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The #1 Vegetable for Weight Loss, According to a Dietitian

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Open TikTok, Instagram or any other social media app right now and you’ll find an unending stream of advice on how to lose weight: the latest trendy diet, before-and-after testimonials, miracle *it* products. So it can be easy to lose sight of the basics—like the age-old advice to eat more vegetables and fill half your plate with nonstarchy produce such as greens and zucchini whenever you can. It may not sound sexy, but it works.


Vegetables add volume to meals without a lot of calories, and they contain filling fiber—both of which make them an effective weight-loss tool. They’re also packed with essential nutrients and antioxidants that can lower or help manage many chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.


And yet diet culture has conditioned us to believe that dropping excess pounds requires deprivation and a lack of delicious, whole foods—a style of eating that is 100% unsustainable. Sure, diets can be effective for short-term weight loss, but research shows that most people don’t keep it off down the road. For example, a 2020 meta-analysis published in BMJ that included 121 clinical trials found that most diets helped participants lose weight in the first six months and improve certain health measures, like blood pressure, regardless of the method they tried. But that weight loss didn’t last by the one-year mark.


What does appear to work best for long-term success: Making small changes that you can maintain, versus trying to do a total diet overhaul. Adding an extra serving of vegetables to your plate, or replacing higher-calorie foods with produce, per the Medical Clinics of North America, are good examples of small but sustainable changes that can help you lose weight. Now, you may be wondering—is there one veggie that’s the absolute best to reach for?


As a dietitian who has helped many clients with weight management over the years, I can tell you that the No. 1 vegetable for weight loss is the one that you will eat. Think about it: The only way to reap all the health benefits from veggies is to actually eat them. Every vegetable has nutritional value (yes, even starchy ones like potatoes), so there is no need to get into the weeds about which might have an edge over another.



Why Should You Eat Vegetables for Weight Loss?

Research shows that people who eat plenty of vegetables tend to weigh less than those who don’t. In addition to providing a large and satisfying pile of food, veggies can take the place of other higher-calorie foods. One review of studies, published in Nutrients, found that increasing veggie consumption led to decreased weight over time. And a 2019 meta-analysis published in the journal Advances in Nutrition concluded that people who ate more vegetables were 22% less likely to gain weight in the long term (up to 12 years in some of the included studies!). Those who ate about three to four servings (200 to 300 grams) of veggies per day had the lowest risk of overweight and obesity.


The fiber in vegetables can help with weight loss in a couple of different ways. Fiber is a nutrient that has bulk that helps fill you up, but since it isn’t digestible, it doesn’t provide any calories. It also moves slowly through your digestive tract and stimulates the release of satiety hormones like GLP-1 and PYY, per a review published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, so you feel satisfied longer after a meal. Finally, the fiber in vegetables causes a more gradual and lower insulin response that also stabilizes your appetite.



Eat the Veggies You Love

Because there are merits to pretty much every vegetable out there, go for the ones you enjoy. And if you prefer your veg with a bit of butter, creamy sauce, cheese, dressing or other not-so-healthy fat, consider this permission to add them. Yes, you read that right. Putting fat on your veggies—I’m not saying a ton, but some—can be a great way to enhance or complement the flavor. (These garlic-butter cauliflower bites, for example, would not be nearly as delicious without the butter, olive oil and Parmesan cheese.) Weight loss is only successful if you can maintain your healthy eating habits for the long term, and nobody wants to eat boring vegetables forever!


Plus, there’s evidence that the benefits of eating more vegetables outweigh any negative impact of a little butter or cheese. In fact, adding a source of fat can actually help your body absorb vitamins in vegetables like vitamins A, E, C and K.


It’s also human nature to prioritize tastiness over healthfulness when making food choices. An intervention study of 130,000 college students, published in Psychological Science, found that adding flavor-focused labels to vegetable dishes rather than health-focused ones increased the amount people reached for by 29%. A small mindset shift from “I have to eat vegetables because they are good for me” to “these veggies are delicious” might make you more likely to eat them.



Bottom Line

The best vegetable for helping you reach your weight-loss goals and improve your overall health is the one you will actually eat. Since filling at least half of your plate with vegetables is a great tool for weight loss, focusing on consuming a variety of vegetables is a great way to make it more appealing and sustainable. Don’t be afraid to use some butter or ranch dressing on those veggies to make them delicious, either!

 

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Canada to donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to combat mpox outbreaks in Africa

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The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.

It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.

Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”

Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.

Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.

On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.

Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”

But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”

“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.

Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.

Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.

Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.

“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.

“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

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HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.

The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.

Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.

“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”

The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.

A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.

Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.

“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.

Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.

The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.

“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.

Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.

The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.

“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.

Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.

Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.

A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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