X-Message-Number: 25149
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 11:30:01 -0800
Subject: No. 1 Food That Leads to Big Bellies 
From: Kennita Watson <>

No. 1 Food That Leads to Big Bellies

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 was 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. Why? 
That has doctors stumped. The study findings were published in the 
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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