Okay, that’s not exactly how the study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine reported their findings. But that’s one of the important take-away messages, nonetheless, of the “Randomized Trial Comparing Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrate Composition of Diets for Weight Loss for Two Years.”

In this study, Frank Sacks and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health and at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State assigned a group of overweight adults to one of four different diets, then followed them for two years. Although the diets differed in their ratio of fats, protein, and carbohydrates, all four options were high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables; replaced saturated fats with unsaturated ones; and were low in calories.

And the winner? All four diets showed about the same positive weight loss and improved health, illustrating that Michael Pollan’s prescription to “Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not too Much.” is the key to maintaining your weight and being healthy. You can see the study in The New England Journal of Medicine, 26 February 2009, Volume 360, Number 9, Pages 859-873. (Cynthia)