Following on from our report on the European intervention into our dietary habits - the Diogenes Project, preliminary results from the study were announced today at the European Congress of Obesity.

Search for the Ideal Diet
The Diogenes Project is a pan-European study working towards lower obesity rates in Europe. It aims to finding a diet or diet-trend that will help people keep weight off in the long term. The project was funded by the EU Commission and is currently testing people in 8 centres around Europe to see, after 6 months, which one of five diets yields the best results at maintaining weight loss.

To re-cap, the five diets were:
Group 1: Low Protein, Low glycemic Index.
Group 2: Low Protein, High glycemic Index.
Group 3: High Protein, Low glycemic Index.
Group 4: High Protein, High glycemic Index.
Group 5: Control Diet - medium protein and medium glycemic index.

High Protein Diet Best
Two of the 8 test centres, one in Copenhagen, Denmark and one in Maastricht, Netherlands have produced results which indicate that a diet high in protein is the most effective for maintaining weight after significant weight loss.

The 205 participants in these two test centres were randomly selected to undertake one of the five diets, and it was found that the high protein diets yielded the most lasting results, however the GI factors were found not to have a significant impact.

Weight Control Difficult
Researcher Arne Astrup from the University of Copenhagen stated in closing that, "Most of us can lose weight if we set our minds to it – but we are not so good at keeping it off, a factor fuelling the global obesity epidemic. The Diogenes study is designed to provide clear messages to European consumers on which diet is likely to be the most successful for weight control – and our preliminary data point clearly to high protein intake rather than low or high GI food intake."

We are now awaiting the results from the other 6 test centres, but unfortunately these will not be made available until the next European Congress of Obesity in Amsterdam, May 5th-6th 2009.