A doctor has revealed a popular food that could help you achieve your weight loss goals.
While your mind might instantly wander to a superfood vegetable, the “number one” food for burning fat is actually sweet.
Dr Neal Barnard, founding president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, shared that you should add blueberries to your shopping list if you’re trying to shed some weight.
Speaking to Steven Bartlett on a recent episode of The Diary Of A CEO, the doctor explained that the tiny fruit was associated with the most weight loss.
If you’re not a fan of blueberries, the doctor explained that their “cousins”, including raspberries, could also offer similar benefits.
Speaking on the podcast, Dr Barnard said: “The people who decide to eat more of these foods and bring them into their diet are losing weight.
“If you are eating blueberries for dessert, you’re not eating the custard creams – maybe that’s part of it.
“But even when you control for that, you still see the weight loss and we believe that the reasons are that these are high-fibre foods.”
While berries are very low in calories, the effects of the small fruits on weight loss also come down to their content of plant pigments, known as anthocyanins.
The doctor explained that anthocyanins may affect your appetite and your metabolism, paving the way to fat burning.
Dr Barnard isn’t the only expert to single out blueberries for weight loss, as research, conducted by the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center, suggested that a blueberry-rich diet could reduce visceral fat.
Lurking near some of your vital organs, such as the liver and intestines, visceral fat can hike your risk of serious health problems, ranging from cardiovascular disease to diabetes.
Looking at laboratory rats, the researchers studied the effect of freeze-dried blueberries crushed into a powder administered as a part of either a low or high-fat diet.
After 90 days of this regimen, the rats that received the blueberry-enriched powder had less of the dangerous fat.