Washington: Want to shed those extra pounds early? Switch your diet to barley, brown rice, buckwheat and Oatmeal for refined grains, as it is equivalent to a 30 minute of brisk walk, suggests a new study.
The results, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, indicated that substitution of whole grains for refined grains in the diet for eight weeks increase calorie loss, by reducing calories retained during digestion and speeding up metabolism.
The findings suggested that people who ate a diet with whole grains, which matched the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for fiber, lost close to an extra 100 calories per day, due to a combination of increased resting metabolic rate and greater fecal losses.
“This study will help to quantify how whole grains and fiber work to benefit weight management, and lend credibility to previously reported associations between increased whole grains and fiber consumption, lower body weight and better health,” said first author of the study Phil J. Karl from Tufts University’s health sciences campus in the US.
“We provided all food to ensure that the composition of the diets differed only in grain source. The extra calories lost by those who ate whole grains was equivalent of a brisk 30 min walk – or enjoying an extra small cookie every day in terms of its impact,” said senior author Susan B. Roberts.
The research provided food to participants for eight weeks and may help explain how whole grain consumption is beneficial for weight management.
The team conducted an eight-week randomised single-blind comparative study with 81 men and women between the ages of 40 and 65.
In the first two weeks, all the participants ate the same type of food and individual calorie needs were determined.
After two weeks, the participants were randomly assigned to eat a diet and that included either whole grains or refined grains.
Throughout the eight weeks, the researchers measured weight, metabolic rate, blood glucose, fecal calories, hunger and fullness.
The study found that those who ate whole grains had an increase in resting metabolic rate and fecal energy losses compared to those who ate refined grains.
The extra fecal energy losses were not due to the extra fiber itself, but from the effect the fiber had on the digestibility of other food calories.
The researchers caution that the effects of a whole-grain diet on resting metabolic rate were sensitive to dietary adherence, so cautious interpretation is warranted. (ANI)