Wednesday, April 8, 2009

7 Foods That Affect Weight Loss

According to NIH statistics about 133.6 million or two-third of Americans were overweight or obese in 2006. Being overweight is linked to several health maladies such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers and high blood pressure to name a few.

Foods, while not the only reason contributing to excess weight gain do have a significant role to play. Other means used achieve weight change include whole food supplements, weight loss pills, physical exercise, dieting etc.

The following is a run-through of how some edibles affect weight loss or weight gain.

1. Calcium – Increasing the intake of calcium can set-off weight loss. This is the conclusion of a study that included a 15-week weight loss program, at the end of which the obese participants who consumed calcium tablets lost about 6 kg, while those who didn't lost just 1 kg. However, this worked only in people whose diets were deficient in calcium (British Journal of Nutrition, April 2009).

2. Chewing Gums – Sorbitol is the main ingredient in many sugar-free chewing gums, and it is also associated with dangerous weight loss. This was discovered after studying two patients who suffered chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and too much weight loss, which was pinned down to eating too many chewing gums with sorbitol (British Medical Journal 'BMJ', January 2008).

But in another study, chewing gums reduced weight in a seemingly harmless way. Eating a chewing gum before an afternoon snack led to reduced food cravings via promoting fullness, and an overall reduced calorie intake, up to 25 calories. (A research presentation, 2007 Annual Scientific Meeting of The Obesity Society)

3. Grapefruit Diet – Simply supplementing your diet with grapefruit and grapefruit juice can lead to weight loss. The participants in the study who ate just half a grapefruit with a meal lost 3.6 pounds. Further, drinking grapefruit juice had a similar effect, with the participants losing 3.3 pounds ('Grapefruit Diet' study, Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center at Scripps Clinic, 2004).

4. Fructose – A reduced intake of fructose can aid weight loss. Fructose is a kind of sugar that can be quickly turned into body fat. Fruits are a good source of fructose, but so are many processed foods and the sweetener high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS, which is used in many processed foods. (Journal of Nutrition, July 2008).

5. Beverages – There's a stronger link between liquid calorie intake (e.g. beverages) and weight change than is between solid calorie intake (e.g. bread) and weight change. And that a reduction in liquid calorie intake is positively associated with weight loss (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 'AJCN', April, 2009).

6. Dairy Products - Dairy products don't help people lose weight. This was the conclusion of evidence collected from 49 clinical trials from 1966 to 2007 that tested whether milk, and dairy products had an effect on body weight and BMI (Nutrition Reviews, May 2008).

7. Eggs - When two eggs were consumed for breakfast, as part of a reduced-calorie diet, the weight loss in overweight adults more, compared to those who ate a bagel breakfast containing an equal number of calories (International Journal of Obesity, August 2008).

Since, it's well-known that excess body weight is associated with many diseases, it appears profitable to invest time and money in weight loss, at least it's better than spending money on medical drugs used to treat excess weight related disorders.

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1 comment:

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