TY - JOUR

T1 - The healthful plant-based diet index as a tool for obesity prevention - The healthy lifestyle community program cohort 3 study

AU - Koeder, Christian

AU - Alzughayyar, Dima

AU - Anand, Corinna

AU - Kranz, Ragna Marie

AU - Husain, Sarah

AU - Schoch, Nora

AU - Hahn, Andreas

AU - Englert, Heike

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank all participants, Alwine Kraatz who took part in the investigation, Dr. Norman Bitterlich for his help with statistical analysis, and Dr. Reinhold Gellner for his valuable contributions in the application process for ethical approval and his medical advice during the study. This work was conducted as part of the project “münster.land.leben” and was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Joint Science Conference (GWK) within the program “Innovative Hochschule” (grant number: 03IHS062A). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, writing of the report, or the decision to publish the findings.

PY - 2023/6/5

Y1 - 2023/6/5

N2 - Background: World-wide the prevalence of obesity is high, and promoting a shift toward more healthful and more plant-based dietary patterns appears to be one promising strategy to address this issue. A dietary score to assess adherence to a healthy plant-based diet is the healthful plant-based diet index. While there is evidence from cohort studies that an increased healthful plant-based diet index is associated with improved risk markers, evidence from intervention studies is still lacking. Methods: A lifestyle intervention was conducted with mostly middle-aged and elderly participants from the general population (n = 115). The intervention consisted of a 16-month lifestyle program focusing on a healthy plant-based diet, physical activity, stress management, and community support. Results: After 10 weeks, significant improvements were seen in dietary quality, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, total cholesterol, measured and calculated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, oxidized LDL particles, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, remnant cholesterol, glucose, insulin, blood pressure, and pulse pressure. After 16 months, significant decreases were seen in body weight (−1.8 kg), body mass index (−0.6 kg/m2), and measured LDL cholesterol (−12 mg/dl). Increases in the healthful plant-based diet index were associated with risk marker improvements. Conclusions: The recommendation of moving toward a plant-based diet appears acceptable and actionable and may improve body weight. The healthful plant-based diet index can be a useful parameter for intervention studies.

AB - Background: World-wide the prevalence of obesity is high, and promoting a shift toward more healthful and more plant-based dietary patterns appears to be one promising strategy to address this issue. A dietary score to assess adherence to a healthy plant-based diet is the healthful plant-based diet index. While there is evidence from cohort studies that an increased healthful plant-based diet index is associated with improved risk markers, evidence from intervention studies is still lacking. Methods: A lifestyle intervention was conducted with mostly middle-aged and elderly participants from the general population (n = 115). The intervention consisted of a 16-month lifestyle program focusing on a healthy plant-based diet, physical activity, stress management, and community support. Results: After 10 weeks, significant improvements were seen in dietary quality, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, total cholesterol, measured and calculated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, oxidized LDL particles, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, remnant cholesterol, glucose, insulin, blood pressure, and pulse pressure. After 16 months, significant decreases were seen in body weight (−1.8 kg), body mass index (−0.6 kg/m2), and measured LDL cholesterol (−12 mg/dl). Increases in the healthful plant-based diet index were associated with risk marker improvements. Conclusions: The recommendation of moving toward a plant-based diet appears acceptable and actionable and may improve body weight. The healthful plant-based diet index can be a useful parameter for intervention studies.

KW - cardiovascular disease

KW - healthy diet

KW - lifestyle medicine

KW - obesity prevention

KW - plant-based diet

KW - weight loss

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145195262&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/osp4.649

DO - 10.1002/osp4.649

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85145195262

VL - 9

SP - 296

EP - 304

JO - Obesity Science and Practice

JF - Obesity Science and Practice

IS - 3

ER -