New research has found that vegan diets and weight loss are the way to go when going for a change of pace in the user's new path into shedding some weight, even if the diet also contains carbs.
According to scientific news site Science Daily, a new study has found that vegan diets' weight loss properties are considerably more effective than those that feature dairy products and all kinds of meat.
In other words, it seems that people who eat all greens have way less to be concerned about when it comes to shedding a few pounds, since their food intake makes it easier to do so, as vegan diets' weight loss properties are more effective than diets that feature only protein.
Diets such Atkins have been taking the world by storm in the past few years, proposing the idea that weight loss can be easily achieved by eliminating all kinds carbs entirely from the body, focusing on protein. Another popular diet of the sort is the Paleo one, which teaches people to base their food intake on that of the Paleolithic man, steering away from more processed foods.
The new research paper, which came from the University of South Carolina and is called "Comparative effectiveness of plant-based diets for weight loss: A randomized controlled trial of five different diets", was published recently in The International Journal of Applied and Basic Nutritional Sciences scientific magazine.
In the paper, researches propose that vegan diets' weight loss programs are really the way to go, even when these diets contain carbs such as potatoes, often considered a big no-no in modern diets.
According to the University Herald, the study that proposes the benefits of vegan diets' weight loss capacities had its findings based on five different study groups: one that would only consume plants in their diet; a semi-vegetarian diet that would feature occasional intake of meat; a third diet that would only include vegetables and seafood; another one that would exclude all meat but would also feature animal products (such as eggs or dairy) and, finally, the fifth group would follow an omnivorous diet, featuring vegetables and all kinds of animal products (meat, dairy, eggs and every other one).
Participants of the study were asked to follow these diets over the course of six months, all while being closely monitored by the research team in different lapses.
After studying the five groups over a course of six months, the research team found that the vegan diets' weight loss was higher than the group with the omnivorous diet by an average of 4.3 percent, which is to say about 16.5 pounds.
However, the research team led by co-author Gabrielle Turner-McGrievy found that mere weight loss wasn't the only way the vegan diet group benefitted from the program. In the checks pertinent for months two and six, the vegan diets' weight loss group had lower Body Mass Index (BMI), their levels of fat and saturated fat had decreased considerably more than those of the other participants in the study and their macro nutrients had improved more than those subjects going through diets that included other foods besides a plant-based diet.
The findings are not only interesting in themselves, but due to the nature of the experiment, it also debunks a well-known nutrition myth in recent years: that carbs will automatically make people fat, or at least stall them from losing weight. The vegan diets' weight loss program also included foods such as pasta, rice and potatoes, and even then the results were better than with diets featuring animal products.
"We've gotten somewhat carb-phobic here in the U.S. when it comes to weight loss," said Gabrielle Turner-McGrievy regarding the paper, according to The Daily Meal. "This study might help alleviate the fears of people who enjoy pasta, rice, and other grains but want to lose weight."