Healthy Foods That Make You Fat
What happened when 10,000 dieters ate mainly healthy foods? Not much, if they filled up on the foods from this list. Here's how to eat right and lose weight.
By zzzzMarty Munson
FAT FOOD TRAP: Bread
Bread-lovers in the study discovered that it was easy to eat too much of that food in a single sitting. If you can't live without sandwiches, then you should have them, but try to splurge on only those couple of slices of bread a day. Bread isn't evil; it just tends to be hard to control for people who love it.
WHAT TO EAT INSTEAD: Grains
Slice your protein or veggies over grains including whole-wheat pasta, wild rice, couscous, or quinoa.
FAT FOOD TRAP: Fruit-flavored yogurt
When Weight Watchers asked 10,000 dieters to eat wholesome foods — like grains, vegetables, dairy, and lean protein — they saw that people often ate four containers of low-fat yogurt a day if the fruit was mixed in. But if the subjects had to stir in the fruit themselves, they stopped at only one cup.
WHAT TO EAT INSTEAD: Plain, nonfat yogurt — you add fresh fruit
Mixing in fruit yourself is enough to prevent you from mindless overeating, says Karen Miller-Kovach, R.D., chief scientific officer for Weight Watchers International and head of the healthy-eating program.
FAT FOOD TRAP: Breakfast cereal — even the healthy kind
The same Weight Watchers study also showed that people who ate cereal right out of the box as a snack tended to munch on way too much of it in a day. Even healthy, high-fiber cereals can up the day's calorie count and halt people's weight loss.
WHAT TO EAT INSTEAD: Eat cereal only with milk
This combination also decreases the meal's "calorie density" — an ounce of cereal with milk (skim, of course) has fewer calories than an ounce of cereal alone, so you'll take in fewer calories but still feel just as satisfied.
