Study: Some Fruits and Veggies are Better Than Others
If you were waiting for a time when comparing apples to oranges made sense, then this new study is exactly what you’re looking for.
Researchers followed 133,000 people for about 24 years to see what effect their fruit and vegetable intakes had on their weight. They checked in every four years and started to collect a massive amount of data on if certain fruits and vegetables should be focused on for those of us trying to lose or maintain our weight.
And what did they find? Well, despite what some of us may think, “The benefits of increased consumption were greater for fruits than for vegetables and strongest for berries, apples/pears, tofu/soy, cauliflower, and cruciferous and green leafy vegetables.”
They also found evidence that “increased intake of starchy vegetables such as corn, peas, and potatoes was associated with weight gain.”
And finally, “higher-fiber, lower-glycemic load vegetables (for example, broccoli and Brussels sprouts) were more strongly inversely associated with weight change than lower-fiber, higher-glycemic load vegetables (for example, carrots and cabbage).”
There are some caveats, as per usual. The fruits an vegetables were not fed to these subjects in a lab and their weights were not calculated on some space-age scale that measures down to the nano-ounce, but rather these were dietary questionnaires and the weight was self-reported. Now yes, there were over 130,000 of them so that is why we’re reporting on the study in the first place, but it also may not be as rigorous as you would like when discussing which fruits and veggies to double up on in your grocery cart.
In fact, let’s be honest here — the “worst” foods on here added like half a pound to people over four years. That is, in the grand scheme, not really a worry. With a proper amount of exercise thrown in, don’t trouble yourself fretting over eating enough of the proper kinds of fruits and veggies. If you’re eating them at all instead of Funyuns and Taco Bell, then you’re probably doing just fine.