By
Luisa Dillner
Will eating more fruit and vegetables make me thin?
Want to get thin? Eat more fruit and vegetables – they’re a low-calorie
way of filling up, right? The health site WebMD has “eat more fruit and
vegetables” as one of its “22 best diet tips ever” and the next US Dietary
Guidelines are likely to push a “healthy Mediterranean-style diet”, big on
plant-based food, to avoid more people becoming super-sized. But dietary advice
being notoriously fickle, a research paper in this month’s PLOS Medicine says
that eating more fruit and vegetables doesn’t necessarily help weight loss: it
depends which ones you eat. Eating starchy vegetables such as corn and potatoes
(boiled, mashed or baked – the amount of butter added unknown) was linked to
weight gain. Eating more high-fibre, lower-glycemic vegetables such as broccoli
and brussels sprouts was associated with weight loss. Lower-glycemic foods do
not raise blood sugar levels as much as higher ones. So should you stick to
non-starchy vegetables and is most fruit still a slimming aid?
The solution
The study, from Harvard University, looked at changes in the intake of
specific fruit and vegetables recorded in the dietary questionnaires of 133,468
US men and women over 24 years. It took into account other lifestyle factors
that affect weight, such as smoking, amount of sleep, hours watching television
and exercise. Dr Monica L Bertoia, the lead author, says that, in America, the
most common choices of fruit and vegetables are orange juice and potatoes.
“There are many fruits and vegetables that may be better choices for the
prevention of weight gain, such as apples, pears, berries and non-starchy
vegetables,” she says.
The idea of eating more fruit and vegetables to lose weight only works
if you eat less of something else – all calories count. A study last year from
the University of Alabama, looking at previous research on weight loss and
increased fruit and vegetable intake in more than 1,200 people, found that
people who didn’t reduce their calorie intake overall did not lose weight.
Different fruit and vegetables have different characteristics –
lower-glycemic foods cause fewer and smaller blood sugar spikes and may reduce
hunger. So if you want high-fibre, low-glycemic fruit, go for blueberries and
avocados. Strawberries are low on fibre but good on the low-glycemic scale, as
is grapefruit – unless you pour sugar on it. Pears and apples came out well,
even though they have a high-glycemic index – their higher fibre may
compensate. For vegetables, try sprouts (without crispy bacon), broccoli, tofu,
cauliflower and sweet potatoes or yams rather than potatoes. But remember, they
all still have calories.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/04/eating-more-fruit-and-veg-doesnt-always-help-you-lose-weight
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