The nonsense keeps coming forth and people keep getting fatter.


USDA: Most Popular Diets Flawed

.c The Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) - Most popular diets help people drop pounds initially, but
only traditional moderate-fat, high-carbohydrate regimens seem to keep
dieters slim, according to the first major review of popular diets by the
federal government.

The Agriculture Department study found that any diet that limits food to
about 1,500 calories per day produces short-term weight loss, The Washington
Post reported Friday.

But those diets do little to help a dieter lower cholesterol and blood
pressure levels.

The study is to be released publicly Wednesday, the Post said. USDA spokesman
Andy Solomon declined to comment Tuesday night.

``This basically tells you that you can lose weight on any of the diets, if
you keep your calories down,'' Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman told the
Post. ``The trick is how you maintain that weight loss.''

The report, the first in an ongoing review of popular diets, casts doubt on
newer, unorthodox approaches.

Those programs that have put more demands on dieters - like those recommended
by groups such as the American Heart Association and Weight Watchers - have
the best scientific evidence to back up their success rates and health
claims.

They recommend consuming no more than 30 percent of calories as fat, limiting
protein to about 20 percent of the diet and consuming more fruits, vegetables
and complex carbohydrates to help satisfy hunger with fewer calories.

They are the most nutritionally adequate and showed some of the best
improvements in blood levels of the most dangerous cholesterol and blood fats
and in blood sugar control, the study found.

``Based on the scientific knowledge we have, this seems to be the most
efficacious way to go and it is most likely the safest,'' the Post quoted
Xavier Pi-Sunyer, director of the obesity research center at St.
Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York and editor of Obesity Research, which
will publish the full USDA study in the March-April issue.