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Reports: Low-carb has mixed results

Tuesday, May 18, 2004 Posted: 8:55 AM EDT (1255 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Low-carbohydrate diets help people lose weight in the short term but work no better than other diets after a year, researchers reported on Monday.

Two studies of the popular diets that limit sugar and processed starches show they can work faster than some low-fat diets.

Both studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that after six months, the low-carb dieters lost more weight than the low-fat group.

But one of the studies showed that after 12 months, both groups had lost about the same amount of weight.

In one study, a team at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia followed 132 obese adults who were assigned randomly either to a low-carbohydrate diet with intake of less than 30 grams of carbs a day, or a low-calorie diet that kept fat intake at a moderate 30 percent of calories from fat.

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/17/health.diet.reut/index.html

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