Some foods promote weight gain. Others help maintain a healthy weight or even lose pounds.
A series of food categories can make a difference. Beyond their caloric intake, certain foods act on important parameters in weight management:
– the mechanisms of satiety (fibre, etc.),
– the bioavailability of nutrients (nut lipids…)
– the metabolic effects (sugars and abdominal obesity…).
A German team (Heinrich Heine University) has combined the results of around forty large-scale studies, in order to assess the role of different food groups in weight gain or loss.
Foods that make you lose weight
• Whole grains. A 7% reduction in the risk of overweight is observed per slice of 29 g per day. This amount is associated with a 9% decrease in the risk of weight gain over the years, but there is no additional effect beyond 50 g / day.
• Fruits. For 93 g / day, the risk of excess weight is reduced by 7%, while the risk of weight gain over time is lowered by 9% per 93g/day too (no additional effect beyond 300 g / day).
• Walnuts. The risk of abdominal obesity is significantly reduced with 12 g / day, and there is a decrease in the risk of overweight with 12 g / day (the effect is less clear beyond).
• Legumes. They are associated with a 12% reduction in the risk of overweight per slice of 50 g / day.
• Fish. The risk of abdominal obesity decreases linearly until reaching a plateau from 40 g / day: the decrease of the risk then reaches 17%.
Foods that make you gain weight
• Refined cereals. They are associated with overweight and obesity, with an increased risk of 5% per 29 g / day, knowing that this increase starts from 90 g / day.
• The Red meat. For 9124 g/day, it is associated with an increase of % risk of abdominal obesity and an increase of 14% risk of weight gain over time.
• Sugary drinks. For a quantity of 25 cl / day, they are associated with the risk of overweight and obesity (+ 5%) and abdominal obesity (+ 12%). For the latter, the risk increases significantly up to 29 cl / day, then continues to increase but more weakly .
These results put major food categories into perspective with a view to preventing overweight and weight loss. If we can eat everything, it is better to consume a little more of this, and less of that.
