That ‘dieting’ is necessary for weight loss is an erroneous belief peddled by the diet and food industry. The law of thermodynamics shows that energy balance dictates weight gain or loss, this is true. However, for a forced calorie restriction diet to be successful, a positive energy balance must be the cause of the weight gain. That restriction diets are not successful, suggests that this is not the case. Further, it suggests that weight gain is a result of some other factor that is not influenced by energy intake directly. In fact, weight gain, or more correctly body fat gain, is likely caused by high intakes of fructose in combination with foods containing a low fibre to starch ratio. Western diets contain both of these elements, and this explains the high rates of obesity in developed nations. Fructose is a metabolic poison, with similar hepatotoxic effects to alcohol. Long-term consumption of fructose causes metabolic disturbances, including adipose tissue accumulation and hyperphagia.
That weight loss is possible without forced calorie restriction diets (dieting) is proof enough that greed does not cause obesity. In fact, the nutritional literature is replete with examples of studies showing weight loss without any form of dieting. Many of these studies do not intentionally set out to investigate weight loss, but find that body composition improvements occur as a side effect of some other treatment. For example, research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 19871, investigated the effects of a low glycaemic index diet on the triglyceride levels of 24 patients with hypertriglyceridaemia. The study authors reported that the low glycaemic index foods, when substituted for high glycaemic foods present in the diets of the patients, were successful at significantly reducing triglyceride, low density lipoprotien and total cholesterol levels. However, the subjects also lost 0.4 kg of weight on the low glycaemic index diet.
Other studies have also shown that adherence to low carbohydrate diets (here) or Mediterranean diets (here) cause weight loss without the need to undergo forced calorie restriction. The ability of such diets to cause weight loss most likely relates to their restriction of high glycaemic index, refined and fructose containing foods that are the cause of the metabolic dysfunction that leads to liver overload and insulin resistance that in turn drive abdominal obesity and body fat accumulation. Often the layman will retort that they lost weight dieting and therefore energy restriction must work. But people fail to understand that most ‘diets’ that restrict energy, by their very nature must also restrict fructose and refined carbohydrates. It is this restriction of the drivers of weight gain that make the diets successful, not the energy restriction that accompanies them. People following such diets therefore undergo necessary hardship for no actual long-term benefit.
RdB
