User:Zpzant/sandbox

1.Hi Wikipedia! My name is Zac Prizant. And I am a senior at Cornell University, majoring in American Studies. I am interested in the study of low-fat diets compared to low-carb diets in reducing fat and high blood pressure. My hobbies include skiing, freestyle rapping, and mid-distance interval running.

Low-fat diet

(Notes: Regarding the bottom paragraph, the following header seems to be more appropriate--as it keeps with the theme of low-fat diets rather than abruptly switching to low-carb diets out of the blue. The most important additions here are the third and fourth paragraphs. They contain findings from the most recent study on low-fat vs. low-carb diets and are crucial in counterbalancing prior claims that low-carb diets were unanimously better at reducing weight among other things. It would make sense for each of these paragraphs to come at the end of the Wikipedia article, especially the last two body paragraphs [not the annotated bibliography ones] I added my discussion of the following studies in the talk section of the article where another user expressed concern for the lack of PubMed articles on low-fat diets).

The effects of low-fat diets on body fat compared to those of low-carbohydrate diets

A 2013 amalgamation of 13 studies with nearly 1500 participants perpetuated the trend of low-carbohydrate diets being superior to low-fat ones in facilitating weight reduction. Participants who were randomly assigned to very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets (VLCKD) showed decreased body weight, TAG, and diastolic blood pressure in larger quantities than did those on the low-fat diet (LFD). Participants on both diets experienced higher HDL-C cholesterol and lower LDL-C, showing a dietary link to not only weight loss but also cholesterol improvement.

The findings of a 2015 study followed suit. It compared the effects of a very-low-carbohydrate, high-unsaturated fat, low-saturated fat (LC) diet with those of a high-carbohydrate, low-fat (HC) diet on glycemic control and cardiovascular disease risk factors in T2D over the course of 52 weeks in an exclusive sample of obese patients, thus providing insight into how to best address the obese condition. Although both diets achieved substantial weight loss and reduced HbA1c and fasting glucose, the LC diet proved more effective in benefitting blood glucose stability, the lipid profile, and in reducing participants’ need for diabetic medications. This suggested that low-carbohydrate diets were more optimal in managing Type 2 Diabetes than their low-fat counterparts.

However, a more recent randomized trial from February 28, 2018 of 609 participants with normal body mass indexes—57% of whom were women—at Stanford University revealed low-carbohydrate diets and low-fat diets to have nearly identical effects on weight loss over the course of a year—from January 29, 2013 to April 14, 2015. Although researchers instructed the participants to limit respective fat and carbohydrate consumption to 20 grams per day for the first 8 weeks, participants were permitted to gradually increase their intake in the months that followed in increments of 5-15 grams.

By the end of the study, participants on the low-fat diet had reduced their average fat intake from 87 grams per day to 57 grams per day. Likewise, those on the low-carb diet had reduced their average intake from 247 grams per day before the survey started to 132 grams per day. Average weight loss for participants on both the HLF and HLC were approximately the same— -5.3kg for the HLF diet vs. -6.0% for the HLC diet. (This .7kg difference is insignificant on a 95% confidence interval.) Researchers also determined that neither baseline insulin secretion nor genotype pattern played a role in weight loss. For now, it would seem that the dispute between which dietary regimen is optimal remains unsettled.

Annotated Bibliography 1. Nassib Bazera Bueno of the Universidade Federal de Alagoas has conducted several studies on ketogenic diets, iron supplementation, blood sodium levels, and cholesterol. He is still active in nutritional research, having published work on blood cholesterol in hypertensive women as recently as April 15, 2018. In this particular article—one of his first—Bueno and his team sought to determine the role of very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets (VLCKD) in the long-term management of obesity compared to that of conventional low-fat diets. They find that those on the VLCKD achieve greater weight loss.

Bueno NB, de Melo IS, de Oliveira SL, da Rocha Ataide T. “Very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet v. low-fat diet for long-term weight loss: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.” PubMed.gov. May 7, 2013. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23651522

2. Christopher Gardner, Professor and PhD at the Stanford Research Center has been investigating dietary health benefits for the past 20 years. His interventions have ranged from vegetarian diets, soy foods and soy food components, garlic, omega-3 fats/fish oil/flax oil, antioxidants, Ginkgo biloba, to popular weight loss diets. These trials have lasted in duration from 8 weeks to a year. The one in question—low-carb vs. low-fat—began on January 29, 2013 to determine in a randomized trial of 609 participants the respective effects of each diet on weight loss as well as the auxiliary effects of genotype and insulin base level. Gardner and his colleagues find that both diets are equally effective at facilitating weight loss and that insulin base level and genotype have no effect on weight loss.

Gardner, Christopher PhD; John F. Trepanowski, PhD1; Liana C. Del Gobbo, PhD1; et al “Effect of Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults and the Association With Genotype Pattern or Insulin Secretion.” JAMA Network. Feb. 20, 2018. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2673150?redirect=true

3. Tay J has conducted several studies in the fields of carbohydrate diets along with different combinations of high unsaturated fat diets and low carbohydrate diets from as early as 2008 to 2018. Most of his studies deal with obese participants including this one. This publication was designed to compare the effects of a very-low-carbohydrate, high-unsaturated fat, low-saturated fat (LC) diet with those of a high-carbohydrate, low-fat (HC) diet on glycemic control and cardiovascular disease risk factors in T2D after 52 weeks. They find that while both diets achieved substantial weight loss and reduced HbA1c and fasting glucose, the LC diet was more effective in improving the lipid profile.

Tay J, Luscombe-Marsh ND, Thompson CH, Noakes M, Buckley JD, Wittert GA, Yancy WS Jr, Brinkworth GD. “Comparison of low- and high-carbohydrate diets for type 2 diabetes management: a randomized trial.” PubMed.gov. July 29, 2015. Accessed April 28, 2018. https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.proxy.library.cornell.edu/pubmed/26224300