the country.
Witness to America's obsession with losing weight is
NBC television's immensely popular reality show, "The
Biggest Loser," which pits overweight people against
each other in a race to see who can lose the most weight
over a set time.
Every year, some 45 million Americans follow slimming
diets, forking out two billion dollars for the 10 most
popular systems, according to a University of Pennsylvania
study published this week in the journal Annals of Internal
Medicine.
But choosing the weight loss program best suited to
each individual is very difficult since they mostly
elude reliable scientific evaluation, said researchers
who examined the 10 top-selling methods on the market
in 2004.
Only Weight Watchers, which recommends cutting down
on food portions and hence calory intake, was submitted
to reliable clinical trials with 423 people. The results
were published in 2003 by the Journal of the American
Medical Association (JAMA).
With an increasing proportion of Americans suffering
from obesity -- which has been officially termed a disease
in the United States, many patients and their doctors
turn to some of the most popular slimming methods for
diets that can cut the risk of obesity-related cardio-vascular
diseases and diabetes.
"Popular diets have become increasingly prevalent
and controversial," said the report by researchers
led by Michael Dansinger of Tufts-New England Medical
Center, Boston, after a year-long study of the four
leading weight loss programs on the US market, published
Wednesday in JAMA.
"Many popular plans depart substantially from
mainstream medical advice, and the effectiveness and
safety of these diets have been questioned. Data regarding
the relative benefits, risks, effectiveness, and sustainability
of popular diets have been limited," it cautioned.
In addition to Weight Watchers, Dansinger's team tested
the Atkins diet, low in carbohydrates, the Ornish vegetarian
diet, and Zone, which aims to balance macronutrient
balance and glycemic load.
While the research found modest weight loss across
the board -- one in four of the subjects lost five percent
of his/her weight, they said it was unrealistic to expect
strict adherence to the programs over a long period
of time -- the Atkins and Ornish diets had a particularly
high drop out rate during the study.
Dr. Robert Eckel, of the University of Colorado at
Denver said "the best treatment of obesity is prevention
by careful dietary monitoring and lifestyle and choices,
along with regular physical activity."
"Once overweight or obesity develops, however,"
he added, "the best existing evidence points toward
heeding the recently released joint lifestyle recommendations
of three professional organizations ... in which the
recommended macronutrient mix is built on evidence that
higher intake of fruits and vegetables, whole grains,
and fish are associated with reduced incidences of diabetes
mellitus, cancer, heart disease, and stroke."
Source:www.turkishpress.com
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