High-fat diet boosts risk for obesity, diabetes
July 10, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- You may have been told that a high fat diet can help lose weight. But a new study in the Journal of Nutrition found that a high fat diet actually increases the risk of obesity and diabetes mellitus.
The study led by Mary Helen Black from Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA and colleagues found that Mexican Americans who used a high fat diet had "higher age- and sex-adjusted mean body mass index, body fat percentage, and trunk fat and lower insulin sensitivity and deposition index."
A high fat diet was defined as a diet that has 35% of total energy from fat, 44% from carbohydrates and 21% proteins. It should be noted that the diet has also high protein! So it should actually be classified as a high fat, high protein diet, which has been known to be a risk factor for diabetes mellitus.
The study of 1150 Mexican Americans aged 18 to 65 years with 73% females also found that high fat intake was associated with greater adiposity and lower insulin sensitivity even after adjustment for age, gender, and daily energy intake.
Dietary fat has been known to be a risk factor for diabetes mellitus.
Low fat diet was defined for the study to have 20% of total energy from dietary fat, 65% from carbohydrates and 15% from proteins. Note that the diet has also relatively lower protein.
The researchers concluded "These findings suggest that high-fat diets may contribute to increased adiposity and concomitant insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction in Mexican Americans."
The best diet you can use to have lower risk of all types of Western diseases including heart disease, diabetes and cancer is a diet full of whole foods with low fat and low protein, particularly protein from animals (or meats), according to some studies.
(Send your news to firstname.lastname@example.org, Foodconsumer.org is part of the Infoplus.com ™ news and information network)
- Nutrition Basics Help Fight Child Obesity
- 11 Surprising Factors That Mess With Your Memory
- Is This Why So Many People Seem to Be Gluten Intolerant Today?
- Onion protects against type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Pomegranate extract fights diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer's disease