According to new findings by a team of Israeli researchers, a Mediterranean diet is easier to follow than a low-fat or low-carb diet, and is more effective in terms of weight loss and wellness.
After an initial two-year workplace-based study where participants followed one of three weight loss plans; a low-fat, low-calorie diet; a Mediterranean-style, low-calorie diet; or a low-carb eating plan without calorie restrictions, the team of researchers followed participants for four years, to see what happened next.
The results at two years were that 85% of the participants were still following their diet programmes, and those on the Mediterranean diet and low-carb diet lost more weight than those on the low-fat diet. At Four years, 67% of participants were still on their eating plan, whereas 11% had switched to another a type of diet and 22% were not dieting at all.
A Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains, legumes, healthy fats like olive oil, and moderate amounts of alcohol. It is also low in sweets, meats, and saturated fats like butter and so it won out overall, even though the other diets still produced good results. Everyone in the study was thinner than when the study first began, though they all regained some of the weight they had lost in the original study, but the weight loss was highest in the Mediterranean (7 pounds) and low-carb groups (4 pounds) and all participants had the other wellbeing boost of improved levels of cholesterol.
According to researcher Dan Schwarzfuchs, MD, of the Negev Nuclear Research Centre in Dimona, Israel, the study has a ‘real life’ aspect to it in both the weight lost and the health benefits, and so ‘When a person needs to change their life habits, I try to tailor the diet to their personal preferences with precedence to Mediterranean or low-carb diets’.
Schwarzfuchs added that the fact that it took place in the workplace added a dimension to the study as ‘When dealing with a change in lifestyle, the workplace is a great platform to generate a change, since we spend most of our waking hours at work’.
According to Nancy Copperman, RD, director of public health initiatives at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New York, ‘Most anyone can lose weight, but keeping it off is the harder part’ and therefore the Mediterranean diet is the most impressive as ‘is a liveable diet and has positive physiologic benefits.’
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