Increase your intake of apples, pears, berries, onions and other flavonoid-rich fruits and vegetables to avoid piling on the pounds. This is the conclusion of a new study published in The BMJ.

Share on Pinterest Researchers suggest that eating more fruits and vegetables rich in flavonoids – such as apples, pears and berries – may aid weight maintenance.

There are more than 6,000 types of flavonoids, which are naturally present in most fruits and vegetables. Some of the more well-known types include flavonols, flavones, flavanones and anthocyanins.

Previous studies have associated dietary flavonoids with weight loss, though the team involved in this latest study – including Monica L. Bertoia of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA – notes that most research has focused on the weight-loss effect of flavan-3-ol, a flavonoid found in green tea.

What is more, Bertoia and colleagues say most previous studies assessing the link between dietary flavonoids and weight loss have only included a small number of participants who were overweight or obese.

For their study, the team set out to assess how intake of seven types of flavonoids influenced the weight of 124,086 men and women aged 27-65 who were part of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, the Nurses’ Health Study or the Nurses’ Health Study II.

Every 4 years between 1986-2011, participants were required to complete a dietary questionnaire, from which the researchers assessed their intake of dietary flavonols, flavones, flavanones, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins and flavonoid polymers.

Participants’ weight, lifestyle habits and diagnosis of any diseases were assessed through a questionnaire completed every 2 years.