For weight loss SC study finds vegan diet most effective
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Susan Reese lost 30 pounds and helped University of South Carolina researchers prove a point. Reese was among the participants in a study to see which kind of diet was best for losing weight. They were more interested in losing weight than backing a hypothesis. Many did both. The study showed a strict vegan diet is more effective for losing weight than a vegetarian diet or those that include fish or red meat. Peer pressure and education about serving sizes and healthy cooking can drive weight loss, too. “The support group was as important as the diet itself for me,” Reese said. Everybody in the study conducted by the Arnold School of Public Health had access to the support groups, the diet education and the healthy recipes. But at the end of six months, the participants on the vegan diet lost more weight than the other groups by an average of 4.3 percent, or 16.5 pounds. The study, published in The International Journal of Applied and Basic Nutritional Sciences, b...