Vegetarianism - The New Diet?
March 14th 2006
Shifting diet away from meat products is a good way of keeping weight down, according to a major study published today and challenging popular high protein diets.
A study of 22,000 people in Oxford, UK, found that giving up meat and becoming vegetarian was the best way to keep weight down.
Shifting from meat to fish, fish to vegetarianism and even to veganism all helped to keep weight down also.
The five year study found that meat eaters also experienced more weight gain than vegans over a five year period.
Researchers found a tendency for all those they studied to put on weight - but some put on less than others.
During the study the proportion of people defined as overweight increased by about five percentage points - reaching nearly 35 per cent of men.
And the proportion of those defined as obese increased by about three percentage points - reaching 8.4 per cent of women, according to the research published in the International Journal of Obesity.
Researcher Professor Tim Key, deputy director of Cancer Research UK’s epidemiology unit at Oxford University, said: "Contrary to current popular views that a diet low in carbohydrates and high in protein keeps weight down, we found that the lowest weight gain came in people with high intake of carbohydrate and low intake of protein.
"The data also showed that people who became more physically active during the five year period gained less weight than people who did very little exercise."
Subscribe or spread the word:
Related Information
