According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009 over a quarter of all Americans were obese. Among certain groups such as high school dropouts and the elderly, obesity affects one out of every 3 people. Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables can help you lose weight by satisfying your hunger with fiber rich, low calorie foods. Note that even fruits and vegetables can contain fat, but these fats can be healthy for you.
Avocado
The avocado, regardless of its fat content, is an immensely nutritious food. According to Best Health, these toothsome fruits are rich in antioxidants such as lutein, and the fat content of an avocado helps your body absorb lutein as well as other carotenoids. In other words, eating an avocado in a salad increases your ability to absorb nutrients from the other veggies in that salad. Avocados fill your belly with 3.4 g of fiber each, and 1 cup of avocado can supply nearly 25 percent of your recommended daily intake of folate. It's true that a medium sized avocado contains 14.1 g of fat, but it's the healthy kind of fat. Avocado consumption has been shown to decrease the blood serum levels of LDL or bad cholesterol, while increasing HDL or good cholesterol.
Nuts
Nuts are fruits and in fact, they're botanically described as dry, single-seeded fruits that do not split open upon ripening. You've probably heard the standard warning that nuts are fattening but frequent nut consumption coincides with reduced risk of weight gain. A study published in the 2007 edition of the journal "Obesity" found that people who ate nuts at least 2 times weekly experienced significantly lower weight gain than those who did not eat nuts. According to Maira Bes-Rastrollo of the Department of Preventative Medicine and Public Health at the University of Navarra in Spain, those who ate nuts frequently had a lower intake of unhealthy saturated fats, and higher intake of healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats.
Olives
Olives are so rich in oleic acid that that particular fat was named after the olive's botanical term, Olea europaea. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, when you pop a medium sized olive in your mouth, you're consuming .062 g of saturated fat, but that's nothing compared to the .347 g of healthy monounsaturated fat you'll also get. The olive's high concentration of healthy fats has made olive oil a favorite in health-conscious kitchens across the country.
References
- Obesity: Nut Consumption and Weight Gain in a Mediterranean Cohort: The SUN Study
- UCLS Mildred Matthias Botanical Garden: Olives - Green, Black, Pitted, Stuffed and Crushed
- Best Health: 5 Reasons to Eat More Avocados
- Questia: Nut in Botany
- MayoClinic.com: Nuts and Your Heart: Eating Nuts for Heart Health
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