The Akin Diet vs. the Ornish Diet… A Big Weight Loss Diet Showdown - Part 1

"I've been a vegetarian for 25 years, so as you can imagine, it was a bitter pill to swallow when I had to publish a study showing that the Akin diet was superior for weight loss," said Christopher. Christopher Gardner said with a hint of excitement when he announced the findings. He is the director of nutrition research at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the key figure in the "A TO Z Weight Loss Study" published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2007.

The "A TO Z Weight Loss Study" is a very interesting study comparing diets, and you can learn a lot from it. This study is mainly to compare the weight loss effects of four weight loss diets and their effects on the body. I would like to remind everyone that the following article is not a substitute for professional medical care. People with diabetes should discuss any health-related issues with their doctor and health care provider at regular visits. If you are going to make any major changes to your diet or lifestyle, be sure to inform your doctor and health teacher!

There are actually quite a few studies comparing the effects of different diets on body weight, but many of these studies have a common problem - there are few subjects involved and the study time is relatively short (no more than half a year). This is because some research methods involve locking up the subjects and strictly controlling their diet and daily routine, thus minimizing uncertain variables. But such research is very expensive because all these people need to be supplied with food and even have a place for them to live, not to mention hiring a lot of people to take care of them. Moreover, not all of these subjects are idle and it is impossible for researchers to lock them up for several months or a year, so it is not easy to recruit enough subjects for such research. So why are small numbers of subjects and short study durations a problem? Because in this case, the conclusions drawn from the study will lack statistical power due to too small a sample size (few subjects), which means the conclusions may be wrong; and if the research time is short, we cannot know the side effects of long-term adoption of a certain diet on the body (whether it will harm the heart, kidneys, etc.).

Suppose today there is a study on a strictly controlled diet, and the conclusion of the study is that eating extremely expensive truffles with every meal can lower blood sugar, protect the heart, and reduce body fat. The researchers point out that this is very strong evidence. The question is, can ordinary people eat truffles every day? I still don’t know if I will ever be able to eat truffles in my lifetime. Of course, it is impossible to eat truffles at every meal in real life. Such a conclusion is just sad to see. Truffles are of course an extreme hypothesis, but it tells us that the conclusions drawn from strictly controlled diets in the laboratory may not necessarily be useful in real life. After all, we don’t live in a laboratory.

The A TO Z Weight Loss Study is a unique study that aims to examine the effects of various diets in real life. This study involved a large number of subjects and a long duration. It recruited a total of 311 subjects, all of whom were premenopausal obese women aged between 25 and 50, with a BMI between 27 and 40. None of them had diabetes or any other metabolic diseases that would affect their weight. During the 12-month study, they were randomly assigned to one of the four diets, and a nutritionist taught each group how to follow the diet in eight one-hour sessions per week, using the best-selling book on the diet as the textbook. Once the eight-week course was completed, the women continued to make changes to their diets and lifestyles using the book, with minimal intervention from the researchers. Simply put, this is like simulating what kind of changes will occur in the weight of ordinary people after they carefully read these best-selling diet books and changed their lives according to the suggestions in the books. It can also be said to be a big showdown of the weight loss effectiveness of best-selling diets. A, T, O, and Z represent four different diets. Let's take a look at the four diets that have made it to the stage:

The Atikins diet, also known as the meat-eating diet, is a diet advocated by Robert C. Atkins, MD. It advocates that you can enjoy protein (such as meat) and fat in your diet without limiting the intake, but you should limit the intake of carbohydrates. It is an extremely low-carbohydrate diet. During the initial induction period (lasting about 2-3 months), you can only consume less than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day (less than the amount of 4 mouthfuls of rice), and during the subsequent maintenance period, you can only consume less than 50 grams per day (less than the amount of a bowl of rice). The Akin diet emphasizes that you should eat until you are full and does not limit your total daily calorie intake.

The LEARN program is a contestant representing traditional weight loss diets . It was developed from the LEARN PROGRAM in behavioral therapy advocated by Stunkard, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Those who want to lose weight must learn the five principles of "LEARN" (L: life style, E: exercise, A: attitude, R: relationship, N: nutrition) and apply them in their lives to achieve the so-called all-round healthy weight loss. The dietary recommendations it proposes are in line with the official US recommendation of a balanced and low-fat diet (like the food pyramid proposed by the US Department of Agriculture), in which carbohydrates should account for 55-60% of daily dietary calories, saturated fat should be controlled below 10%, and total daily calorie intake should be limited. In addition to diet, it also has many behavioral change recommendations and emphasizes the importance of exercise.

The Ornish diet was first proposed by Dean. Promoted by Dr. Dean Ornish, this diet is mostly vegetarian and based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, fat-free dairy and egg whites. It advocates that dietary fat should not exceed 10% of total daily calories. It is an extremely low-fat diet, but it is worth noting that it does not limit the total daily calorie intake.

The Zone diet is a diet proposed by biochemist Professor Barry Sears, Ph.D. This diet emphasizes the correct proportion of calories in the diet, namely 40% carbohydrates, 30% fat and 30% protein. The interval diet method places great emphasis on calorie distribution and places restrictions on the total daily calorie intake.

After a year of competition, the Akin Diet was the winner and had the best weight loss effect. In addition, the Akin diet group had the largest increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and the largest decrease in triglycerides, which means it has the greatest improvement in blood fats, which may reduce the risk of various cardiovascular diseases. Such a result was completely unexpected by the designers of the study (the main designer was Gardner, who has been a vegetarian for many years). Why did it happen? Could it be that the Ajin diet is actually very healthy? ───(To be continued…Weight Loss Diet Showdown─Part 2)

This article comes from: Diabetes Life Guide

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