Is There a “Best” Diet?

Have you noticed that people seem to cling to diets like they do to religion? Now I do not mean to impune religion importance in one’s life, only to point out that to many people – there is only one way to lose weight! Whether it be hi-carb, low-fat, high-protein, and yes even high-fat diets, people seem to say their diet works and the others are evil!

I found this story at CNN.com about a 4-diet study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The CNN story seems to say the study suggests that it does not really matter what diet a person decides to follow. All of the diets can work. In this post I will try and see what the study tried to accomplish and what the results mean for us.

Here is a CNN video discussing the study and what it means to us.

Reading the CNN article you can get a feeling what the study was about. Looking at the study in the New England Journal of Medicine you can see the study was trying to figure out if there is a “best” diet and how the different diets stacked up against one another.

The first thing that is striking to me is this is an actual randomly selected experimental study looking at just how the diets perform. The study included obese men and women from 30 to 70 years old. I liked this was not yet another correlational study that purported to show one diet worked with out any primary evidence.

All four diets reduced energy intake (calories) so the results could be measured on a even playing field. I am satisfied that this study was well designed and does not have any logical problems that jump out at me.

One thing did jump out at me is that all of these diets were most effective during the first 6 months to a year but people eventually went back to eating how they wanted. This is not great surprise to me but if you take the type of diet out of the equation – then logically you are left with the most probable long-lasting weight-loss being the diet you can stick to for life. Read “diet” as the types of foods you like to eat anyway! This does not bode well for the fad-diets out of the grocery-isle.

I think if you read the beginning of the study (the paragraph above and below the methods header) and the discussion section you can get a good overview of this study. Here is the concluding paragraph of the study:

In conclusion, diets that are successful in causing weight loss can emphasize a range of fat, protein, and carbohydrate compositions that have beneficial effects on risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.^29,40 Such diets can also be tailored to individual patients on the basis of their personal and cultural preferences and may therefore have the best chance for long-term success.

This has been the first study in a long time that seems to be statistically valid that also evaluates different common diets. I think this is good information because it is so easy to adopt a “view point” and think your diet is the only one that can work.

I think that any diet that is nutritionally balanced, can work well. All you have to do is eat less calories. According to this study (my take) if the diet you select is close to how you already eat – you will have the best chance for success!