Low-Fat Frenzy Tomorrow!

Last week (Thursday) a press release was issued to alert the media that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) will publish findings from the Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial on Tuesday, February 7, 2006.

According to Dr. Susan Hendrix, a Wayne State University professor and one of the principal investigators who is co-author of the study, "the study reveals important findings about the effects of a reduction in the level of total fat intake in the diet on the incidence of breast cancer, heart disease or stroke among healthy postmenopausal women."

Also noted in the press release, "Embargoed press releases from JAMA and NIH were issued today."

So, get ready for a blitz tomorrow as the findings are released to the public - and some food for thought...

Remember in January the media blitz to convince us that these women didn't gain weight following a low-fat, carbohydrate rich diet?

Keep those results in mind as you read the reasoning you're going to be inundated with for the findings that are published tomorrow, since the headlines on the first round of findings published in JAMA were in no way aligned with the actual data!

Those results were, in the published study:

• Intervention group BMI = 29.0...Control Group BMI = 29.2
• Body weight = 75.7kg for the intervention group, seven year weight change = -1.1kg
• Body weight for the control group = 76.1kg, seven year weight change = -0.6kg
• Daily Calorie Consumption Intervention = 1445.9/day
• Daily Calorie Consumption Control = 1564.0/day
• Percentage of Calories from Fat = 29.8% intervention group...38.1% control group
• Percentage of Calories from Carbohydrate = 52.7% intervention group...44.7% control group
• Percentage of Calories from Protein = 17.5% for both groups

Then keep in mind what the headlines blared about this study:

"Low-fat, High-carbohydrate Diet Not Associated With Weight Gain In Postmenopausal Women"

"Low-Fat, High-Carbohydrate Diet May Not Cause Postmenopausal Women to Gain Weight"

"Low-fat, High-carbohydrate Diet Does Not Cause Weight Gain"

"The Low-Fad Diet Approach: A Solution to the Obesity Problem"

"High-carbohydrate diet not linked with weight gain in postmenopausal women"