Peas, potatoes and cabbage also recorded weight gains, while berries, apples pears, cauliflower and lettuce recorded weight loss.
Advertisement
The longitudinal study, conducted by Monica Bertoia of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues, shows differences by type of fruit or vegetable, suggesting that characteristics of these foods influence the strength of their association with weight change. It will cause a loss of 0.34lbs over four years, which will come as a shock to those who believe the old wives’ tale that munching it cuts flab as the body uses more energy to digest it than it receives from it.
Eating more fruits and non-starchy vegetables such as artichoke, avocado, asparagus and cucumber leads to weight loss, according to a massive new study analyzing the effect of each one. Though both contain some starch, people who boosted their intake of soy products during the study period reaped substantial protection against weight gain.
But new research has found that when it comes to weight loss, not all fruits and vegetables are created equal.
The researchers found that increasing the amount of fruits and non-starchy vegetables consumed every day decreased the chances of weight gain.
Fruits and vegetables are rich with nutrients, although they differ in their levels of fiber and glycemic load.
Bertoia admits her results might not apply on a general scale due to a homogenous sample consisting nearly entirely of well-educated white adults.
Those who boosted their consumption of peaches, plums and apricots were the only class of fruit-eaters to gain modestly.
Another dietitian said eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is always a good idea.
The pattern was changed when participants revealed an up tick in their intake of cooked, boiled and crushed maize, potatoes and beans.
Researchers at Harvard University also list peas as one dieters should think carefully about consuming, with potatoes an unsurprising entry at number three.
Advertisement
Some of the magic conferred by these fruits and vegetables may lie in their polyphenol content, the plant-based phytochemicals that reduce the damage caused by oxidation in our cells. Another analysis by the study found that replacing 5 percent of calories from other foods with 5 percent of calories from fruits and vegetables over four years was linked with about a pound of weight loss. I was always told that you have to boost your leafy greens – not a generic “vegetables” – intake for improved health.
