Effect on weight of a homemade diet in women with overweight or obesity: A randomized controlled trial

The official dietetic guidelines for weight loss include the practice of “healthy eating”. However, such recommendations rarely take into account the cultural context. The aim of the present study was to measure the effect of recommending a traditional homemade diet (exemplified by typical meals consumed in Mexico) vs. recommending an iso-caloric healthy diet (represented by the eatwell plate) on the weight of Mexican women with overweight or obesity. Initially 159 women were randomly assigned to the homemade diet or the healthy diet and 30 women completed the intervention. The effect on weight of the recommended diet at 4, 8 and 12 weeks was determined by one-way analysis of variance and by random regression model. Participants on average reduced weight significantly throughout the intervention without statistical difference between the homemade diet and the healthy diet. This finding supports an anti-obesity strategy of recommending traditional diets in culturally recognised terms.