High-fiber diet a viable weight-loss alternative to AHA recommendations

Increased fiber intake may be a simple weight-loss alternative to American Heart Association dietary recommendations, and almost equally effective, Dr. Yunsheng Ma and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts reported.

^{Courtesy of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)}

In a study of 240 adults with metabolic syndrome, participants who followed the complex AHA dietary guidelines had a mean weight loss of 2.7 kg. Adults who simply followed a high-fiber diet had a mean weight loss of 2.1 kg, the authors wrote.

The findings suggest that “a single component dietary intervention can achieve clinically meaningful weight loss similar to that of the multicomponent AHA diet,” Dr. Ma and associates said in the report.

Read the full article here in the Annals of Internal Medicine (2015 Feb. 17 [doi:10.7326/M14-0611]).