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Thinking beyond health to motivate dietary change: piloting a vegan healthy eating program for obesity management

This pilot study assessed the feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of a novel approach to facilitating dietary change and weight loss in obese adults by presenting vegan environmental, health and farm animal treatment information in a 6 week, group-based, educational nutrition program (called a vegan healthy eating program). Twenty-nine (29) medically stable, obese adults were recruited from 3 ambulatory care clinics at UCSF and enrolled using partial randomization into one of two serially occurring intervention groups (Group 1 n=14, followed by Group 2 n=15). A delayed intervention control group (n=9) was used, consisting of participants enrolled in Group 2 who were available for collection of baseline measures prior to the start of Group 1s intervention. All intervention participants provided data immediately following their vegan healthy eating program (2 months post baseline) and again at 3 and 9 months post baseline. 10% of initial contacts (29 patients) met inclusion and exclusion criteria and were enrolled; 25 participants were retained at 3 months, 20 at 9 months. Mean intervention session satisfaction as measured by anonymous surveys using a 1-7 Likert scale (1=extremely unsatisfied, 7=extremely satisfied) was 6.2 (SD=1.1). Statistically significant reductions in calories from animal products, percent fat, cholesterol and increases in the recommended food score, fruits and vegetable servings were observed within the intervention group only, at all timepoints. Mean weight change was +2.8 lbs (3.0, n=8, p=0.035) in control participants after 4.3 weeks, and -3.4 lbs (5.0, n=25, p=0.002), -5.9 lbs (7.7, n=25, p=0.001), and -8.8 lbs (14.2, n=20, p=0.012) after 7.3, 15.6 and 41.7 weeks in intervention participants, respectively. In conclusion, this vegan healthy eating program demonstrated good feasibility, high satisfaction, and facilitated a shift towards a plant-based diet and modest, progressive short-term weight loss among intervention participants.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:YALE_med/oai:ymtdl.med.yale.edu:etd-08182004-165845
Date18 August 2004
CreatorsBerman, Mark Alan
ContributorsDavid L. Katz MD
PublisherYale University
Source SetsYale Medical student MD Thesis
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://ymtdl.med.yale.edu/theses/available/etd-08182004-165845/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Yale School of Medicine or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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