A recent study debunked the ideas linking potatoes and weight gain in the past, as it revealed that the favorite vegetable of many can help get rid of extra kilograms, without much effort.
Scientists said that people tend to feel full once they eat a certain amount of food, regardless of its caloric content. According to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”.
The study was conducted on 36 people between the ages of 18 and 60 years, who suffer from overweight, obesity, or insulin resistance. Half of them were asked to follow a diet containing mainly potatoes with meat or fish, while the other half followed a diet containing various other foods.
While the American researchers found that potatoes helped the participants feel full by just eating a small amount of them, and thus reduced the consumption of other foods that may contain much higher calories, and this in turn helps in losing weight.
A plate of baked potatoes – iStock
Feeling full
For her part, Professor Candida Rebelo, of the Pennington Research Center in Louisiana, said: “People tend to eat a certain amount of food per day, regardless of the calorie content of this food, in order to feel full.”
“By eating foods that are heavy and low in calories, such as potatoes, you can easily reduce the number of calories you consume,” she added.
Baked Potato – iStock
The American researcher also indicated that the participants who mainly ate potatoes found themselves fuller and felt full faster, and often did not even finish their meal. She pointed out that this means that this group of people can lose weight with little effort.
It is noteworthy that potatoes were previously linked to weight gain and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and people with insulin resistance were advised to avoid them, but the new findings indicate that this may not be true.