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Home » Diets that Work » Obese kids have hard time sticking to low-carb diet

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When it comes to managing children's obesity, cutting portion sizes and cutting carbohydrates can work equally well -- though carb control is tough for many kids, a new clinical trial finds.

Many adults have tried to win the battle of the bulge by shunning carbohydrates, especially highly refined or starchy carbs like white bread and potatoes.

But much less has been known about how those eating plans work for kids, including whether they are safe and nutritionally sound -- since low-carb diets tend to be relatively high in fat.

For the new study, researchers randomly assigned 100 obese 7- to 12-year-olds to one of three eating plans: one that followed the conventional wisdom of portion control; a low-carb diet; or a "reduced glycemic load" plan that cut down on certain carbs that typically cause surges in blood sugar -- like white bread, sweets and white potatoes.

Over one year, all three plans worked equally well in controlling kids' weight gain. The difference, researchers found, was that the low-carb plan was tough to stick with.

"All of these plans can work," said lead researcher Shelley Kirk, of the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

"But the low-carbohydrate one was really challenging for kids to follow," Kirk told Reuters Health. The diet still helped control kids' weight, she said, because they followed it to an extent -- reducing carbs and calories, but not to the strict limits of the low-carb plan.

All of that, Kirk said, suggests that a modified version of low-carb could work well for at least some kids.

And the diet based on reduced glycemic load was essentially that: Certain carbs were "unrestricted" -- including fruit, vegetables low in starch and 100-percent whole grains. More limits were placed on starchy carbs, but they were still allowed.

Over one year, children in all three diet groups had similar improvements in their body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height, after accounting for the fact that they were still growing.

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Obese kids have hard time sticking to low-carb diet

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Home » Diets that Work » Obese kids have hard time sticking to low-carb diet