Register for High Carbohydrate Intake May Protect Against Inactivity
Diet and NutritionApril 9, 2001
2001 APR 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Susan Hasty, staff medical writer - A high carbohydrate diet may protect against weight gain in normally active people who have frequent inactive days.
T.Y. Shepard and associates at the University of Colorado Health Science Center, Denver, found that subjects consuming a high carbohydrate diet for 14 days were less likely to experience fat accumulation on an idle 15th day than those consuming a high-fat diet.
The researchers' study consisted of 35 obese and nonobese subjects randomly assigned to either a 15-day high fat (HF) or 15-day high carbohydrate (HC) diet. All subjects maintained body weight and activity for 14 days, but spent the 15th day at rest in a whole-room, indirect calorimeter.
Shepard and colleagues found little difference between the two diets in the energy intakes required to maintain body weight and activity the first 14 days. Nor did diet make a difference in total energy or protein-energy balance on the 15th day ("Occasional physical inactivity combined with a high-fat diet may be important in the development and maintenance of obesity in human subjects," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, April 2001;73(4):703-708).
The day at rest did, however, produce a larger carbohydrate balance in the HC diet (2,497.8 ± 301.2 kJ) than with the HF (1,159 ± 301.2 kJ) diet (p=0.0032), Shepard et al. found. More significantly, the fat balance on day 15 was larger in the HF diet (1,790.8 ± 510.4 kJ) than with the HC diet (-62.8 ± 510.4 kJ; p=0.0011).
"Chronic consumption of a high-carbohydrate diet could provide some protection against body fat accumulation in persons with a pattern of physical activity that includes frequent sedentary days," Shepard and colleagues concluded.
For more information on this study, contact Trudy Shepard, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, 4200 E. 9th Ave., Denver, CO 80262, USA. E-mail: Trudy.Shepard@UCHSC.edu.
Key points reported in this study include:
* Obese and nonobese subjects were studied for the effects of a 15-day diet of either high carbohydrates or high fat, including 14 days of activity and a full day of rest on day 15
* Both diets showed a high surplus of energy on day 15, but the high fat diet showed a significant surplus of fat energy compared to a negative surplus of fat energy in the high carbohydrate diet
* A high carbohydrate diet may provide some protection against fact accumulation in active individuals with frequent sedentary days This article was prepared by Health & Medicine Week editors from staff and other reports.
©Copyright 2000, Health & Medicine Week via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net
Click here for additional articles on Complementary and Alternative Medicine
