OBESITY: If your diet fails, try again, your heart will thank you

 The long-term effects of adopting and then abandoning healthy eating habits and the effects of so-called “yo-yo” diets on cardiovascular disease are unknown. It is generally thought that this phenomenon of weight change in overweight people - in the same way as stopping and then resuming smoking - is perhaps more damaging to long-term health than maintaining an unhealthy behavior (? ). This study from Purdue University answers this question: its data, presented in the journal Nutrients, confirms that fluctuations in diet lead to a fluctuation in the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Thus, risk factors for cardiovascular disease closely follow changes in eating habits, shows this study conducted by Wayne Campbell of Purdue University. And our weight isn't the only aspect of our health that can fluctuate with our diet: “Even in the short term, your food choices influence your cardiovascular and metabolic health outcomes,” the author points out.

While failure of a weight loss diet is not uncommon , many patients make multiple attempts at adopting healthy eating habits and don't stick with them. So to assess the impact of these dietary fluctuations on risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, the team reanalyzed data from 2 of its previous studies whose participants had adopted either a DASH -style diet (against hypertension) or a Mediterranean -style diet. Participants had adopted one of the diets for 4-5 weeks, then resumed their old eating habits for 4 weeks and then resumed their diet again.

Cardiovascular “roller coasters” appear on analysis, which simultaneously follow fluctuations in eating habits. What's glaring, the researchers point out, is how quickly participants' health improves after adopting a healthier diet. But it is also the speed with which health deteriorates with an unhealthy diet: it only takes a few weeks to generate hypertension and cholesterol.

If we look at this data in a positive way – and this is the angle adopted by the researchers”, these results rather encourage to try again in the event of failure. Because the body does not seem to become resistant to the beneficial effects of a healthy diet, just because the attempt did not succeed the first time.

Admittedly, the best option is to stick to a long-term healthy diet, "but if you slip, pick yourself up again."