Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

It was a huge study that spanned over eight years. 20,000 overweight, post-menopausal women participated in a study that researchers are reluctant to call a failure, even though they know little more than eight years ago.

• CNN.com – Low-fat study leaves little to chew on – Feb 8, 2006

After eight years, they have found that there was little difference in the rates of breast cancer, colorectal cancer and heart disease for the participants on a low fat diet versus those who didn’t change their diet at all.

“[The results] are somewhat disappointing. We would have liked this dietary intervention to have a major impact on health,” said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a co-author of the study.

There are many reasons suggested why they might have found these results, many of which blame the participants of the study. Such as, the diet was not designed for weight reduction, and many of the women stayed overweight, which is considered a risk factor for cancer. Additionally, there was no distinction made between so-called “good” fats and “bad” fats. All fats were cut indiscriminately. They might have seen different results if “good” fats were allowed in the diet.

This just goes to show that we don’t know what is healthy and what is not yet. Researchers are still trying to find out what the optimal diet for human beings is. I suspect that in the end, they will find out that there is no one optimal diet and there are a wide variety of diets that will work for people to both keep them fit and healthy. Until then, we’re on our own.