Abdominal obesity is related to significant morbidity and mortality and differs by ethnicity; however, the relation between diet and abdominal obesity has not been extensively studied, said the scientists from McMaster University and the University of Toronto in Canada.
Their findings do however seem to support the evidence showing that high protein, low-carbohydrate diets can help with overall weight loss.
The Canadian team carried out a cross-sectional study among 617 Canadians of Aboriginal, South Asian, Chinese, and European origins, with diet evaluated using validated, culture specific, interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaires.
Abdominal obesity was measured as a waist-hip ratio.
The mean proportion of energy intake from protein in the diet was 17.4 per cent for the lowest tertile of waist hip ratios compared to 15.8 per cent for those in the highest tertile, they report in this month's issue of the Journal of Nutrition (issue 135, pp 1196-1201).
Energy-adjusted protein substituted for an equivalent amount of carbohydrate was associated with a reduction in waist-hip ratio after accounting for age, sex, ethnicity, smoking status, BMI, alcohol intake, height, physical activity, and total energy.
Fat or total energy were not related to waist-hip ratio in the same linear regression model.