potato heartbreak – smoothie heaven

Last month Harvard published a study, which after 20 years of monitoring, revealed a list of foods most associated with weight gain.

On the basis of increased daily servings of individual dietary components, four-year weight gain was most strongly associated with the intake of these six culprits:

Potato chips  +1.69 pounds
Potatoes (including French fries) +1.28 pounds
Sugar-sweetened beverages +1.00 pound
Unprocessed red meats +0.95 pound
Processed meats (such as bacon) +0.93 pound
Alcohol +0.41 pound

There are no huge surprises here, but it is still hard to see that potatoes have made the top two spots. It breaks this Irish heart. I don’t eat many potato chips but to give up on the roasted, mashed, au gratin tuber is hard to imagine. I also almost never drink soda, sugar-sweetened or otherwise, but alcohol – well. And then there’s the BACON!

The main conclusion of the study is that we should all be eating food that is as minimally processed as possible. Thankfully, in addition, the study also revealed the five foods most associated with weight loss.

An additional daily serving of these fab-five foods was associated with weight loss over a four-year period:

Yogurt -0.82 pound
Nuts -0.57 pound
Fruits -0.49 pound
Whole grains -0.37 pound
Vegetables -0.22 pound

Yogurt is number one?!?  That did surprise me, I love yogurt (and nuts, fruits, whole grains, and vegetables for that matter). So if I add in another of these five and steer clear of the chips and soda… darn, even with my limited math skills, that is still a little more than a pound on the plus side… what’s an alcohol-drinking, bacon-loving, Irish gal to do?

The first step I’m going to take is to go to my friend and colleague, Gwen Ashley Walter’s Pen & Fork facebook page and start making her incredible and utterly creative smoothies every day! Check it out and you’ll see that she already includes not only the obvious yogurt but also the remaining 4 of the fab five into her creations, here’s just a small sampling of what I’m turning you onto (photos lifted from the Pen & Fork facebook page).

See, just 3 examples and she’s already covered everything good on the list! All you have to do is “Like” her facebook page and you’ll continue to get her combos, almost daily.  Thanks, Gwen, I am going to start my day by losing weight every single day now! xoxo