Low-fat regimen isn't always best.

As the U.S. Department of Agriculture begins to establish new dietary guidelines for the year 2000, a University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, study suggests Low-fat diets aren't always the most healthy. "Fat is back," maintains Adam Drewnowski, director of the Human Nutrition Program at the university's School of Public Health. While most nutrition experts continue to recommend Low-fat diets that are high in vegetables and fruit, dieters are making the most of meat, chocolate, and ice cream. The latest diets for weight loss have skipped starches in favor of more protein and fat.

"Diversity and variety contribute as much to diet quality as does Low fat content," Drewnowski points out. "A monotonous diet of two or three Low-fat foods may do wonders for your cholesterol levels, but will do nothing for your mental health or your quality of life. The premier USDA recommendation is to enjoy a variety of foods. That is the one guideline that we should follow. As nutrition experts, we should recognize that some fat in the diet is not necessarily a bad thing."

The researchers, in exploring new ways to measure diet quality, examined the eating habits of 1,637 men and 1,576 women in the U.S. based on diversity (consuming foods from the five major food groups), variety (total number of foods consumed per day), and moderation (following USDA food guideline.) They compared the results with a 1995-96 study in Paris of the eating dietary habits of 5,000 French adults.

The French men and women ate more foods higher in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol than Americans did. The typical French diet met few of the USDA...