Put down those boiled potatoes—unless you want to pack on the pounds
A pile of baked potatoes. Even prepared this way, an additional serving of the tuber is still much worse for your poundage than another serving of nuts.
A new study from Harvard University has examined the individual impact of certain foods on weight gain and made some surprising discoveries: among them, that a serving of potatoes is much worse for your poundage than a serving of nuts. Researchers followed more than 120,000 people over a 20 year period, relying on detailed reports of daily food consumption provided by the participants and measured changes in diet and weight every four years. They found that an additional daily serving of potatoes—even those that were boiled, baked or mashed—caused participants to gain more than a pound every four years, while an additional serving of fruits and vegetables prevented between ¼ and ½ pound of weight gain. White bread proved as likely to make you pack on the pounds as a candy bar. An extra serving of nuts guarded against a ½ pound gain, while a serving of yogurt prevented a whopping 1 pound of fat gain. The study’s discoveries contradict the idea that eating in moderation is the key to weight loss—in fact, what really matters is what kind of calories you eat, even if they are in moderate quantities, since our bodies process various chemicals and nutrients differently. Potatoes may be so unhelpful to our slimming efforts because they contain refined carbohydrates, which cause insulin and blood sugar levels to rise, making us want to eat more. Conversely, yogurt may be so much better because of the workings of its microbes in our digestive tracts. Some hope that this new study will fuel changes in health policy, marketing practices and taxes on items integral to the production of unhealthy menu options. With more than 30% of American children estimated to be obese, many health experts are declaring a public health crisis and demanding greater resources and public awareness for the problem. Can these findings force people to pay more attention to what they put on their plates? And what sort of measures should food manufacturers take to tackle the obesity crisis head on? Finally, what dietary alterations can parents make to ensure their kids’ health?
Guests:
Kelly D. Brownell, PhD, Co-Founder and Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University
Dariush Mozaffarian, Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health
- Patt Morrison for July 8, 2011
- Conservatives don’t want tax increases, Democrats don’t want Social Security cuts: is a “grand bargain” possible?
- Put down those boiled potatoes—unless you want to pack on the pounds
- Comedy Congress, live from the Crawford Family Forum
Also on this episode
Events
Comedy Congress Live
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
7:30 p.m.
- 9 p.m.
Tickets for this event are sold out. Please email Forum Coordinator Jenny Smith at jsmith@kpcc.org to be added to the waitlist. Thank you!
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