Obesity riddle sovled

The prevalence of overweight children spontaneously dropped if they followed a high-protein, low-GI diet like their parents, according to the world’s largest diet study

The large-scale random study – called Diogenes – was investigating the optimum diet for preventing and treating obesity by comparing the official dietary recommendations in Europe with a diet based on the latest knowledge about the importance of carbohydrates and proteins for diet regulation.

Researchers at the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) at the University of Copenhagen recruited 772 European families and assigned them one of five low-fat diets – a low-protein, high-GI diet; a low-protein, low-GI diet; a high-protein, low-GI diet; a high-protein, high-GI diet; and a control group which followed the current dietary recommendations, with no special instructions – for 6 months.

Prior to taking up the diet, the 938 adult participants were restricted to an 800kcal a day diet for eight weeks, with each adult losing an average of 11kg. The 827 children – approximately 46% of whom were overweight – only took part in the diet intervention and followed the same diet as their parents.

Only 548 of the adult participants completed the six-month diet intervention – around 71% – with an average weight regain among all participants of 0.5kg. Around 26.4% of participants in the low-protein, high-GI group dropped out, and this group had an average weight gain of 1.67kg. Fewer participants in the high-protein, low-GI diet dropped out, and this group regained less weight than those on other diets. The prevalence of overweight children in this group reduced from 46% to 39%.

The study concluded that current dietary recommendations are not optimal for preventing weight gain in the already overweight: if you want to lose weight, your diet should be high in protein and include foods with low glycemic index, which cause blood glucose levels to increase more slowly and to lower levels.