Weight Loss News: Eating Unprocessed Food Yields Similar Results With Low-Fat/Carbohydrate Diet
A new research has revealed that eating quality food is just as effective as calorie counting in terms of weight loss.
A one-year weight loss study of 609 participants at Stanford University has revealed that eating a healthy low-fat diet or a healthy low-carbohydrate diet is no different from eating an unmonitored amount of unprocessed foods in terms of delivering weight loss results.
The results of the research showed that those who opted for whole unprocessed foods without considering the number of calorie intake attained the same weight loss results with those who opted for either a healthy low-fat or a healthy low-carbohydrate diet.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"The takeaway is that the quality of what you eat is incredibly important. You may or you may not eat a 1,800-calorie diet but what you need is a diet that is based on whole and minimally processed foods without an excess of added sugars, salts, and saturated fats," said Maya Feller, a New York-based dietitian, referring to the results of the Standford University Study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
With the results, however, Feller believes that those planning to switch from calorie-counting to eating whole unprocessed foods will experience a sort of a deep paradigm shift. After all, calorie-counting gives people a sort of a guideline. Hence, the switch will not be easy although Feller believes it is very feasible.
"It means you have shifted from buying that box that lists out the serving size to actually purchasing a head of collard greens and saying, 'I'm going to pair it with quinoa and grilled fish," Feller said.
The study was designed by Dr. Christopher D. Gardner, director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the lead researcher of the study, along with his fellow researchers.
It was meant to examine how overweight and obese people would differ from one another if they consumed low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets as they were split into two groups.
Both groups also attended courses that instructed them to consume minimally processed and nutrient-rich whole foods.
