High-fiber whole grains may help dieters lose weight while making gains in some nutrients, new research suggests.
In a six-month study of 180 overweight adults, researchers found that whole-grain cereals helped people lose weight while boosting their consumption of fiber, magnesium and vitamin B-6.
Their intake of these nutrients was higher than that of dieters who cut calories but did not eat whole-grain cereal. The implication, say researchers, is that fiber-rich cereals can help people cut calories while maintaining or improving the quality of their diet.
The study, which received funding from Kraft Foods, Inc., is published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
A problem with cutting out calories or certain foods to shed pounds is that nutrients can be lost from the diet. The current findings suggest that whole-grain cereals can help prevent some of these losses, according to Dr. Kathleen J. Melanson, an assistant professor of nutrition science at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston and the study’s lead author.
She and her colleagues arrived at their results by comparing three weight-loss strategies: exercise only; exercise plus a reduced-calorie diet that emphasized whole-grain cereals; and exercise plus a low-cal diet that included no cereals.
The researchers randomly assigned 180 overweight, sedentary men and women to one of the three groups. Those in the “cereal” group were given packets of whole-grain breakfast cereal and were told to eat a serving twice a day for the first half of the study, then once a day for the remaining time.
In the end, both diet groups lost more weight than the exercise-only group, with dieters in each dropping roughly 12 pounds, on average. But the cereal group cut down on saturated fat to a greater extent and bumped up their fiber, magnesium and B-6 intake.
On the other hand, all three groups were short on calcium and vitamin E, the researchers found.
“Many study volunteers who were in the cereal group ate their cereals as snacks from baggies rather than with milk or yogurt,” Melanson explained, “so that may be why their calcium intakes did not increase as much as expected.”
Besides having their cereal with milk, dieters can get calcium from foods like green vegetables, almonds and canned fish with bones, she said.
Vitamin E sources include vegetable oils like canola and safflower, some fish, wheat germ, almonds, peanut butter, avocado and mango.
Some of these foods, like nuts and oil, are high in calories, Melanson noted, so people trying to lose weight will have to exercise portion control.
