LONDON—Eating a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables may not be enough to keep age-related weight gain at bay, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Researchers from Imperial College London assessed the association between the baseline consumption of fruit and vegetables and weight change in participants from 10 European countries participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study. Researchers evaluated questionnaires from 373,803 participants; weight was measured at baseline and self-reported at follow-up in most centers. The researchers assessed associations between baseline fruit and vegetable intakes (per 100 g/d) and weight change (g/y) after a mean follow-up of five years.
After exclusion of subjects with chronic diseases at baseline and subjects who were likely to misreport calorie intakes, baseline fruit and vegetable intakes were not associated with weight change overall. However, baseline fruit and vegetable intakes were inversely associated with weight change in men and women who quit smoking during follow-up.
They found positive associations between vegetable intake and weight change in women who were overweight, were former smokers, or had “high prudent" dietary pattern scores and weak inverse associations between fruit intake and weight change in women who were less than 50 years of age, were of normal weight, were never smokers, or had low prudent dietary pattern scores.
The findings suggest more fruit and vegetable intake does not substantially influence midterm weight change compared to diets lower in plant foods, but equal in calories.
