GAINESVILLE, Fla.—A new study from the University of Florida shows that phytochemcials found in plant-based foods can help prevent oxidative stress, a process often linked with obesity and disease. Eating such foods as leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes at the start of a meal reduces overall fat and calorie intake, the researchers say, and ensure intake of micornutrients and trace minerals.
“Diets low in plant-based foods affect health over the course of a long period of time,” said Heather K. Vincent, an assistant professor in the UF Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute and lead author of the paper. “This is related to annual weight gain, low levels of inflammation and oxidative stress. Those are the onset processes of disease that debilitate people later in life.”
The researchers studied a group of 54 young adults, analyzing their dietary patterns over a three-day period, repeating the same measurement eight weeks later. The participants were broken into two groups: normal weight and overweight-obese.
Although the adults in the two groups consumed about the same amount of calories, overweight-obese adults consumed fewer plant-based foods and subsequently fewer protective trace minerals and phytochemicals, and more saturated fats. They also had higher levels of oxidative stress and inflammation than their normal-weight peers.