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No. 1 Food That Leads to Big Bellies


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People who eat too much white bread have larger waistlines than their friends who eat whole grains instead, according to a new study from Tufts University in Boston.

 

That plushy white bread goes straight to your gut and then hangs out as belly fat, reports The Associated Press. In fact, white bread is a larger contributor to a bulging waistline than alcohol, sweets, or meat and potatoes.

 

"Waist circumference was very much associated with this high-refined-grains pattern," lead study author Katherine Tucker, an associate professor of nutritional epidemiology at Tufts, told AP.

 

Tucker's team examined 459 healthy, middle-age people in Baltimore, Maryland who had a variety of eating habits. Specifically, they examined five different diets where one type of food was prominent: healthy food, white bread, alcohol, sweets, or meat and potatoes. And the people who ate the most white bread were also the fattest.

 

The Tufts researchers found that calories from refined grains settle at the waistline, which translates into a half-inch a year for people who just had to have their white bread. At the end of the study, those who indulged in white bread had three times the gain in the gut as did their peers who ate whole grains.

 

This is serious stuff. People who have bigger waists have a higher risk of heart disease than those who weigh the same but don't carry the extra weight around the belly.

 

The study findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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I'm skeptical about the report. I'm not sure that big bellies can be attributed to any one food.

 

Alcohol, high fructose corn syrup, and I'm sure many other refined foods, as well as stress-produced cortisol, contribute to the belly bulge. It's more a matter of calories in vs calories out.

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I'm skeptical about the report. I'm not sure that big bellies can be attributed to any one food.

 

Alcohol, high fructose corn syrup, and I'm sure many other refined foods, as well as stress-produced cortisol, contribute to the belly bulge. It's more a matter of calories in vs calories out.

 

Yeah, that article kinda sounds like pro-Atkins propaganda more than anything.

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I'm skeptical about the report. I'm not sure that big bellies can be attributed to any one food.

 

Alcohol, high fructose corn syrup, and I'm sure many other refined foods, as well as stress-produced cortisol, contribute to the belly bulge. It's more a matter of calories in vs calories out.

 

The kind of people who eat white bread are probably less interested in health food in general. People who eat wheat are probably more likely to eat healthier and exercise

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I'm skeptical about the report. I'm not sure that big bellies can be attributed to any one food.

 

Alcohol, high fructose corn syrup, and I'm sure many other refined foods, as well as stress-produced cortisol, contribute to the belly bulge. It's more a matter of calories in vs calories out.

 

The kind of people who eat white bread are probably less interested in health food in general. People who eat wheat are probably more likely to eat healthier and exercise

 

Not always. I've eaten whole wheat bread since I was a little kid just because I always liked the taste better than white and I never had any interest in eating healthy until a few years ago.

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I'm skeptical about the report. I'm not sure that big bellies can be attributed to any one food.

 

Alcohol, high fructose corn syrup, and I'm sure many other refined foods, as well as stress-produced cortisol, contribute to the belly bulge. It's more a matter of calories in vs calories out.

 

The kind of people who eat white bread are probably less interested in health food in general. People who eat wheat are probably more likely to eat healthier and exercise

 

Not always. I've eaten whole wheat bread since I was a little kid just because I always liked the taste better than white and I never had any interest in eating healthy until a few years ago.

 

Yeah I didn't say always. I wrote "probably more likely." I'm willing to bet that if you randomly choose 1000 people who eat wheat bread and 1000 people who eat white bread, that - on average - the wheat bread eaters eat healthier and exercise more

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The kind of people who eat white bread are probably less interested in health food in general. People who eat wheat are probably more likely to eat healthier and exercise

 

But white bread is still made from wheat...... I think what you call wheat bread in the US is what we call wholemeal bread in the UK - i.e made from wholegrain wheat.

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I was informed through a health and fitness regime I once followed that processed products like white breads, etc, leach nutrients out of the body to help proccess it, which may cause bones and teeth to slowly weaken.

 

Grains produce a lot of acid, which can be a factor in causing arthritis, and they also tend to make the body produce a lot of mucus. While I am not sure of the source of the information it was also mentioned that it has been found that those who live mainly on cereals have an increase in the size of the pancreas due to it being forced to work harder to produce the digestive juices. Hence why even wholefood cereals should be limited.

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But white bread is still made from wheat...... I think what you call wheat bread in the US is what we call wholemeal bread in the UK - i.e made from wholegrain wheat.

U.S. manufacturers use the term "wheat flour" to make customers believe they are gettiing something healthier (it's just plain, old white flour, from the endosperm of the wheat). "whole wheat" is made from the whole wheat kernel: bran, germ and endosperm).

 

I think it's probably true that the majority of people who eat whole grain breads also eat more healthfully overall.

 

I used to LOVE white bread when I was a teen, and hated that 'heavy, darker" stuff! Now, white bread makes me almost literally want to gag! It reminds me of when I was a Brownie and we took a took of Wonder Bread bakeries in Minneapolis, and each got a fresh loaf of the white stuff. We end up taking slices of it, and rolling them into balls (like paste!) and throwing them at each other!

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I remember when I was reading up on colon cleansing, one author reminded us what paper mache is made out of -- white flour & water. Since white bread is basically white flour & ends up in a watery environment, you basically end up with paper mache in your digestive system.

 

I'd think a grilled cheese sandwich on white bread would be a double whammy -- paper mache & all that casein (translate: glue) into your gut.

 

How about a nice psyllium husks drink to push all that through?

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