Starch and sugar for a slimmer you?

Professor Gaesser has analysed a number of studies which looked at the eating habits and health of hundreds of thousands of men and women and says those who ate lots of carbohydrates were no heavier.

The findings dispute the perception, promoted and reinforced by a number of diets such as the Atkins and GI diets, that cutting the carbohydrates found in bread, cakes and potatoes is vital in the fight against flab.

Professor Gaesser, an obesity expert from the University of Virginia, says contrary to current nutritional thinking, carbohydrates are not fattening and those who feasted on carbohydrates were often thinner and healthier than those who severely limited their intake.

He says there is no reason to be eating fewer carbohydrates as they are not the enemy as cutting them back often led to eating more fatty foods and a weight gain and he believes, along with many other experts, that carbohydrates play an important role in a balanced diet, providing fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

He urges dieters to count calories rather than carbohydrates, and says the key to weight loss is to eat fibre-rich foods, exercise regularly and eat reduced fat dairy products and lean meat.

However, his findings have been questioned by some experts who say animal studies had shown high-carbohydrate diets "convert rapidly into fat".

Nevertheless, Gaesser says eating sandwiches with white bread, or an occasional doughnut, is not going to kill you, or necessarily even lead to obesity. Furthermore, he also looked for links between carbohydrate consumption and illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and found no compelling evidence that avoiding carbohydrates with a high GI (Glycemic Index) helps prevent these diseases and others.

He says people with diabetes, as well as very sedentary women who are obese, may benefit from lowering their consumption of foods with a high GI.

Professor Gaesser says reducing any part of the diet, carbohydrates or proteins or fats, will result in modest weight loss in the short term, if calorie consumption is reduced; but for long-term weight maintenance, a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet is still the best bet.

Gaesser, the author of It's the Calories, Not the Carbs and other books, is a professor of exercise physiology and the director of the kinesiology program in the Curry School of Education.

The article is published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.