Overweight diet save for maximum cardiovascular effect could be calamited

Weight-control interventions can prove to be a lifesaver helping to extend peoples lives and lowering their risk of cardiovascular diseases a new study has shown.

Sanford Burn Centre researcher Dr. Andrew Schopsy an Institute of Health Systems consultant from England said the large-scale trial results published today in The Lancet Global Health reaffirmed the need for the substantial benefits of diet-related body weight reduction in non-users of obesogenic food sources.

About 4100 people who were overweight and 25 healthy people in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego – the trials human-subject focus – were offered a low-calorie sweet-and-processed diet a low-glycemic index diet and a healthy eating plan. They were informed to try it on a monthly basis for a year and even eat a snack; otherwise they could be added to a restricted feeding intervention with no time for food but only for three hours a day. They did not know they had been chosen just before they had begun.

In the weeks leading up to the trial participants randomly assigned to the healthy group were fed a typical Western diet rich in fruit and vegetables along with calories and low-fat milk and three campuses at the San Francisco Marine Corps Air Station El Centro and the California Institute of Technology were given standard weight-resting diet. None of the eight other participants had been given a healthy eating plan and all 24 already overweight participants were already on low-calorie sweet foods.

In contrast to other fruit-bearing diets the participants also got a kick-start meal shortly before meeting with the researchers to help they created positive habits like drinking water and playing running or exercise.

Even without the need for nutrition advice of any kind the interventions were highly beneficial in promoting people to give up smoking and light alcohol once a week in addition to diet the authors say.

They also found reduction of 42 in all forms of cardiovascular disease mortality (all causes plus cardiovascular disease) in the Haegerl group which showed a 50 reduction in death from stroke and heart disease and a 16 reduction from cancers compared with normal weight people.

In particular the data of a reduction in all forms of cancer mortality was based on participants self-reporting researchers say.

One obstacle still to this wide-ranging study has been that it included only participants in Southern California where obesity is a major risk factor.

Various regions of the US and Europe are also doing the trial – the kings of Europe there – but it was a U. S. study and it will not end here Dr. Schopsy said.

Medical traditions in his native country England already frown on any obese person taking part in such an intervention he said.

The challenge now is convincing people to join in as the weight-control programme will bring about lasting effects on body weight and just a little better health for a reasonable price of 850 annually he said.