Hot New Diet: Eat More
Feeling hungry dooms diets, says Barbara Rolls, professor of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University and author of “The Volumetrics Eating Plan.” Her solution: Fill up on big portions of low-calorie foods.
“We were surprised to discover that the weight of food consumed is what turns off the urge to eat and creates a feeling of satiety, or fullness,” Rolls says. Researchers once thought the number of calories consumed triggered satiety.
Generally, a person eats about the same quantity of food daily, she says. Simply eating foods that weigh more but are low in calories — “low caloric density” — staves off hunger.
Best bets: food high in water content, because water has zero calories but weighs a lot. (A fat gram has 9 calories; a gram of carbohydrates has 4 calories.)
Rolls has found that water-bulked foods help block appetite and calorie intake.
In one test, people who ate 3 cups of a low-calorie garden salad (vegetables have lots of water) before a pasta main course ate 100 fewer calories than a salad-free meal. The salad filled them up, so they ate less, Rolls says.
And in a year-long study of 200 overweight men and women, those who ate two bowls of soup daily lost 50% more weight than those who ate the same number of calories in two calorie-dense snacks daily.
Scientific sources for this article are at usaweekend.com.
What to eat to lose weight on the Volumetrics diet:
25 best foods: Foods with very low caloric density (0 to .6 calories per gram) in descending order, lowest first:
1. chicken broth (fat-free)
2. gelatin (fruit-flavored sugar free)
3. cucumber
4. celery
5. lettuce
6. tomato
7. asparagus
8. mushrooms
9. broccoli
10. strawberries
11. vegetarian vegetable soup
12. grapefruit
13. fennel
14. watermelon
15. green beans
16. cantaloupe
17. milk (non-fat)
18. chicken rice and vegetable soup
19. winter squash
20. carrots
21. peach
22. applesauce (unsweetened)
23. Italian dressing (fat-free)
24. orange
25. raspberries
25 worst foods: Foods with high caloric density (4 to 9 calories per gram) in descending order, least to most:
1. potato chips (baked)
2. onion rings (battered and fried)
3. white frosting
4. croissant
5. pie crust
6. plain doughnut
7. graham crackers
8. granola bar
9. caramel popcorn
10. parmesan cheese
11. chocolate chip cookies (homemade)
12. creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
13. cheese crackers
14. bacon
15. tortilla chips
16. peanut butter (reduced fat)
17. potato or corn chips
18. milk chocolate bar
19. roasted peanuts
20. ranch dressing (full fat)
21. creamy peanut butter
22. pecans
23. mayonnaise (regular)
24. butter
25. margarine (stick)
How to calculate caloric density:
To calculate a food’s caloric density, read the label and then divide the number of calories in a serving by its weight in grams. Best are foods with the same or fewer calories than grams. If a food has 100 calories and weighs 200 grams, its caloric density is only 0.5.
Foods with a caloric density of 1 or less are preferred.
Sources
“The Volumetrics Eating Plan,” by Barbara Rolls, Ph.D.
Ello-Martin, Julia. Am J Clin Nutr 2005:82(suppl): 236S.
Bell, E.A and Rolls, BJ. Am J Clin Nutr 2001 Jun;73(6): 999-1000.
Howarth NC, et al. Nutr Rev 2001 May;59(5):129-39.
Rolls, B.J., American J of Clin Nutr, 1999 Oct;70(4):448-455.
This EatSmart column is reprinted from USAWEEKEND Magazine and is copyrighted by Jean Carper. It cannot be reprinted without permission from Jean Carper.
