One diet in particular, the low-carbohydrate diet, has been a topic of discussion for many years. It's known that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet (aka ketogenic diet) that can be beneficial in protecting children with epileptic seizures; but in this case, the sugar intake needs to be so low that the liver begins converting carbohydrate and fat stores into ketone bodies, which are thought to reduce cases of seizure. However, for the average person looking to lose weight, such an extreme diet is hardly recommended.
In a recent study, it was shown that a low-carbohydrate diet does have some benefits. In a 6 month study, 39 participants were told to choose either a low-carbohydrate vegan (and high-protein/fat from gluten, soy, nuts, and vegetable oil) or a high-carbohydrate (low fat) vegetarian diet. The results showed that the low-carbohydrate diet was slightly more beneficial when it came to weight loss. Of course, the glaring question here is, what kind of biases might the researchers introduce by letting patients "choose their own diet"? Perhaps healthier or more knowledgeable participants just naturally like to choose low-carb diets...but we'll save this discussion for another day.
So what does this all mean? There are way more studies out there on dieting than I could possibly write about - take a look for yourself! I personally don't think that we'll ever have a "miracle" diet, and that awareness and moderation go a long way - but that's just personal opinion.
Sources
1.
Jenkins DJA, Wong JMW, Kendall CWC, Esfahani A, Ng VWY, Leong TCK, et al. Effect of a 6-month vegan low-carbohydrate (’Eco-Atkins’) diet on cardiovascular risk factors and body weight in hyperlipidaemic adults: a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2014;4(2):e003505.
2.
Freeman JM, Kossoff EH, Hartman AL. The Ketogenic Diet: One Decade Later. Pediatrics. 2007 Mar 1;119(3):535–43.
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