In fact the large Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification (WHI-DM) Trial tested the effect of a low-fat diet pattern (20% fat or less in the diet) and reported that a low-fat diet pattern might have modest health benefits and help prevent weight gain. New research from the WHI-DM trial analyzed the impact of the low-fat dietary pattern on changes in body composition[1]. In the parent trial, nearly 49,000 women between 50-79 years of age were asked to follow their usual dietary pattern or follow a low-fat dietary pattern. Women following the low-fat diet pattern were asked to replace calories from dietary fat with calories from fruits, vegetables, and grains without actually reducing calorie consumption. For this body composition study, whole-body x-rays taken from over 4,000 women at the start of the study and after 1, 3, and 6 years were analyzed for changes in fat mass, percent body fat, and lean mass. The study investigators reported: Women following a low-fat diet plan showed greater reductions in fat mass, lean mass, and percent body fat compared to women following their normal diet pattern at both the 1-year and 3-year time points. Of the changes observed in fat mass, lean mass, and percent body fat, only fat mass was different between women consuming a low-fat diet and women consuming their usual diet at the end of the study. After 6 years, women following the low-fat diet lost about 2.4 pounds of fat and lost about 1% body fat. Overall, this large study suggests that a low-fat dietary pattern has beneficial effects on body composition. While the observed body composition changes were modest, the benefits were obtained without a reduction in caloric intake. In fact, since dietary fat was replaced in the women's diet with fruits, vegetables, and grains without reducing calorie intake, it is possible that food intake might actually have increased since fat has more calories than these other foods. Therefore, some of the women following a low-fat diet pattern were likely eating more food and still losing body fat. It is interesting that the benefits were greater after 1 and 3 years than at the end of the study. This might suggest that women were not following the low-fat diet pattern for the entire study period, particularly during the last 2-3 years of the study. Finding ways to help individuals follow a healthy eating pattern for life remains a difficult challenge. The only concern that one might have is the level of fat in the low-fat dietary pattern. The women following this dietary pattern were consuming 20% or less of their calories from fat. However, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that we consume 20-35% of our total calories from fat, so many of the women in the study might have been following a diet not recommended by the new guidelines. Nonetheless, research has shown that we eat high levels of dietary fat and therefore have plenty of room to reduce our dietary fat intake while still eating a healthy, balanced diet.
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The potential benefits of a low-fat diet have been the focus of numerous research studies over the last several years.
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