Best Diet Advice

Study finds benefits of high protein, low carb diet for keeping weight off.
The AP (11/29) reports, "More turkey, less white bread and mashed potatoes. Just in time for holiday feasting, a large study found that diets higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates can help overweight adults who managed to drop some weight keep it off." European researchers "led by Denmark's University of Copenhagen" write in a study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine that "diets rich in lean meats, poultry and beans, and low in starchy carbs appear 'to be the ideal for the prevention of weight regain.'"
MedPage Today (11/24, Walsh) reported that among participants "who completed an eight-week, low-calorie weight loss phase and then entered a maintenance phase in which they consumed diets with variations in protein content and glycemic index, weight regain was 0.93 kg higher, a statistically significant difference, in those on low-protein diets compared with those on high-protein diets (95% CI 0.31 to 1.55, P=0.003)." Weight "regain also was higher by 0.95 kg (95% CI 0.33 to 1.57, P=0.003) in participants who consumed a diet with a high glycemic index, according to Thomas Meinert Larsen, PhD, from the University of Copenhagen, and colleagues."
HealthDay (11/24, Doheny) reported that "with his colleagues, Larsen evaluated 938 adults with an average body-mass index (BMI) of 34, which is considered obese. In all, 773 completed the initial weight-loss phase and then were assigned to one of five different maintenance plans." Those "on the low-GI diet had an average weight regain of 2 pounds less than those on the high-GI diet."
HeartWire (11/25, Wood) reported Dr. Larsen said "whether that ability to maintain a healthy weight-or the means used to attain it-have implications for the heart remains to be seen." Larsen said, "So far we have looked at body-weight maintenance: whether that translates into a lowered cardiovascular risk, this is of course too preliminary to say."
The Boston Globe (11/29, Cooney) reports after "six months, people who followed the high-protein, low glycemic index diet were more likely to keep their weight stable or continue to lose weight than the people who ate a low-protein, high glycemic index diet. The difference between the groups averaged about five pounds." Perhaps "equally important, only a quarter of the people in the high-protein, low glycemic index group dropped out of the study compared with a third of those in the low-protein, high glycemic index group."
Glycemic index remains opaque concept for consumers. The Los Angeles Times (11/29, Roan) reports diet researchers "reported Thursday that a high-protein, low-glycemic-index diet may work best for maintaining a weight loss," but "they concede that many people may not understand just how to achieve such a diet." While it's "easier to understand which foods are high in protein -- eggs, turkey and dairy products -- knowing the glycemic index (GI) of foods can be trickier. Moreover, just because a food is low on the glycemic index doesn't mean it's more healthful, said the authors of the Diogenes study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine."