10 Foods That Drive Weight Gain and Loss Identified by Harvard To conduct their study, the researchers evaluated three large cohorts—from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II), and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS)—of people who were free of chronic diseases and not obese at the start of the evaluation process. They measured specific lifestyle factors and weight gain every four years, with follow-up times ranging from 12 to 20 years. One striking if somewhat predictable takeaway from the study is that focusing on overall dietary quality—such as eating less refined sugars and refined grains and more minimally processed foods—is probably more important to long-term health than monitoring total calorie or fat intake or other nutritional markers. As co-author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, stated in a press release accompanying the announcement of the report, "The idea that there are no 'good' or 'bad' foods is a myth that needs to be debunked." For more information on the report, you can watch the following video of the lead author, Dariush Mozaffarian, discussing the findings, or visit the Harvard School of Public Health's website.

1. 10 Foods That Drive Weight Gain
and Loss Identified by Harvard
Study

2. Long-term impacts of small but significant
lifestyle changes—especially to diet
The New England Journal of Medicine, a team
of Harvard researchers has revealed the
results of a study of 120,877 people showing
that small changes in lifestyle behaviors such
as
physical activity, sleep duration, and TV-
watching are
strongly correlated with long-term weight
gain.

3. Long-term impacts of small but significant
lifestyle changes—especially to diet
The most important factor was diet—and
among the report's most intriguing findings is
precisely how much weight gain (or loss) can
be attributed to consuming an additional daily
serving of a variety of specific foods over a
four-year period.

4. Long-term impacts of small but significant
lifestyle changes—especially to diet
The following 10 foods were found to be
especially correlated with long-term changes
in weight (the first five foods promoting
weight gain, the second five promoting weight
loss).
—Daniel Fromson is an associate editor at The
Atlantic, where this post originally appeared.

5. Potato Chips: The #1 food that
promotes weight gain.
Blame the potato
chip.
It's the biggest
demon behind
that pound-a-year
weight creep that
plagues us

6. Potatoes: The #2 food that promotes
weight gain.
Consuming an extra
helping of potatoes
each day — French
fried, baked or
otherwise — can add
an average of 0.8 of a
pound to body weight
per year.

7. Sugar-Sweetened Beverages The #3
food that promotes weight gain.
Harvard study found
that sugar-sweetened
beverages were one
of ... most strongly
linked to long-term
weight gain among
healthy women and
men.

8. Unprocessed Red Meat The #4 food that
promotes weight gain.
Single daily
serving of
unprocessed red
meat was
associated with a
13% increased risk
of death from all
causes

9. Processed Meats The #5 food that promotes
weight gain.
Alarmingly, a report
conducted by the American
Institute for Cancer Research
revealed evidence that
eating around 50 grams of
processed meat (equivalent
to a hot dog) each day
increased chances of
colorectal cancer by 21%.

10. Vegetables The #1 food that promotes
weight loss.
A vegetable diet
has long been
considered as the
best way to lose
weight.

11. Whole Grains The #2 food that promotes
weight loss.

12. Fruit The #3 food that promotes weight loss.

13. Nuts The #4 food that promotes weight loss.

14. Yogurt The food that promotes weight loss.
Yogurt
−1.16 lbs
(−1.48 to −0.84)

15. Foods and Weight Gain
4-year weight change was most strongly
associated with the intake of
potato chips (+1.69 lb), potatoes (+1.28 lb),
sugar-sweetened beverages (+1.00 lb), unpro-
cessed red meats (+0.95 lb), and processed
meats (+0.93 lb)

16. Refined Food/Sweets
Weight gain associated with increased
consumption of refined grains (0.39 lb per
serving per day) was similar to that for
sweets and desserts (0.41 lb per serving per
day).

17. Trans Fats
Trans fat 1.44 (0.95 to 1.94) <0.001
A diet rich in trans fatty acids leads to
abdominal weight gain compared to a diet rich
in monounsaturated fats, even when the
calorie intake is equal

18. Sweets or desserts
Sweets or desserts +0.65 (0.31 to 1.00) <0.001

19. Danger of French Fries
Potatoes 2.14 (1.26 to 3.03)
French fried * 6.59 * (4.35 to 8.83)
Boiled, baked, or mashed 0.99 (0.36 to 1.61)
<0.001 in all

20. Whole vs Refined Grains
Whole grains −0.59 (−0.65 to −0.53)
Refined grains +0.56 (0.28 to 0.83)

21. Participants with greater increases in physical
activity gained 1.76 fewer pounds within each
4-year period.
Absolute levels of physical activity were not
associated with weight change

22. Sleep duration had a U-shaped association
with weight gain,
with greater weight
gain occurring with
less than 6 hours or
more than 8 hours of
sleep per night.

23. Increases in time spent watching television
(per hour per day) were independently
associated with weight gain 0.31 lb
Average American watches 5 hr TV/day
= 1.5 lb

24. inversely associated
with the intake of vegetables (−0.22 lb),
whole grains (−0.37 lb), fruits (−0.49 lb), nuts
(−0.57 lb), and yogurt (−0.82 lb)

25. Other lifestyle factors were independently
associated with weight change, including
physical activity (−1.76 lb across quintiles);
alcohol use (0.41 lb per drink per day),
sleep (more weight gain with <6 or >8 hours of
sleep), and
television watching (0.31 lb per hour per day).

26. Full vs Low Fat Dairy
Whole-fat dairy foods +0.25 (0.05 to 0.45)
Butter +0.47 (0.23 to 0.71)
Cheese +0.13 (−0.08 to 0.34)
Whole-fat milk +0.08 (−0.05 to 0.22)
Low-fat dairy foods −0.17 (−0.21 to −0.13)
Low-fat or skim milk −0.02 (−0.11 to 0.07)
Yogurt −1.16 (−1.48 to −0.84)