Plant-based olive oil diet (Mary Flynn Ph.D.)

[TanyaRD]

I received a response from Dr. Flynn and will post below. I will follow up and see if she would be interested in doing a teleconference. If so I will pursue that with the board.

I am impressed with her findings overall because weight loss is such a difficult issue for women in general but especially after breast cancer. I do want to point out that this was a very small study with only 28 women completing the initial study. Secondly, the goal of the study was not specific to measuring recurrence rates (such as that found in the WINS trial). However, we know weight gain places one at increased risk for recurrence thus we can conclude (cautiously) that following this eating pattern would in turn decrease recurrence risk. As you will read below funding for additional, larger studies is limited. I would be interested in reviews of the book and recipes from those who have read and used it.

From Dr. Flynn: "thanks for writing, I have attached the study, in case you have not seen it. The information on the FU is in the paper. While it is a small study, I have also been using my diet with men with recurrent prostate CA (small pilot study we are hoping to get more $$ for) and in my clinic work (healthy, CHD, CA, all for weight loss). I consistently have had pts tell me how easy it is to follow and to lose weight (esp. because they are not typically hungry). As the core foods (extra virgin olive oil, vegetables, esp. dark and cruciferous, and whole grain) will improve health it is a lifestyle that can lead to long term weight management. I think the postive outcomes of WINS were primarily due to the weight loss seen in that study (unlike WHEL or WHI).

I would love to get more $$ to study more women and younger women; also to follow for longer time. I did apply for $$ for younger women and was rejected. I am actually hoping the book leads to more funding. As you may know, there are not many grants this day for diet research (a lot for genetics, molecular ~ things you can not change!) but I plan to continue to apply."