(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm SarahLong.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Doug Johnson. Coming up,new evidence in support of a weight-loss method.

VOICE ONE:

A new plan to try to get more people around the world to loseweight.

VOICE TWO:

And, a new drug in the fight against another big problem:malaria.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

Many people who try to lose weight know that no diet is perfect.But two new studies show that a diet low in carbohydrates can causefaster weight loss than a diet low in fats. This was true at leastin the short term. Researchers published the findings in the Annalsof Internal Medicine.

The studies appear to support popular low-carbohydrate plans likethe Atkins diet. Doctor Robert Atkins urged people to eathigh-protein foods like meat and eggs. He told dieters to avoidfoods high in starch and sugar. Doctor Atkins died last year. Hefell on an icy street in New York and suffered a head injury. He wasseventy-two years old.

VOICE TWO:

Our body uses carbohydrates for energy. It can also make energyfrom protein and fat. But proteins generally make people feel moresatisfied with less food than carbohydrates do. This is one of themain arguments for a low-carb diet to lose weight.

One of the new studies took place at Duke University MedicalCenter in Durham, North Carolina. The Robert C. Atkins Foundationpaid for the study but was not involved in the research. Thisorganization works to get more people to follow the doctor's ideas.

One-hundred-twenty overweight adults took part in the study. Theywere between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five. They followedeither the Atkins plan or a low-fat diet for one year.

After six months, the people on the Atkins diet lost an averageof eleven kilograms. Those on the low-fat diet lost an average ofsix kilograms.

VOICE ONE:

The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, did the second study. This study did not involve theAtkins Foundation.

One-hundred-thirty-two adults took part. Most had diabetes. Theresearchers put half the people on a low-carb diet. The other halffollowed a low-fat diet.

After one year, the low-carb dieters had lost on average as muchas eight kilograms. Yet the low-fat dieters lost about the sameamount.

What happened? The low-carb dieters lost weight faster in thebeginning. But the low-fat dieters lost weight throughout the year.However, the study found that the people with diabetes controlledtheir blood sugar better with low carbohydrates.

The new research also found that triglyceride levels fell more onthe low-carb diet than on the low-fat plan. Triglycerides are fatsin the blood that can increase the risk of heart disease.

Levels of so-called good cholesterol also appeared to improvewith the low-carb diet. Higher levels of good cholesterol may reducethe risk of heart disease. But levels of bad cholesterol did go upin some people.

VOICE TWO:

Doctor Walter Willett is a nutrition expert at the Harvard Schoolof Public Health. Doctor Willett wrote a commentary on the twostudies. In his words, "we can no longer dismiss very-lowcarbohydrate diets." He says Doctor Atkins should get "credit forhis observations that many people can control their weight bygreatly reducing carbohydrates."

But other health experts are not satisfied. They want moreresearch done to learn the effects of following the Atkins diet forlong periods of time. They warn that people who eat a lot of fat maygive themselves a heart attack. And they question how good it is forpeople not to eat things like fruit.

VOICE ONE:

The Atkins diet and other low-carbohydrate plans have had a bigeffect on the food industry. Stores sell lots of new low-carb foodsas well as lower-carb versions of breads and pastas. But supportersof the Atkins diet say people should not use it as an excuse to fillthemselves with fatty foods.

Marketers of the eating plan have been doing more lately to tryto explain it to people. They say proteins such as poultry, fish,beef, pork and soy products should be the largest part of whatpeople eat. But they say the next largest part should be greenvegetables. After that, the plan calls for smaller amounts offruits, oils, nuts, cheese and beans. The Atkins advice is that thesmallest part of what people eat should be whole grain foods such asbarley, oats and brown rice.

VOICE TWO:

But, to lose weight, it says eating should center on protein,leafy vegetables and healthy oils.

Last week the New York Times reported what it said was apparentlythe first legal action against the Atkins diet. A Florida man saidhe suffered a blocked artery from high cholesterol after two yearson the diet. He asked for twenty-eight-thousand dollars. The AtkinsNutritionals company said the case was part of an effort to scarepeople into not eating any animal protein.

You're listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Low-carbohydrate diets or not, more people than ever weigh toomuch. The World Health Organization says this is a serious problem.It says the opposite problem, hunger, affects abouteight-hundred-fifty-million people. But more thanone-thousand-million are overweight. And that just counts adults. Atleast three-hundred-million adults are obese, severely overweight.

Health ministers around the world now have a plan called theGlobal Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. They approvedit in late May at the meeting of the World Health Assembly inGeneva.

VOICE TWO:

The plan urges people to eat less saturated fats and trans fattyacids. Food products often list trans fats under the name "partiallyhydrogenated" oil. The plan also urges people to eat less salt andsugar, and more fruits and vegetables. It calls for more physicalactivity. And it suggests that governments restrict foodadvertising, especially messages aimed at children.

The plan took two years to develop. The sugar industry andseveral sugar-producing nations had objected to earlier proposals.They wanted to remove any discussion about limits on sugar. Somesugar producing nations feared that their farmers would be hurt bythe new strategy.

VOICE ONE:

The director general of the W.H.O., Lee Jong-wook, praised thestrategy as a major success in public health policy. He said it willprovide countries with a powerful tool to fight diseases caused byobesity.

Health officials say poor diet and lack of exercise are among theleading causes of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. They saythese kinds of diseases now cause about sixty percent of deathsworldwide.

In the United States, the government estimates that one in threeadults is obese. But health officials warn that the problem isspreading in developing nations as they gain more wealth.

And the problem is not just among adults. A group called theInternational Obesity Task Force estimates that one in ten childrenworldwide is overweight or obese.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Another big problem in the world is malaria. The World HealthOrganization estimates that about three-million people a year becomeinfected with this disease. About one-million of them die. Most ofthe deaths are in Africa. Young children and pregnant women sufferthe most.

Now, the United Nations has given its support to another drug tofight malaria. It is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine calledartemisinin (are-TEM-is-in-in). This drug comes from a plant calledthe sweet wormwood. Chinese researchers discovered artemisinin morethan thirty years ago. Tests took place in the earlynineteen-nineties in Vietnam.

Malaria spreads through mosquito bites. New drugs are neededbecause the parasites that cause the infection develop resistance.Health experts hope to prevent resistance to artemisinin by givingthe drug in combination with other medicines.

VOICE TWO:

But experts also warn against the overuse of malaria drugs bypeople who do not have the disease. They say that sick people oftenmistake influenza or other diseases for malaria and takeanti-malaria medicine. This can add to the problem of drugresistance. There are home tests for malaria. Health experts saygreater use of these tests could help make sure people take malariadrugs only when they really need them.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk wasour producer. This is Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for more newsabout science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.