Doctor shares 'number one' food for weight loss that people should add to diet

08 February 2024 , 15:41

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There's one food everyone should add onto their shopping list (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

When we think of dieting - the last thing that springs to mind is sweet foods.

Losing weight can be tricky - but a doctor has hailed the one food that helps aid weight loss and claimed that everyone should include it in their diet - and it's not a bland food either.

Ok, granted it isn't a bag of sweets or some chocolate, but Dr Neal Barnard, founding president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has said that blueberries are a great way to help lose weight. As he chatted with Steven Bartlett on a recent episode of The Diary Of A CEO, the doctor revealed the fruit should be on everyone's shopping list.

Blueberries are an incredible superfood - and everyone should include them in their diet (Getty Images)

Blueberries are an incredible superfood. They are rich in antioxidants, potassium and vitamin C and the doctor 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."

As well as being low-calorie, the fruit is full of anthocyanins, and Dr Neal detailed how these "pave the way" to fat burning due to the effects they may have on your appetite and metabolism. For those who aren't a fan of blueberries, he further suggested that the fruit's "cousins", including raspberries, could also offer similar benefits.

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Although blueberries have the name "blue", people are only just realising they aren't blue. Radio host Rachel Burden shared the revelation on Radio 5 Live Breakfast on February 8. Rachel said: "I read this morning that blueberries aren't blue." Rachel explained that analysis by scientists at the University of Bristol had found that the seemingly blue colour came from a "colourless, two micron-thick wax layer," which covers the berry. It is its "intricate microscopic structure" which "interferes with light itself and makes it seem blue to the naked eye".

The scientists removed the wax, recrystallised it on a piece of paper, and analysed it in a lab. They had found that the wax reflected both blue and ultraviolet light, but we can't see the ultraviolet light, and instead can only see the colour blue.

Niamh Kirk