Are you overweight with high blood levels of total cholesterol and blood-damaging LDL cholesterol? "Then you’ll probably benefit more from cutting those extra pounds by eating fewer calories and increasing physical activity than you would from cutting dietary fat."

Two recent studies were done of obese men and normal-weight men, both with high total and LDL cholesterol. Both groups were switched from a diet high in total fat and saturated fat and put on "heart-healthy" diets. Both studies showed much greater improvement in the normal-weight men compared to the overweight men. In the first, "total cholesterol in the overweight men dropped less than half that of the lean men—7 versus 16 percent. . . . Likewise, artery-damaging LDL cholesterol dropped 9 percent in the overweight group versus 21 percent in the lean group."

---

. . . overweight people . . .  need to remember that protein, of course, and certain essential fatty acids are absolutely necessary in the diet. Fat people can enjoy the advice given by three doctors . . . Eliminating grains and sugars, plus emphasizing green vegetables, what Drs. Gerdes and Juetersonke called "the green diet," greatly helps fat patients.

---

Interestingly, in a diet with most of the fat monounsaturated, for example, olive oil, "this diet produced a much bigger drop in triglycerides in the overweight group compared to the lean group: 26 percent versus 4 percent. High triglycerides are associated with reduced glucose tolerance [insulin resistance]—the earliest stage of diabetes. And evidence is mounting that high triglycerides independently increase risk of heart disease, say the researchers."

When overweight people face up to losing weight, they need to remember that protein, of course, and certain essential fatty acids are absolutely necessary in the diet. Fat people can enjoy the advice given by three doctors and described in NOHA NEWS Summer 1997, "Obesity from High-Carbohydrate, Low Fat Diets." All three doctors spoke sarcastically about the new food pyramid, which recommends six to eleven servings of grains per day, as the base for all our diets. They called the pyramid a prescription for disaster. Eliminating grains and sugars, plus emphasizing green vegetables, what Drs. Gerdes and Juetersonke called "the green diet," greatly helps fat patients. They gradually lose weight and feel so much better that many enjoy compliance. "Some of them find that if they go off the diet, even with one piece of bread, they will have a major relapse, including sudden weight gain."

*Food & Nutrition Research Briefs, Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, April 2000.

Article from NOHA NEWS, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, Spring 2001, page 10.