Middle-aged women who choose wholegrain food in favor of white bread and other refined grains tend to put on less weight as they age, say researchers from Harvard School of Public Health. Simin Liu and colleagues studied 74,000 women for 12 years. Results showed that those who ate the most fiber-rich grains gained significantly less weight over the 12-year-long study period than those who ate the least. What’s more, women with the highest fiber intake were 49% less likely to become obese as those with the lowest intake. The results also showed that women whose diets contained the highest levels of refined-grain products, such as white bread and pasta were likely to put on the most weight. The researchers suspect that a wholegrain-rich diet may help to prevent weight gain in several ways. Firstly, wholegrain foods tend to be more filling, thus people who eat wholegrain foods may eat less and thus take in fewer calories. Secondly, wholegrain foods are thought to create a slower, most sustained release of glucose into the blood than refined-grain foods. This is thought to have a beneficial effect upon the metabolism and fat storage. Lastly, wholegrain foods contain enzyme inhibitors that are thought to interfere with metabolic efficiency, thus meaning that the body needs to burn extra calories to digest wholegrain foods.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Am J Clinical Nutrition. 2003;78:920-927.
