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Meat-eaters are fatter. The only regimen that’s been proven to take weight off and keep it off is a low-fat vegan diet. Obesity is one of the most pressing health problems in the U.S. and will soon become the country’s leading cause of preventable deaths. Despite the growing number of “diets” that are being touted throughout the country, Americans just keep getting fatter. Research studies cited by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) have shown that “the vast majority of people who lose weight gain it all back—and then some—within a year or two.” Dr. Dean Ornish, a medical doctor and the author of Eat More, Weigh Less, cites government studies that show that within five years of losing weight, 97 percent of dieters are just as fat as they were when they first began to diet—fatter, in some cases. They would have been better off if they hadn’t dieted at all.

Researchers have found that overweight people consume about the same number of calories as slim people—but that they don’t consume the same kinds of food. Animal products contain much more fat than plant-based foods—animal flesh, after all, is designed to store calories, which makes it one of the worst things that a dieter can eat. It’s no surprise that population studies have proved that meat-eaters have three times the obesity rate of vegetarians and nine times the obesity rate of vegans. It’s possible to be a fat vegan, of course, just as it’s possible to be a thin meat-eater, but adult vegans are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than adult meat-eaters.

The first thing to realize is that changing eating habits must be more than a short-term means to an end. Changing eating habits is the cornerstone of permanent weight control. There is no way to “lose 20 pounds in two short weeks” and make it last. Very-low-calorie diets cause two major problems: They lower one’s metabolic rate, making it harder to slim down, and they lead to bingeing.




Study: More Milk Means More Weight Gain

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; Page A03

Children who drink more than three servings of milk each day are prone to becoming overweight, according to a large new study that undermines a heavily advertised dairy industry claim that milk helps people lose weight.

The study of more than 12,000 children nationwide found that the more milk they drank, the more weight they gained: Those consuming more than three servings each day were about 35 percent more likely to become overweight than those who drank one or two.

"The take-home message is that children should not be drinking milk as a means of losing weight or trying to control weight," said Catherine S. Berkey of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study, the largest to examine the question in children.

The National Dairy Council has spent $200 million since 2003 to promote the idea that milk can help people lose weight. Some research has suggested that calcium or other elements in milk may cause the body to make less fat and speed its elimination, but the studies produced mixed results.

"I went into this project expecting that drinking milk would have some weight benefit for children. So I was surprised when it turned out the way it did," said Berkey, whose findings are being published in the June issue of the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. "The studies are all over the place, but the dairy industry tells children and adults, 'Drink more milk and you will lose weight.' I think that's misleading."

The dairy industry disputed the idea that the new study challenges its ads, saying it had said only that adults may be able to lose more weight if they drink milk while cutting calories.

"Our message has always been very conservative -- that three servings a day as part of a reduced-calorie diet may help promote weight loss," said Isabel Maples, a dietician speaking for the council. "Most children don't even get one serving a day" of milk.

Based on the findings, Berkey and her colleagues said children should follow federal recommendations to consume two to three servings of dairy a day, no more.

The study comes amid intense concern about the growing problem of obesity among children. The percentage of young people who are overweight has more than tripled since 1980. Public health experts have been particularly concerned that drinking soda contributes to weight problems, leading some parents to try to get their kids to drink more milk instead.

The researchers analyzed whether the children would have been better off if they replaced the soda they were drinking with milk but found no benefit.

"Our findings do not suggest that if children replace beverages sweetened with sugar with milk they would reduce their body weight," Berkey said.

For the study, Berkey and her colleagues analyzed data collected from about 12,829 children from all 50 states who were ages 9 to 14 in 1996, when they began participating in the Growing Up Today Study, an ongoing project examining the relationship between diet, exercise and a host of health issues.

The researchers examined the relationship between the children's milk intake between 1996 and 1999 and their weight over a one-year period. Those who drank more than three eight-ounce servings of milk a day gained the most weight, even after the researchers took into consideration factors such as physical activity, other dietary factors and growth. The association held, even though most of the children were drinking low-fat milk.

"That was surprising," Berkey said. "Apparently this applies to any kind of milk."

Several researchers agreed that the findings undercut the idea that milk promotes weight loss.

"There's been a lot of talk recently that somehow calcium in dairy products improves your ability to lose weight. There's certainly no evidence of that in this study," said F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, a Columbia University obesity researcher.



Taken from various sites I don't care to remember.