04/17/2018
Quality Over Quantity
Researchers suggest that we should be paying more attention to the quality of food we eat rather than the amount and that eating more natural foods like fruit, vegetables and nuts is the best way to reach and maintain a healthy weight. The study, carried out by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, all in Boston, was published in the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine. The research included almost 121,000 men and women and looked at lifestyle changes and diet factors in relation to long-term weight gain every 4 years over a 20 year span. Improving one's overall diet instead of counting calories may be more effective for weight control! For instance, nuts - which are high in fat and calories - helped prevent weight gain in this study, while foods that are comparatively low in fat, such as white bread and low-fiber cereal, contributed to weight gain! The study uncovered some other interesting details:- Unhealthy dietary changes caused weight gains of approximately 4 pounds more than the nutritional regimens over the course of 4 years.
- Diets that included an extra serving of chips resulted in an additional weight gain of almost 2 pounds in four years versus diets without the additional serving.
- Diets that included one additional sugar-sweetened beverage resulted in an additional pound in four years over diets that did not.
- Diets that included an extra serving of unprocessed OR processed red meats resulted in an additional pound gain in four years compared to those that did not.
- Diets that included an extra serving of of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, yogurt resulted in varying degress of weight loss.
