Harvard Researchers Identify Foods Linked With Weight Gain Over Time, Foods Linked With Less Weight Gain
June 22, 2011 -- Avoiding weight gain as you age isn't impossible, after all.
If you yearn to be among those who sail through the years without picking up a pound for each birthday, Harvard doctors have a game plan for you. And it goes far beyond the old "eat less, exercise more" mantra.
Reducing your intake of specific foods, sleeping 6 to 8 hours nightly, getting some exercise, and turning off the TV all predicted less weight gain with time, they found.
They also found five foods strongly linked with weight gain and five others linked with less than average weight gain.
''The message here is that the type and quality of food and beverage one eats are incredibly important," says researcher Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The new research, he says, ''shows how multiple lifestyle factors, including diet, were related to long-term weight gain."
The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Avoiding Weight Gain: Study Details
The researchers wanted to focus on what leads to long-term weight gain and why the average adult gains about a pound a year.
They tracked 120,000 participants in three studies, the Nurses' Health Study, the Nurses' Health Study II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Every four years, they evaluated the links between changes in lifestyle habits and weight.
On average, the study participants gained an average of 3.35 pounds over each four-year period. That added up to nearly 17 pounds after 20 years. At the start of the three studies, the men and women's average ages were 37, 50, and 52.
5 Foods That Make You Fat; 5 That Don't
When the researchers looked more closely, they found five foods associated with the greatest weight gain over the study period:
- Potato chips
- Other potatoes
- Sugar-sweetened beverages
- Unprocessed red meats
- Processed meats
They also found five foods linked with less gain and even weight loss:
- Whole grains