Eat more and lose weight. Sound too good to be true? Well, it may not be. According to research eating, more of certain foods can actually cut down on calories.
What’s the secret ingredient? Vegetable puree. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University gave 20 men and 21 women casseroles made with varying amounts of vegetable purée — a strategy as most of us know that was made popular by cookbook author Jessica Seinfeld. Jerry’s wife encourages parents to sneak vegetables into kid-friendly foods like spaghetti.
Adults obviously don’t have to do it on the sly. For the Penn State study, the goal wasn’t to trick people into eating vegetables. Instead, adding the vegetable purée bulked up the dish and resulted in fewer calories per serving. For instance, in a macaroni and cheese dish, the cheese sauce was not only made with skim milk and reduced-fat cheese – but had one cup each of puréed cauliflower and puréed summer squash added.
The diners were fed the casseroles during different visits. They ate pretty much the same amount of food during each visit and reported no differences in flavor or enjoyment. But when they were served the casseroles made with puréed vegetables, they ate 200 to 350 fewer calories a meal. The results of the study can be found in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
