Research backs up the weight loss benefits of these specific foods (collage: Melanie Haiken; photos public domain)
While there’s no such thing as the perfect diet, there are key foods
that research has shown can help you lose weight. These foods work in
different ways and for different reasons, but all have in common that
people who eat them as part of a weight loss plan lose more weight
faster than those who don’t. Here are 5 foods shown in recent studies to
help the pounds come off more quickly. More foods to come as the
studies come out.
1. Pistachios
These nuts are the perfect snack for the weight-conscious because
they’re high in protein, fiber, and healthy fats. Don’t be fooled by the
“fat” label, either; the fat in pistachios is unsaturated fat, the
brain- and heart-healthy type.
Calorie counts are misleading too; not all calories are created equal.
Researchers from the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition
followed two groups of people on identical low-calorie diets for 12
weeks. One group ate 240 calories worth of pistachios as their afternoon
snack, the other ate 220 calories worth of pretzels. The BMI (body
mass indexes) of the pistachio group showed more improvement, and their
cholesterol and triglyceride levels dropped as well. While shelled
pistachios are more convenient, the longer amount of time required to
shell them yourself makes the snack more satisfying.
2. Mushrooms
The rich, meaty taste and texture makes them an ideal meat
substitute, and cutting out at least some of the meat in your diet can
be a powerful weight loss strategy. Last week a research team from the
Weight Management Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health demonstrated this effect in a
study showing that substituting mushrooms for meat in one meal a day resulted in a significant weight loss.
Researchers followed 73 participants, primarily 40-something women,
for a full year in a randomized trial and found that the mushroom group
was consuming 173 fewer calories and 4.5 grams less fat a day, leading
them to lose an average of 7 pounds each. Let’s note that this study was
funded by the mushroom council; many weight loss food studies are, in
fact, funded by groups representing producers and marketers of that
food.
3. Yogurt
This one’s not news, but the research continues to come in. One of
the most impressive studies on nutrition and weight loss, conducted by
Darius Mozzafarian of Harvard and published in the
New England Journal of Medicine,
found yogurt to be a surprisingly important factor distinguishing
people who maintain their weight as they age and those who gain
relentlessly over time.
Using data from the enormous Nurses Health Study, Mozzafarian and his
team analyzed the eating habits of more than 120,000 people to find
commonalities between those who gained weight as they aged, and those
who maintained their youthful silhouettes. Of all the foods linked with
weight loss, yogurt ranked the highest. (Potato chips and potatoes
themselves came in the highest for weight
gain.) Scientists
don’t know yet why yogurt seems so consistently linked with thinness,
but are looking into the possibility that the healthy gut flora promoted
by yogurt’s beneficial probiotics may play a role. (It’s also possible,
though, that yogurt simply tends to be a staple of the diets of
health-conscious people.)
4. Oat Bran
Oat bran is a key element in the Dukan diet popularized by Kate
Middleton, Jennifer Lopez and others over the past year. In the UK and
Europe, where this diet is a high-profile fad, people carry oat bran
around with them to comply with the diet’s very specific requirement of 3
tablespoons a day. The Dukan Diet has even branded its own oat bran and
oat bran bars. Oat bran has been easy for continental dieters to adopt
because oat bran bars have been in the purses of dieting French women
for decades. (I remember trying the dry zweiback-like bran bars for sale
in the diet sections of French pharmacies in the early 1990s and
wondering how people could stand them.)
So what’s all the fuss, and does oat bran work as promised? In
general, yes, but mainly due to benefits that you can replicate with
other foods. Oat bran is very high in fiber, so it makes you feel full
and aids in speedy elimination. Oat bran, like oats themselves, also
absorbs fats, which is why it’s recommended by doctors to lower
cholesterol. While you’re welcome to try oat bran bars and see if you
like them, you can get much the same benefit by
following my previous advice and eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast every day.
5. Olive Oil
How can a fat help you eat less fat? Because olive oil is
monounsaturated, making it a healthy part of the endlessly recommended
Mediterranean diet. But more specifically because according to
research at the University of Irvine,
the oleic acid in olive oil is transformed in the small intestine into a
compound called OEA (full name oleoylethanolamide) that relieves hunger
and suppresses appetite by sending signals to your brain telling it
you’re full.
Dress all those healthy salads you’re eating as part of your
weight-loss plan with olive oil, and you’ll be doubling the benefit of
all those antioxidant-rich veggies. A full analysis of all of the
health-boosting benefits of olive oil is available from the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition
here.
Do you have more weight loss-friendly foods to add to this list? Please add them in a comment!
For more weight loss strategies that work, follow me on Twitter,
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