Over the years dietary guidelines have changed, due to research becoming more accurate in measuring what foods to consume to obtain optimal health and weight. Research shows that focusing on food quality is equally as important as calories in stopping weight gain and achieving weight loss.
Take into account quality
Arising research shows that quality is crucial in determining the foods that should eat to maintain a healthy weight. Further, instead of selecting foods based on how many calories, we should be considering high-quality foods and reducing low-quality foods.
High-quality foods are not processed such as fruit and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats such as Tuna, avocado, unsalted nuts.
Lower-quality foods are more processed including sugary snacks, sweetened drinks, fried foods and foods with high saturation in fats.
Quality Matters
Quality is a key factor concerning the foods that we need to eat to maintain a healthy weight. And the “a calorie is a calorie” concept is not adequate in showing us what food we should be consuming.
In the past two decades, a study of more than 100,000 men and women showed that weight changes relate to lower quality food consumption. Researchers found that an increase in weight is related to consuming more processed foods.
However consuming fruits, nuts, vegetables, and whole grains resulted in weight loss. Further researchers recognized the importance of calories. And recommended that consuming high-quality foods helps with maintaining an adequate calorie intake.
