In the June issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), there is a report on the findings of the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, regarding the food that are tied to creeping weight gain. According to their studies, sugary drinks, processes and unprocessed meat and all forms of potatoes were found to have a strong link to weight gain. They say that it will give a much effective result, if you can make small changes in the quality of the food that you eat, rather than eating low quality food in small quantities. They strongly points out the importance of choosing the food wisely as there is what is called as good food as well as bad food. It is always better to prevent creeping weight gain, rather than focusing on what to do when you are overweight or obese.

Since weight gain is a slow and gradual process, many a times it happens that it becomes difficult to catch the actual factors which are responsible for the weight gain. Their studies have shown that several factors such as the physical activity level, hours of watch TV, small changes in diet, consumption of beverages and also the duration of sleep has direct link with long-term weight gain. Even though the amount of weight gain linked to any one lifestyle change was too small, the total effect made a big difference. It means  that by following either one or all of the lifestyle changes like  less or no physical activity, more hours spent for watching TV, eating more of fatty foods and less of whole grains and fruits, taking sugary drinks and sleep more than or less than 8 hours at night, can gain weight unintentionally in the long run. Hence, it was concluded that a small piece of right lifestyle changes can prevent the creeping weight gain over a long period of time.

They also suggest that instead of focusing purely on the calorie consumption per day, it is advisable to concentrate on other measures also such as, the total fat consumed, energy, density and the quantity of sugar content in the food that you eat. The researchers advise to focus on the overall quality of your diet by increasing the carbohydrate intake and decreasing the processed food intake. It means reduce foods like potatoes, processes meat and sugary drinks and consume more fruits, vegetables, nuts, yogurt, nuts and whole grains.

If you continue to follow a healthy dietary pattern, it can change the biological weight gain in the long run!