January 26, 1995: Vol26n14: Old diet habits can be changed, study says

By CAITLIN KELLY
News Bureau Staff
It's never too late to start eating healthy. Researchers at UB have
found that intensive nutritional counseling can change poor dietary
habits, even those established over a lifetime.
	More than 70 percent of subjects who volunteered for intensive
dietary counseling met their nutritional goals, which included weight
loss and reduction of saturated fat intake.
	The study, conducted by Marlene R. Ventura, associate chief of
nursing research at the Buffalo VA Medical Center and clinical
professor of nursing at UB; Frances E. Crosby, project staff associate
in the UB School of Nursing, and Mary Louise Grace, a registered
dietitian, was published in the Journal of Health Education.
	Goal of the study was to examine the effects of selected
behavioral interventions on 170 patients at the Buffalo VA Hospital
affected with Peripheral Vascular Disorder (PVD).
	PVD, characterized by insufficient circulation to the
extremities, may be caused by a variety of factors, including
cigarette smoking, hypertension, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
Patients may be advised to reduce weight and serum cholesterol, and
control high blood pressure.
he patients were divided into three
	groups: an intervention group, a placebo group and a control
group. Eighteen of the 57 patients in the intervention group chose to
focus specifically on changing their dietary habits. The researchers
met with them on a regular basis for 18 months to provide
individualized nutritional assessment, direct counseling and
follow-up.
	Dietary counseling can be complex in PVD patients, the
researchers said, because of the number of factors involved in the
disease. In addition, patients often are elderly, with
long-established dietary habits.
	During counseling, the researchers helped patients set
achievable goals by considering each individual's home environment,
food likes and dislikes, and financial parameters.
	"The dietary intervention employed in this study was based on
the premise that dietary habits become established over time, and
nutritional counseling must be tailored meet the needs of each
individual patient," they wrote.
	The intensive counseling program enabled 13 of the 18 patients
to make gradual dietary changes to take control of their dietary
habits and reach their goals, the researchers said.