Studies presented at a meeting of the Obesity Society in Boston have suggested that water helps weight loss and low-fat foods may hinder it.
The first study, which analyzed data from 240 overweight women, aged 25 to 50 and using popular carbohydrate-limiting diet plans, found that dieters who replaced all the sugary drinks in their diets with water lost an average of 5 pounds more a year than dieters who continued to consume the beverages, USA Today reported Wednesday.
The second study, by Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab in Ithaca, N.Y., suggested that people tend to consume greater amounts of a food product if it is labeled "law fat," often consuming amounts high enough to negate the difference in health benefits.
Cornell's Brian Wansink and his team offered two bowls of M&M's chocolate candy to 250 open house attendees. People of normal weight who were offered the bowl claiming to be low fat consumed an average of eight candies more than those offered the regular version and overweight people consumed an average of 23 more when offered the bowl labeled low-fat.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
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