Eat lots of carrots, mangoes and spinach and drink milk daily to control obesity and bring down the excess body weight

Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: Eat lots of carrots, mangoes and spinach and drink
milk daily to control obesity and bring down the excess body weight,
says the city-based National Institute of Nutrition.

The NIN, which fed obese rats with food containing high content of
vitamin A, noticed that the weight of the animals has come down
considerably after 20 weeks. Foods containing high content of vitamin
A like liver, spinach, mangoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe,
dried apricots, egg and milk help in reducing the visceral fat, and
thus bring down the overall weight of the body.

A group of NIN scientists has found that chronic feeding of vitamin
A-enriched diet acts on liver and visceral fat as vitamin-A is capable
of decreasing the activity of an enzyme called 11-beta HSD1 (11-beta
hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1). This enzyme is responsible for
central obesity. The higher the content of this enzyme, the bigger the
body size. A decrease in its levels will lead to decrease in the over
all body weight.

Constant intake of vitamin-A rich foods will also help in visceral fat
loss in obese persons. The NIN team observed that "studying the role
of various nutrients on the regulation of 11ß-HSD1 activity and
expression will help in the evolving of dietary approaches to treat
obesity and insulin resistance".

However, care should be taken to avoid toxic doses of vitamin A. High
doses of vitamin-A, an important micronutrient, bring down the body
weight, but excessive or fatal dosage proves dangerous to the health.

The team also found that vitamin-A rich diet will not alter the weight
of the non-obese or lean persons.