14 DAY TRIAL // It's often said that those looking to shrink their waistline or make their hips a tad less voluptuous than one too many midnight snacks have made them should try and consume more fruits and vegetables.
The bad news for those who are thinking about embracing this piece of advice is that, according to several researchers, simply eating a ginormous bowl of fruits and veggies on a daily basis does not guarantee weight loss.
Thus, specialists with the University of Alabama in the United States say that, more often than not, folks who turn to fruits and vegetables looking to lose weight forget that these types of foods also have calories.
This means that simply including carrots, apples, tomatoes, oranges and the like in one's diet does not necessarily translate into a drop in the caloric intake. On the contrary, it can happen that people actually start consuming more calories.
Consequently, it is highly unlikely that weight loss will occur. The only good news is that, according to these specialists, there is no evidence to indicate that eating more fruits and veggies can make people gain weight rather than get thinner.
“Across the board, all studies we reviewed showed a near-zero effect on weight loss,” researcher Kathryn Kaiser with the University of Alabama's School of Public Health sums up the outcome of her and her colleagues investigation.
“It appears that an increase in servings does not increase weight, which is a good thing for getting more vitamins and fiber in one's diet. This is a good summary of research that has been done,” the researcher goes on to explain, as cited by Live Science.
Kathryn Kaiser and fellow researchers say that, according to evidence at hand, people looking to lose weight must not only up their daily fruit and veggie intake, but also try and reduce their overall calorie content of their meals.
The researchers explain that this can easily be achieved simply by settling for smaller portions than the ones your average Joe or Jane has grown accustomed to, and by opting for foods that have been shown to have a low fat content.
“Fruits and vegetables have many benefits, and we encourage people to include them in their diets. Eat all the vegetables and fruit you want, but you have to cut out more calories from other foods,” stresses specialist David Allison, who also took part in this investigation.
A detailed account of this investigation into how an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption influences weight loss is available in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.