Does type of food matter for weight loss?

Food on table.
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KYW Newsradio’s Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross. 

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — We all know that the fewer calories you take in, the more weight you will lose. 

But the types of food you eat are very important as well.

 

One of the best studies in this area can be found in the journal The Lancet, where scientists put people on a Mediterranean diet but gave them no calorie or fat restrictions. 

Researchers then compared them against a group of people eating far less healthy diets but with strict calorie restrictions. 

What they found is those on a diet of vegetable fats, nuts, fish, olive oil and other common foods in the Mediterranean lost more weight than the other group, which was instructed to limit dietary fat. 

In other words, it's not all about fat — it has more to do with the quality of food you eat.