Dieting may help reduce early deaths among obese patients, a new study has found.
With or without exercise, weight-reducing diets - usually ones that are low in fat and saturated fat - can reduce the risk of premature death for obese people, the authors said.
Being obese - or having a body mass index score of 30 or over - is associated with premature death. It can lead to a number of life-threatening complications including some cancers, coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
A team of researchers based at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Auckland in New Zealand set out to assess the effects of weight loss programmes on deaths from all causes as well as from heart disease and cancer.
Their study, published in The British Medical Journal (The BMJ), examined 54 studies with data on 30,000 adults dating from 1966 to 2016 with a minimum follow-up time of one year.
They found that during the average follow-up period of two years, weight-loss diets were associated with an 18% relative reduction in premature death among obese people.
They said that this corresponds to six fewer deaths per every 1,000 participants in the studies.
But they were unable to show if there was any effect of weight-reducing diets on deaths from heart disease and cancer, or whether the participants saw any protective effect from developing these conditions.
"Our data support public health measures to prevent weight gain and facilitate weight loss using these types of diet," they concluded.
The study comes as a group of nutrition scientists released a "consensus statement" on whole grain foods.
The International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium said that the consumption of quality whole grains, particularly those with a low glycaemic index, is associated with lower mortality rates and lower risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and possibly bowel cancer.
The committee, including UK academic Dr Marie-Ann Ha of Anglia Ruskin University, said that people should consume about two servings of whole grains a day.
They said that whole grains, such as those found in wholemeal bread, pasta and brown rice, are important sources of dietary fibre, nutrients and phytochemicals in the diet.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here