Reducing fat without reducing calories or weight would prove much easier for the population at large, although we certainly do advocate that people maintain a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise and a nutritious diet. Surwit maintains there is strong evidence that dietary fat is responsible for triggering a variety of diseases in genetically prone individuals. Diets like Pritikin and the Duke Rice Diet have shown that a low-fat diet can reverse heart disease, hypertension and diabetes, among other diseases, he said. Weight loss and nutrition are certainly connected, but they are not inseparable. As an example, Feinglos points toward the difference in how the body metabolizes fats and carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates require burning of energy to convert to fat, whereas fat is converted directly to fat.
He said the current study is the first in humans to test the hypothesis that fat reduction alone can halt or slow diabetes progression. Until now, the medical community has relied on medication, weight loss and exercise to treat the disease. But statistics show that fewer than 5 percent of adults who lose weight are able to keep it off for five years, no matter what weight-loss method they use, and 62 percent of them regain all of their lost weight within five years. While a 10 percent fat content is extraordinarily low, it can be accomplished using foods prepared with a fat substitute like Olestra, reputed to be tasty but having some unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects. Surwit said he will study the prevalance and severity of these side effects as well.