OBESITY 139
searching. Simply trust your observations on who is slim, vigorous
and healthy, and who is not. Or trust the findings of some impres-
sive research studies, large and small, showing time and time again
that vegetarians and vegans are slimmer than their meat-eating
counterparts. People in these studies who are vegetarian or vegan
are anywhere from five to thirty pounds slimmer than their fellow citi-
zens.^7 - J3
In a separate intervention study, overweight subjects were told to
eat as much as they wanted of foods that were mostly low-fat, whole-
food and plant-based. In three weeks these people lost an average of
seventeen pounds.^14 At the Pritikin Center, 4,500 patients who had
gone through their three-week program got similar results. By feeding a
mostly plant-based diet and promoting exercise, the Center found that
its clients lost 5.5% of their body weight over three weeks.^15
Published results for still more intervention studies using a low-fat,
whole foods, mostly plant-based diet:
- About two to five pounds lost after twelve daysl6
- About ten pounds lost in three weeksl7. 18
- Sixteen pounds lost over twelve weeksl9
- Twenty-four pounds lost after one year^20
All of these results show that consuming a whole foods, plant-based
diet will help you to lose weight and, furthermore, it can happen quick-
ly. The only question is how much weight you can lose. In most of these
studies, the people who shed the most pounds were those who started
with the most excess weight. 21 After the initial weight loss, the weight
can be kept off for the long term by staying on the diet. Most impor-
tantly, losing weight this way is consistent with long-term health.
Some people, of course, can be on a plant-based diet and still not lose
weight. There are a few very good reasons for this. First and foremost,
losing body weight on a plant-based diet is much less likely to occur if
the diet includes too many refined carbohydrates. Sweets, pastries and
pastas won't do it. These foods are high in readily digested sugars and
starches and, for the pastries, oftentimes very high in fat as well. As
mentioned in chapter four, these highly processed, unnatural foods are
not part of a plant-based diet that works to reduce body weight and pro-
mote health. This is one of the main reasons that I usually refer to the
optimal diet as a whole foods, plant-based diet.
Notice that a strict vegetarian diet is not necessarily the same thing
