Modest weight loss can have lasting health benefits, research shows

I have definitely found sugar to be addictive.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/apa-mwl080212.php

Public release date: 2-Aug-2012
Contact: Audrey Hamilton
American Psychological Association
Modest weight loss can have lasting health benefits, research shows
Food and addiction is emerging issue, says food policy expert

ORLANDO, Fla. – Overweight and obese individuals can achieve a decade's worth of important health benefits by losing just 20 pounds, even if they regain the weight later that decade, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's 120th Annual Convention. With a focus on psychology's role in overcoming the national obesity epidemic, the session also examined research that indicates foods high in sugar and fat could have addictive properties.

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Wing referred to her work from the Diabetes Prevention Program, a national study of 3,000 overweight people with impaired glucose tolerance who were shown how to change their behavior rather than given drugs. It showed that even modest weight loss, an average of 14 pounds, reduced people's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58 percent, she said. What's more, the health benefits of this weight loss lasted up to 10 years, even if people gained the weight back over this time, she said. Participants in the program practiced basic behavioral strategies to help them lose weight, including tracking everything they ate and reducing the amount of unhealthy foods they kept in their home, she said. They also met with coaches frequently and increased their physical activity over the course of the study.

"Helping people find ways to change their eating and activity behaviors and developing interventions other than medication to reinforce a healthy lifestyle have made a huge difference in preventing one of the major health problems in this country," Wing said in an interview. "Weight losses of just 10 percent of a person's body weight (or about 20 pounds in those who weigh 200 pounds) have also been shown to have a long-term impact on sleep apnea, hypertension and quality of life, and to slow the decline in mobility that occurs as people age."

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Brownell focused on the addictive impact of food. "The primary question is whether foods, particularly those high in sugar, act on the brain in ways that create signs of addiction," Brownell said. "Craving and withdrawal signs can be seen in animal and human brain imaging studies conducted by investigators around the world. This could fundamentally change the debate about diet, nutrition and obesity in this country."

If foods have addictive properties, policymakers might be spurred to create laws that would set limits on certain nutrients in food and curtail advertising of these types of foods to children, he said.