HEALTH TIPS: Was it the carbs?

Health Tip – Audio Version - Was it the carbs?
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: Eat 5 to 9 a Day for Better Health (National Cancer Institute)

Some diet backers say carbs make you put on weight. But a look at the experiences of more than 48,000 people tells a different story.

The researchers studied postmenopausal women on a low-fat diet in the National Institute of Health’s Women’s Health Initiative trial on diet and cancer. The study was in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Barbara Howard of the MedStar Research Institute in Washington, D.C.:

“Our study shows that increasing carbohydrate as we did it, with an emphasis on vegetables and fruits and grains, in fact does not promote weight gain.”

Instead, women who substituted carbs for fat lost an average of almost five pounds the first year – and kept much of it off over seven and one half years of follow-up.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 15 2006