This Could Be The Reason You're Gaining Weight

Weight gain is caused by eating more calories than you expend. Fruits and vegetables are part of a nutritious diet, but too much fruit may lead to weight gain. Incorporating fruit into your diet in a healthy way can help keep your weight steady.

Identification

Fruits such as apples, peaches, pears, strawberries and blueberries are rich in antioxidants and vitamins. Fruits have a high water density and are full of fiber, which means that they are naturally low in calories and will help you feel full.

Potential

According to the Center For Disease Control, adding fresh fruits and vegetables into your daily diet can help maintain your weight. Adding an excess of fruit to a diet that is already high in calories, may lead to weight gain.

Effects

Preparing fruit in certain ways can minimize the nutritional value and add calories. Eating fresh fruit is the best alternative because no sugar or preservatives have been added. Fresh fruit is also high in fiber, which helps you to feel full longer. Choose canned or frozen fruit only if fresh fruit is not available. Be sure to select brands that have no added sugar, creams or syrups.

Considerations

Vegetables are typically lower in sugar and calories than fruit. According to the Dietary Guidelines For Americans 5th edition, eating more servings each day of vegetables than fruits will help you maintain your weight.

Sparkling Water May Lead to Weight Gain

Sparkling water may be the reason you’re piling on the pounds, according to scientists.

Carbonated water is often viewed as a healthy alternative to sugary drinks or booze, but the fizzy drink may not be anywhere near as diet-friendly as it appears.

New research has suggested that sparkling water may actually be making you feel empty, encouraging you to eat more than you would otherwise.

The Daily Mail reports that the carbon dioxide, which gives the drink its fizz can trigger a hunger hormone, prompting us to scoff more food as a result.

This finding is based on a study of rats’ behavior, with researchers giving rodents different drinks and monitoring their relative weight gain.

Scientists from Birzeit University in the Palestinian West Bank also tested their findings on humans, noting that the hunger hormone ghrelin spikes in people after drinking sparkling water.

People who had sparkling water for breakfast were found to have six times the ghrelin level of those who had still water.

In tests on rats, scientists noted the rodents that drank fizzy drinks along with their normal diets ate more than rats who were given still water and "flat" soft drinks.

And those findings held true for rats given carbonated water, as well as for those which had zero-calorie versions of fizzy drinks.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: “The Department of Health must now curb the use of any chemicals that impinge on health and that should include carbon dioxide if this effect is replicated in further studies.”

But not everyone is as convinced by the study.

Gavin Partington, director of The British Soft Drinks Association hit back, saying: “There is no body of scientific evidence that carbon dioxide contained in soft drinks — or even beer — causes increased hunger or obesity.

“It is bad science just to assume an outcome from a study on rats will be the same for humans.”