Plant-based diet effective tool for body weight control
An original article published in Obesity Science & Practice," The healthful plant-based diet index as a tool for obesity prevention—The healthy lifestyle community program cohort 3 study”, by Christian Koeder and colleagues, has concluded that the recommendation of a healthy plant-based dietary pattern is a practical and actionable public health tool for body weight control in long-term.
Explaining the study background, researchers said that the prevalence rate of obesity is on continuous rice, and plant-based dietary patterns appear to be a promising strategy to address this health concern.
A dietary score for assessing adherence to a healthy plant-based diet is the healthful plant-based diet index. Cohort studies have proven that increasing the healthful plant-based diet index improves risk markers. However there needs to be more evidence from intervention studies.
The researchers in the present study did a lifestyle intervention among middle-aged and elderly participants from the general population with 115 participants. This intervention had a 16-month lifestyle program focusing on a healthy plant-based diet, physical activity, stress management, and community support.
The key results of the study are:
- After ten weeks, there were improvements in dietary quality, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, total cholesterol, measured and calculated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, oxidized LDL particles, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, remnant cholesterol, glucose, insulin, blood pressure, and pulse pressure.
- After 16 months, there was a decrease in body weight (−1.8 kg), BMI (−0.6 kg/m2), and measured LDL cholesterol (−12 mg/dl).
- Increasing the healthful plant-based diet index had an association with risk marker improvements.
Concluding further, they said following a plant-based diet is acceptable and actionable. It also improves body weight.
According to them, a healthful plant-based diet index is a valuable parameter for intervention studies.
Study strengths are assessing CVD risk markers and multiple measurement time points.
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