London, July 29: Fatty acids found in oily fish won’t only make you age slowly, but as a new research has found, will also help keep your weight down and maintain good health - as long as you exercise a bit.
A 12-week trial, conducted by a group of researchers from the University of South Australia led by Professor Peter Howe, on 68 overweight-to-obese adults at risk of coronary disease found that daily doses of oil containing Omega-3 fatty acids, combined with moderate exercise like walking, can result in significant weight loss.
The researchers found that fish oil helps people lose weight by increasing the elasticity of blood vessel walls and improving the flow of blood to muscles while they exercise.
The volunteers were divided into four groups. The first group taking fish oil and exercise, the second taking just fish oil, the third group taking sunflower oil without exercise, and the fourth taking a combination of sunflower oil and exercise.
Professor Peter Howe said that the researchers had found that the group of people taking fish oil combined with exercise lost more weight than any other group.
The researchers noted that the group which took the sunflower oil, which does not contain Omega-3 fatty acids, but who exercised, did not lose any weight, and neither did the two groups which did no exercise including those on fish oil.
"When we divided up a number of people in our research program, we found that those taking fish oil combined with exercise lost significantly more fat mass than any other group in the study," the Daily Mail quoted him, as saying.
Alison Hill, who oversaw the trial, said that the combination of the two had proven to be an extremely effective method of losing weight, with the volunteers having to give up the food they enjoyed.
"If you take the Omega-3 each day and exercise moderately, our studies show your weight will drop. We were very surprised to see it was so effective, especially since these people were still eating whatever they wanted," she said. (ANI)