Vegetarian Diets: Eat as Much as You Want & Still Lose Weight

By Melinda Smith
Washington, DC
11 May 2006

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-05-11-voa48.cfm

It seems too good to be true. Eat as much as you want
and still lose weight? That's the conclusion of a
group of health experts who say a vegetarian diet is
just the ticket for losing those unwanted pounds or
kilos. But others say a side order of common sense
goes along with it.

Hamburgers and french fries ... staples of what's
called the "Western diet". Quick ... easy ... often
cheap ... and very fattening. This calorie-rich diet
has become one of America's most successful exports.
McDonald's and other fast food restaurants are popping
up in China and elsewhere, and health experts lay much
of the blame for a worldwide problem of obesity at
their doorsteps.

Obesity is a serious health problem in the United
States. Fad diets that guarantee weight loss often
make headlines. But one of the latest studies to grab
attention supports the old-fashioned notion that if
you eat your fruits and vegetables, you can lose
weight.

Washington dietitian Susan Levin is with the
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which
conducted the research. She says the diet is simple:
just whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes.
"Those are the four food groups that a plant-based
diet should be built around and those food groups are
so high in fiber and typically low in calories and low
in fat that you don't have to think about quantity."

But Washington nutritionist Janet Zalman is concerned
about the reality of sticking to this kind of diet. "I
think that's for most busy people in major cities
pretty impractical because there's no way you can
really eat in any kind of restaurant and do it in an
effective way, because everything is going to have
some butter, some cheese, and I think only having
fruits, vegetables, grains and some nuts is going to
be a plan that you're really going to be hungry."

Susan Levin agrees that even a vegetarian has to watch
out for the fat. "You don't want to eat things like a
lot of olive oil ... a lot of cheese ... a lot of
anything that's high in fat, because that's where you
get in trouble."

Butter and cheese are what separate the vegetarians
from the vegans, says Gail Naftalin, who runs a
vegetarian catering company in Wheaton, Maryland.

As a vegan, she doesn't eat dairy products and finds
other sources of calcium in leafy green vegetables,
like kale. Gail believes the nutritional balance in
her diet can be found in the colors of what's on her
plate. "So that if you even think about it in terms of
colors, you know ... 'have I had some green things,
some orange things, some yellow things,' you can get
your nutrients very well satisfied that way."

With the growing concern about obesity and related
problems of heart disease and diabetes, Americans are
becoming more particular about what they buy. Frozen
vegetables from the grocery store may be more
convenient, but Gail Naftalin says fresh produce from
the local farmers' market has more appeal:

"Local ingredients that haven't had to be trucked
across the country and seasonal ingredients that are
growing now -- and that's the food that people really
enjoy the most."

So, what is the food you enjoy the most? Gail
Naftalin believes variety is the spice of healthy
eating. "Meat eaters certainly can eat vegetarian
food, whereas if you have something with meat or
chicken stock, the vegetarians won't eat it. So it's
a nice safe route to go and it's healthy and it's
setting a good example."

Setting a good example can be critically important to
your health. A British study of 500,000 people in 10
countries has shown that a high fat diet is second
only to tobacco as a leading cause of cancer, and when
combined with alcohol, accounts for almost one third
of the cancer rate in developed countries.