Daily HealthBeat Tip

Was it the carbs?

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Some diet backers say carbs make you put on weight. But a look at the experiences of more than 48,000 people tells a different story.

The researchers studied postmenopausal women on a low-fat diet in the National Institute of Health's Women's Health Initiative trial on diet and cancer. The study was in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Barbara Howard of the MedStar Research Institute in Washington, D.C.:

"Our study shows that increasing carbohydrate as we did it, with an emphasis on vegetables and fruits and grains, in fact does not promote weight gain." (10 seconds)

Instead, women who substituted carbs for fat lost an average of almost five pounds the first year � and kept much of it off over seven and one half years of follow-up.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: January 31, 2005

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