If you are planning to overhaul your diet soon because you want to lose body fat, Brazilian scientists have a tip for you. Incorporating three apples or three pears into your daily diet reduces your weight by nearly 2 kilos over a period of 12 weeks. This is shown in a somewhat older human study published in Nutrition.

Study
In 2003, researchers from the State University of Rio de Janeiro published a small pilot study in which forty women aged 30-50 served as subjects. The women were on the heavier side and, strictly speaking, still healthy. However, their cholesterol, glucose, and insulin levels raised fears that their health would deteriorate in the foreseeable future.

The researchers divided the women into an experimental group and a control group. The women in the experimental group ate 3 apples or 3 pears every day for 12 weeks. The women in the control group ate 3 oatmeal cookies daily.

You can see the nutritional value of the fruit and the cookies below. Click on the table for a larger version.

The fruit provided less energy than the cookies. Moreover, the glycemic index of the apples and pears was lower than that of the cookies. The glycemic index of apples is 56, while that of oatmeal cookies is 77.

Incidentally, the researchers were co-funded by the Associacao Brasileira de Produtores de Maca, a national organization for the apple sector.

Results
After 12 weeks, the women who had eaten apples or pears had lost 1.3 kilos. That modest weight loss was statistically significant.

The women who had received oatmeal cookies had lost 0.9 kilos. However, this weight loss was not statistically significant.

Click on the table below for a larger version.

In the women in the fruit group, the fasting insulin level rose from 12.3 to 16.7. Although the increase was not statistically significant, it did fall within the prediabetic range at the end of the trial.

The glucose level did decrease by 2 points. That decrease was statistically significant, but also small. All in all, it does not appear that incorporating fruit into the diet improved insulin sensitivity.

Mechanism
The researchers suspect that apples and pears induce modest weight loss primarily because they are low-glycemic foods. Replacing high-glycemic foods with low-glycemic ones results in lower glucose levels - and consequently, possibly greater satiety. This reduces energy intake.

Conclusion
"Eating three fruits per day may decrease energy intake due to greater satiety", the researchers write.