Switching to vegetarian keeps weight down.

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Switching to vegetarian keeps weight down

(Reuters)

Updated: 2006-03-17 08:49

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-03/17/content_542228.htm

 

If you want to keep the weight down, switch to a meat-free diet, scientists

said on Tuesday. Researchers who studied the eating habits of 22,000 people

over five years, including meat eaters and vegetarians, found they all put on a

few kilos but meat eaters who changed to a vegetarian or vegan diet gained the

least. " Contrary to current popular views that a diet low in carbohydrates and

high in protein keeps weight down, we found that the lowest weight gain came in

people with high intake of carbohydrates and low intake of protein, " said

Professor Tim Key. The research compared weight gain among meat eaters, fish

eaters, vegetarians and vegans -- who eat no animal products -- and is published

in the International Journal of Obesity. It showed that on average people

gained 2 kilos (4.4 lb) over five years. None of the volunteers was overweight.

" The weight gain was less in the vegans than in the meat-eaters and somewhere in

between in the other groups, " said Key, of

Britain's Cancer Research UK charity and the University of Oxford, who

conducted the study. " The lowest weight gain was in people who changed their

diet to eat fewer animal products, " he told Reuters. Key and his colleagues

said exercise was another important factor in controlling weight. " The data

also showed that people who became more physically active during the five-year

period gained less weight than people who did very little exercise, " Key said.

The findings are from the British arm of EPIC (European Prospective

Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition), which is comparing the diets of

500,000 people in 10 countries to discover how diet is linked to cancer. The

EPIC study has already revealed that diabetics have three times the normal risk

of developing colorectal cancer, which kills more than 490,000 people worldwide

each year. It also showed that diet is second only to tobacco, as a leading

cause of cancer, and, along with alcohol, is responsible for nearly a

third of cancer cases in developed countries.

 

 

 

 

 

" Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest

of life by the power of the spirit. " - Aurobindo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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