High Quality Foods Key to Sustained Weight Loss

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With two months of the new year nearly under our belts and arm-bearing warmer weather around the corner, it’s a good time to take stock of how well those resolutions are being met.  Have you stuck to your weight loss, diet or exercise goals?  It seems pretty straightforward that if you carefully track how many calories you consume, (and burn more) you will successfully lose weight but a new study challenges this conventional wisdom.

A large scale research study out of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that what you eat is more important that how much you eat when it comes to significant and sustained weight loss.  Instead of painstakingly counting calories, dieters who limited sugar, refined grains and processed foods were more successful in losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight. 

Study participants on high quality diets that focused on whole foods with plenty of vegetables while avoiding added sugars and refined starches (think pop, white bread, white rice) were more successful at losing and keeping off weight even without increased activity levels.  Developing new habits helped dieters change their relationship with food.  Instead of obsessively counting calories, successful participants cooked more at home and sat down to eat with their families rather that eating in their cars or in front of televisions or computer screens.  Eating diets rich in “real foods” like salmon, avocados, vegetables, nuts and seeds and grass-fed and pasture raised animal products helped dieters not only lose more weight but also improve other health markers including a reduction in body fat, blood sugar and blood pressure levels.

The take away from this newer approach to weight loss is to think less about journaling everything you eat or finding low fat food substitutes and really focusing on eating a high quality whole food diet with as many vegetables as possible.

Follow this link to read more about the study published in the February 20 issue of the JAMA.

Here’s a recipe to get you started and best of all you can try out that new Instant Pot you bought during the after-Christmas sales!

Spicy Instant Pot Carrot Soup

Curry-like spicy carrot soup made with 7 easy ingredients – in the Instant Pot if you want. Extremely smooth and velvety, and bonus: it’s super healthy.

INGREDIENTS

• 8-10 large carrots, peeled and chopped coarsely
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cups chicken or veggie broth
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon red curry paste
• salt to taste
• cilantro and peanuts for topping

INSTRUCTIONS

STOVETOP INSTRUCTIONS: Saute the onions and garlic with a little bit of oil until soft. Add the carrots, coconut milk, broth, and curry paste. Simmer until carrots are soft. Add peanut butter and stir until melted. Run through the blender until smooth; season generously with salt, top with peanuts and cilantro.

INSTANT POT INSTRUCTIONS: Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot and set for 15 minutes. When done, let everything cool for a few minutes, then run the mixture through the blender until smooth; season generously with salt, top with peanuts and cilantro.

Serves 4

Source:  pinchofyum.com

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