A new pioneering study comparing popular diets has shown that a plant-based diet is more effective for weight loss than the Mediterranean diet. The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, found that a low-fat plant-based diet yielded better results in terms of weight, body composition, insulin sensitivity, and blood cholesterol levels compared to the Mediterranean diet and other diets.
In the study, researchers randomly selected participants who were overweight and had no history of diabetes. They were asked to follow either a plant-based diet or the Mediterranean diet for 16 weeks. Half of the participants began a low-fat plant-based diet that excluded animal products and focused on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, while the other half followed the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, low-fat dairy products, and extra virgin olive oil, while limiting or avoiding red meat and saturated fats. Additionally, neither group had a calorie limit, and participants did not change their exercise or medication routines unless advised by their doctors for health reasons. Afterward, participants returned to their baseline diet for four weeks before switching to the alternate diet for an additional 16 weeks.
The plant-based diet results showed that within 16 weeks of following each diet:
- Participants lost an average of 6 kilograms while on the plant-based diet, compared to no average change in weight on the Mediterranean diet.
- Participants lost 3.4 kilograms of fat mass while on the plant-based diet.
- Participants noted a greater decrease in visceral fat, with a reduction of 315 cubic centimeters while on the plant-based diet.
- The plant-based diet reduced total cholesterol and harmful cholesterol levels by 18.7 mg/dL and 15.3 mg/dL, respectively, while there were no significant changes in cholesterol levels on the Mediterranean diet.
- Blood pressure decreased for participants on both diets, but it dropped more significantly on the Mediterranean diet compared to the plant-based diet.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Hana Kahleova, director of clinical research for the Physicians Committee, stated, "Previous studies have indicated that both the Mediterranean diet and the plant-based diet improve body weight and reduce cardiovascular metabolic risk factors, but until now, their relative efficacy had not been compared in such a randomized trial. We decided to compare the diets head-to-head and found that the plant-based diet was more effective in improving health indicators and weight loss."
