There was a great deal of media buzz around the publication of the results of a major study of different diet plans in the New England Journal of Medicine in February, 2009. The article discussed research conducted with over 800 participants in Boston, Massachusets and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Researchers compared three types of eating plans over a two year period to determine whether a low-fat, low-carbohydrate, or high-protein plan resulted in different weight loss results. Ultimately, what they found was that weight loss (and maintenance) was similar among the three groups, indicating that it's more a matter of how much you eat (or how many calories you expend through activity) that determines weight loss results than the particular eating plan associated with the loss.
The good news about this study is that it suggests you can select an approach to nutrition that is best suited to your personal tastes and schedule, and still lose weight and keep it off, provided your intake of calories is less than your daily expenditure. This means that carbohydrates aren't evil and healthy fats are acceptable and proteins are great in reasonable portions.
The important thing to remember, though, is that the quality of your nutritional intake impacts many other things than weight. So, even though you could choose to eat nothing but candy bars or chips and still lose weight (provided your intake is less than your expenditure), you're not doing your body any favors. A healthy nutritional plan MUST include a range of foods that provide the macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrates) AND the micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) that you need to be healthy.
The simple method of keeping variety in your diet, including a lot of color and fiber, as well as healthy proteins and fats, will give you both the weight results AND the health results you're after.
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