Potato Chips a Top Culprit in Gradual Weight Gain

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Potato chips may be the most dangerous food for your hips, according to a

study that lays out weight-associated foods by the pound.

Roughly half of the average 3.35 pounds a healthy, nonobese American gains

over four years could be chalked up to eating more potato chips over time

(1.69 lb per additional serving per day), Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, of

Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Schools of Medicine and Public

Health, and colleagues found.

Other food strongly associated with weight gain in the prospective

longitudinal results reported in the June 23 issue of the *New England

Journal of Medicine* included:

- Potatoes at 1.28 lb

- Sugar-sweetened beverages at 1.00 lb

- Unprocessed red meats at 0.95 lb

- Processed meats at 0.93 lb

Four-year weight loss was most associated with intake of:

- Yogurt at -0.82 lb

- Nuts at -0.57 lb

- Fruits at -0.49 lb

- Whole grains at -0.37 lb

- Vegetables at -0.22 lb

All the above values are per serving added per day to the diet over four

years and all were significant at *P*≤0.005.

Eating more or less of any single food generally had a modest effect on

weight, but together the changes in diet and exercise accounted for large

differences in weight gain over time.

These tended to be creeping gains of only 0.8 lb on average per year, which

makes it tough to perceive specific causes, Mozaffarian's group noted.

" But accumulated over time, even modest increases in weight have

implications for long-term adiposity-related metabolic dysfunction,

diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, " they warned in the paper.

Experts contacted by ABC News in collaboration with *MedPage Today* saw the

findings as largely confirmatory of standard dietary recommendations.

" It reinforces the fact that even small changes can impact long-term weight

maintenance, " noted Connie Diekman, MEd, RD, LD, a dietitian at Washington

University in St. Louis and a past president of the American Dietetic

Association.

Janet Kramer, RD, LD, a dietitian at University Hospitals Case Medical

Center in Cleveland, saw few surprises in the breakdown of foods associated

with weight gain and weight loss.

" It gives backbone to what dietitians have been saying for years, " she said

in an interview.

The foods associated with weight loss fit with the emphasis on fruit,

vegetables, and grains on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's

plate<http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/26813>graphic

that recently replaced the food pyramid to guide food choices,

Kramer pointed out.

But she cautioned against focusing too much on individual foods in the study

rather than the overall picture of a healthy diet.

" There's no particular one food that is going to help a person lose weight, "

Kramer cautioned in the interview. " There are a number of foods that

contribute to weight gain, but overall it seems to support that calories in

do make a difference. "

But identifying particular culprits in long-term weight gain may help with

targeting interventions, noted Rena Wing, PhD, director of Brown

University's Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center in Providence, R.I.

" We often tell people that if they want to avoid gaining weight they need to

eat less and exercise more. That sounds easy but it's hard for people to

do, " she said in an interview. " Being very specific and giving them specific

targets to focus on may be easier for individuals. "

The analysis pooled results from the Nurses' Health Study I and II and

Health Professionals Follow-up Study for a total of 120,877 women and men

free of chronic diseases and obesity at baseline who were followed for

weight gain from 1986 to 2006, 1991 to 2003, and 1986 to 2006, respectively.

Weight gain averaged 3.35 lb across the cohorts during each four-year

period, representing 2.4% of body weight, and added up to an average 16.8 lb

over 20 years.

The researchers looked for links between changes in lifestyle factors and

weight at four-year intervals after multivariable adjustment for age,

baseline body mass index in each period, and all lifestyle factors

simultaneously.

Other lifestyle factors also played a role in longer-term weight change (*P*

<0.001).

Weight gain was linked to alcohol use (0.41 lb per drink per day), smoking

cessation (new quitters gained 5.17 lb, former smokers gained 0.14 lb), and

television watching (0.31 lb per hour per day).

Not surprisingly, physical activity was associated with 1.76 lb of weight

loss over four years for the top versus bottom quintiles.

The researchers cautioned that the lifestyle changes seen in the cohorts

were self-selected participants with the possibility of residual confounding

and even reverse causality if those who were gaining weight shifted to

healthier foods.

Although the three cohorts largely comprised white, well-educated American

adults, the similarity in findings across the cohorts support similar

effects in other populations, Mozaffarian's group noted.

*Primary source: *New England Journal of Medicine

Source reference:

Mozaffarian D, et al " Changes in diet and lifestyle and long- term weight

gain in women and men " *N Engl J Med* 2011; 364:

2392-2404.<http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1014296>

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