It's probably the last thing you want to do when you are on a diet, but a new study shows that eating more could actually help you lose weight.
Yes, you read that right.
Scientists at Harvard University recently discovered that increasing your daily fruit intake prevents you from gaining weight, even when you are consuming the same amount of calories. They said this has to do with the nutrients found in fruits and vegetables, called flavonoids, which have been linked to weight loss.
To test which flavonoids are most effective, the researchers followed nearly 125,000 participants aged between 27 and 65, monitoring their diet, lifestyle habits, and weight. Figures showed that increasing levels of anthocyanins, flavonoid polymers and flavonols - which are often found in blueberries, strawberries, apples, pears and oranges - had the greatest overall effect. Tea and onions also proved to be beneficial. Every extra portion per day reduced the weight by 100 grams over a four-year period. In a viewpoint, this means that five fruits a day can reduce one's weight by 1.2 pounds or half a kilo over the same time period.
"Our results suggest that choosing high flavonoid fruits and vegetables, such as apples, pears, berries, and peppers, may help with weight control," said Monica Bertoia, of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "These data may help to refine previous dietary recommendations for the prevention of obesity and its potential consequences. Losing even small amounts of weight can improve health," she added.
The study also suggests that not all calories are the same, and that particular types of food may actually prevent fat from being deposited in the body. However, some British experts argued that the results could be tilted by the fact that people who ate more fruit were generally healthier and more educated.
"Consider the type of person who would eats lots of colorful fruit - you can imagine they may be more health conscious, better educated and lead healthy lifestyles in general," said Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow. "It's the foods one chooses in broad concepts that matters, less fat, sugar, salt and more fiber, rather than magical nutrients," the professor added.
Nevertheless, the researchers say that the findings "may help to refine previous dietary recommendations for the prevention of obesity and its potential consequences."
