Study: Carbohydrates Cause Weight Gain, Not Fat

For the longest time, the general belief has been that fatty foods promote weight gain. In fact, many dieticians create diet plans specifically around the reduction of fat. However, there's new evidence suggesting that carbohydrates are the prime cause of weight gain.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, which involves more than 135,000 men and women spanning five continents and 18 countries. Al participants were asked questions about their diet and health, with researchers following them for seven-and-a-half years. Researchers discovered that participants who consumed a moderate intake of fat, fruits and vegetables while limiting their consumption of carbohydrates were less likely to die than their counterparts who consumed a higher amount of carbohydrates.

What's really surprising is that high-fat diets didn't necessarily correlate to an increased risk of death. On the contrary, participants who consumed 35% or more of their energy from fats actually had a lower risk of death than participants who consumed less fat in their diet. But participants who consumed 60% or more of their energy from carbohydrates had a higher risk of death from all causes.

This doesn't necessarily mean that carbohydrates will give you heart disease. While this study found a direct correlation between high-carbohydrate diets and overall mortality, it didn't a find connection between carbohydrates and heart disease. In other words, participants who consumed a high-carbohydrate diet had the same risk of heart disease as their counterparts with a low-carbohydrate diet.

"A decrease in fat intake automatically led to an increase in carbohydrate consumption and our findings may explain why certain populations such as South Asians, who do not consume much fat but consume a lot of carbohydrates, have higher mortality rates," said the study's lead author.

As you may already know, carbohydrates are the sugars, starches and fibers found in foods. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), carbohydrates are the body's main source of energy. It's important to note, however, that not all carbs are bad. Just like there are good and bad fats (e.g. polyunsaturated and trans fats, respectively), there are also good and bad carbs. Good carbs consist of fruits, legumes, sweet potatoes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, whereas bad carbs are white bread, white pasta, sugar-fortified cereal and soda.

This study was published in The Lancet.