Eating more without more calories

Water-rich foods help weight loss, studies affirm

yet another chance for Mom to say, "I told you so!"

Women told to eat healthy low-density foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, lose more weight than those told to cut fat, according to research.

A related study showed that Americans who ate more of these foods consumed fewer calories and were somewhat healthier than those who didn't — even though they ate more total food.

In the first study, two groups of obese but otherwise healthy women got regular dietary advice for a year. One group was told what to avoid in order to reduce the amount of fat in their diets. The other got the reduced-fat advice, but was also given positive messages — suggestions of healthy, water-rich foods they could add to their diets.

They were specifically directed to items with a low energy density, or ratio of calories to mass, and high water content; not only produce but soups, legumes and cooked grains like oats and brown rice.

Both groups lost weight. But after six months, the reduced-fat group had lost 14.7 pounds, while the energy-density group had lost 20.7 pounds.

"We didn't give them all this 'Don't eat this, don't eat that,'" Penn State nutrition sciences professor Barbara Rolls, who directed both studies, said. "Human nature is, we really don't like to be told we can't have things."

Feeling full with fewer calories
Water-rich foods' value rests in the ability to eat more of them and feel fuller without packing in extra calories. While other studies have shown the efficacy of short-term diets featuring these foods, nutrition researchers said these findings help prove the long-term effects and fill in gaps in current research.

"It provides additional support that folks can actually eat more food and lose weight if they choose foods low in calories," said Gail Woodward-Lopez, associate director of the Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley. "That's wonderful that they did both a longer-term intervention study and an observational study."