Four fat-fighting foods to watch

Probably because I spend so much time writing and thinking about food studies, I’ve been skeptical when I see data suggesting that certain compounds can have a unique effect on weight-loss aside from their being really healthy for your body. It just feels a little too good to be true. That said, late last year I wound up on a series of assignments that touched on how resveratrol—found in grapes and red wine—affected everything from how we age to what we weigh. As I reported those stories, I came across so many scientists who were convinced that this was the second coming. Notably, they had the evidence to prove it.

Since then, I’ve tried to be more open-minded. Recognizing that it all still feels little like speculating on the stock market, I’m documenting a few “winners” that have, lately, really caught my eye. All the research is new, but it looks pretty solid. In short, I’m willing to track—if not yet bet on—these four.

1) Flavonoids: I personally find this confusing, so I’m going to put it down for the benefit of people like me. Hang tight. Polyphenols are a class of chemicals thought to have antioxidant effects (meaning they protect the body’s cells from damage caused by “free radicals”—code name for all sorts of bad things in the outside world. In theory, this function will prolong life and health). Flavonoids, for their part, are the main subset of polyphenols, and are present in countless foods, including apples, onions, citrus fruit, green tea, dark chocolate, and beans.

According to new research published online in the journal Diabetes, grapefruit-derived flavenoids may somehow help reprogram the liver to burn up—rather than store—excess fat. Researchers at the University of Ontario fed two sets of mice the exact same amount of fat and calories (what they called a high-fat Western diet), but to one group they added flavonoid supplements. The mice on that diet actually lost some weight. There’s so much distance between here and there, and the cons to this deserve a whole other post, but I’d feel weird not mentioning the thought that maybe there’s some anecdotal connection to the grapefruit diet.

2) Turmeric: Spices (from cinnamon to pepper), for their part, are often cited as calorie-burners—with very little evidence to back up that claim. However, a new study led by nutritionists at Tufts University may be turning that tide. Scientists working on the experiment found that supplementing mice with a relatively small amount of turmeric made them gain less weight and have lower levels of cholesterol, fatty acid, triglyceride, and liver fat than a control group fed the exact same high-fat diet, but without the spice. 

3) Vinegar: Japanese researchers are reporting that vinegar may actually be living up to its age-old reputation as a good health food. A recent study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that mice given a high-fat diet that included vinegar developed up to ten percent less body fat than those who adhered to the same eating plan, minus the vinegar. Researchers believe the vinegar may be activating genes linked to proteins that help break down fat in the body.

4) Vitamin D: In a presentation that generated some attention at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, researchers from the University of Minnesota described a linear relationship between increasing vitamin D levels and weight-loss. Before putting a group of overweight people on a calorie-restricted diet, scientists measured their baseline vitamin D levels (interestingly, all subjects were on the low side to begin with). For every additional 1 mL of vitamin D in their body, the study participants would lose ½ a pound more.