Saturday July 19, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- In response to
a widely reported Israel study of three common diets and their effects on
weight loss, American Heart Association (AHA) said on July 17 on its website that
the organization has no longer recommended the low fat diet used in the study.
The low fat diet used in the study use no more than 30% of
the total calories from fat. The dietary guidelines were recommended in 2000. The
study began in 2005 and the organization revised its recommendation in 2006.
AHA said it does not advocate for restricting
the total fat in the diet.
Instead the AHA now stressed that consumers should avoid
trans fat which is man-made and widely used in bakery products and saturated
fat typically found in meat products and in tropical oils, such as coconut and
palm oil. (Editor’s note: trans fat can be formed in oily food containing
unsaturated oils during a thermal process).
The AHA said that the diet it currently recommends contains
fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, lean-meats, poultry and fish twice
a week.
The AHA cited studies as showing that diets high in
saturated and trans fats are strongly linked with high risk of heart disease,
and that diets rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains are strongly
correlated with a lower risk of heart disease.
A whole foods, plant-based diet that Dr. Dean Ornish uses to help people protect against heart disease has been proved to be effective at stopping or reserving progression of
cardiovascular disease
. The diet can also help maintain a healthy weight.
The diet include minimal amounts of added fat, high amounts
of fruit, vegetables, particularly legumes, soy and green vegetables, whole
grains in their natural forms; small amounts of fish, chicken, nuts and seeds,
but exclude trans fat, meat such a red meat, pork, and bacon, added sugars,
refined carbohydrates such as pasta made of refined grains, sweets and
pastries.
A health observer affiliated with foodconsumer.org suggests that the diet used by Dr. Ornish is probably the best consumers can use to help weight loss and maintain a healthy weight. The diet is nutrionally sound and with this diet consumers do not have to count calories they eat.
