- Want to know what your body will look like -- buff and
trim or pear-shaped and flabby -- 10 years from now?
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- Take a look at what's on your plate today.
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- Researchers from Boston University examined the eating
habits of 737 women over a 12-year period. Their findings: Those who ate
a low-fat, healthy diet were much less likely to become overweight than
those whose diet was dominated by animal and vegetable fats, sweets, meats
and sweetened beverages.
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- The results of the study appear in the September issue
of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
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- At the start of the research, the group of non-overweight
women responded to a 145-item food frequency questionnaire. Based on their
responses, they were put into five categories: "Heart Healthy,"
"Light Eating," "Wine and Moderate Eating," "High
Fat" and "Empty Calorie."
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- Habitual dietary intake was examined at the baseline
and documented periodically over the 12 years. The results showed the risk
of becoming overweight was 29 percent overall, ranging from 24 percent
"Heart Healthy" group, to 41 percent in the "Empty Calorie"
cluster.
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- Women in the "Empty Calorie" group ate a diet
rich in sweets and fats with fewer servings of nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables
and lean food choices. Meanwhile the "Heart Healthy" eaters had
a more varied diet and consumed a higher percentage of vegetables, fruits,
low-fat milk, legumes and refined grains. "Heart Healthy" eaters
were also more likely to engage in other healthy behaviors, such as not
smoking and exercising more frequently.
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- "We tend to think about diet, physical activity
and smoking in isolation, but they are probably heavily linked," says
study co-author Barbara Millen, associate dean for research and a professor
of public health and medicine at Boston University's School of Public Health.
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- "If your diet is pretty good, you're more likely
to be a nonsmoker and more likely to be someone who exercises. It's a combination
of factors that contributes to overall health," she says.
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- The study showed that women in the "Light Eating"
and "Wine and Moderate Eating" groups were more likely to have
fluctuation in their weight over the 12-year period, with 30 percent in
the "Light Eating" group becoming overweight. Millen attributes
this to chronic dieting in these groups, as well as a higher fat and saturated
fat intake in comparison to those in the "Heart Healthy" section.
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- Also noteworthy was that women in the "Empty Calorie"
segment tended to be younger and more likely to smoke than women in the
healthier eating groups.
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- "Women who are older and have been treated medically
for certain problems tend to be more conscious of what they eat,"
says Millen. "In younger age people, those influences aren't in effect
yet. They're relatively healthy, so they don't think about what they eat
as much."
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- Susan Moores, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic
Association, says that although the study results may not be surprising,
they should remind health professionals to recommend a full, healthy diet
to their patients and clients, and not just focus on certain areas of a
person's diet, such as fat or calcium intake.
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- "We tend in the nutritional field and the health
field to look at increments of diet, focusing on specific things when we
should be looking at the whole diet," Moores says.
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- "What a health professional can take from this study
is that if a patient or client is eating mostly empty calories, unless
they change their eating habits, over the years they will gain weight,"
she adds.
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- The Boston researchers note that excess weight and obesity
are major public health problems in the United States. More than half of
all U.S. adults are overweight and 22 percent are obese -- conditions that
can lead to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, gallbladder
disease, cancer, arthritis and pulmonary dysfunction.
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- What To Do
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- For more information on nutrition and health, visit the
<http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/hsn/hl_hsn/inlinks/*http://www.eatright.org/>
American Dietetic Association. Or check the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
<http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/hsn/hl_hsn/inlinks/*http://www.nal.usda.gov:8001/py/pmap.htm
>Food Guide Pyramid.
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- Copyright © 2002 <http://www.healthscout.com>HealthScoutNews
All rights reserved.
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reference purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical
advice or a medical exam. Always seek the advice of your physician or other
qualified health professional before starting any new treatment. Medical
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of a medical doctor.
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