Results from the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) clinical trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1997, proved that blood pressures can be effectively lowered by simple changes in diet, without losing weight. Among 133 men and women with high blood pressure, just eating more fruits and vegetables, and consuming low-fat dairy foods with reduced saturated fat, was sufficient to reduce systolic blood pressure by an average of 11.4 mmHg, and diastolic blood pressure by an average of 5.5 mmHg, within two weeks after changing their diets. The reductions in blood pressures were comparable to those observed with initiation of pharmacotherapy—but without the side-effects which sometimes accompany antihypertensive medications. Most significantly, the blood pressure reductions were achieved without any weight loss.
To prove that it's fat in the diet—and not fat on the body—that is the primary cause of blood lipid abnormalities, such as high cholesterol, researchers at the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland, placed 54 middle-aged men and women on a low-fat (-24 per cent of total calories) diet for six weeks. Total cholesterol dropped from 263 mg/dl to 201 mg/dl in the men, and from 239 mg/d1 to 188 mg/cil in the women. Body weight did decrease modestly, by about 2 pounds.
The subjects were then switched back to their usual diet (-.39 per cent of total calories from fat) for six weeks. Total cholesterol levels returned to their original levels—despite absolutely no change in body weight—requiring the researchers to conclude that the fat content of the diet, not weight change, was responsible for the changes in cholesterol levels.
Combined exercise and nutrition programmed have provided even more compelling results, as illustrated by the changes observed in the more than 4,500 men and women who have completed a 3-week stay at the Pitkin Longevity Centre in Santa Monica, California. The Pitkin programmed consists of eating a low-fat, high-complex starch, high-fibre diet (with no emphasis on rapid weight loss) and daily moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise
Within three weeks the average cholesterol level dropped from about 234 mg/dl to about 180 mg/dl; low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (the unhealthy kind) decreased from around 151 mg/dl to 116 mg/dl; and triglycerides were reduced by one-third (from 200 mg/dl down to 135 mg/dl).
Protein programmed participants lowered their blood pressures by an average of 5-10 per cent, and more than one-third of the men and women with high blood pressure were able to discontinue antihypertensive medications. Those with type II (adult onset) diabetes also experienced tremendous improvements: 39 per cent of those taking insulin and 71 per cent of those on oral hypoglycemic agents were able to discontinue medication entirely.
All of these improvements in health profile while on the Pitkin programmed were observed within three weeks. Although participants do lose weight (typically about 5 per cent of their initial body weight), statistical analysis indicates that less than 5 per cent of the improvements in health can be attributed to changes in body weight. Most important to the question at hand is the fact that most men and women who enter the programmed obese leave the programmed obese—but with one major difference: They no longer have the health problems thought to be caused by excess body fat. Just as risk factors for heart disease can be affected by changes in lifestyle independent of changes in body weight the actual disease itself can be influenced by lifestyle modification—without changes in body weight. The results of the Cholesterol Lowering Atherosclerosis Study illustrate. Eighty-two moderately overweight middle-aged men with heart disease were placed in a two-year intervention programmed designed to reduce consumption of dietary fat. Men who reduced their fat intake to 27.5 per cent of total calories showed no new fatty deposits in their coronary vessels (as determined by examination of coronary angiograms taken before and after the two-year study). On the other hand, men who failed to make significant changes in fat intake (34 per cent of total calories from fat) didn't do as well—they all showed some evidence of new lesions in their coronary vessels. Because neither group lost any weight during the two-year study, the researchers concluded, in a 1990 article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that "the appearance of new [coronary artery] lesions can be influenced without weight change by voluntary selection of acceptable foods."
