CHAMPAIGN, Ill., June 15 (UPI) -- Frozen foods may be a way to control portion size, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Research dietitians Sandra M. Hannum and LeaAnn Carson tracked dieters that used the Food Guide Pyramid, a nutrition plan established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1992, and dieters who ate two frozen packaged entrees each day plus recommended servings from the food pyramid. Both diets contained about 1,700 daily calories with equal amounts of carbohydrates, protein and fat.
The male subjects all weighed about 214 pounds and were considered obese. Those who followed the frozen-entree diet lost more weight -- about 16.3 pounds -- compared with the other subjects, who lost about 11.2 pounds.
"The pyramid group had to figure out what to eat, and estimate how much they actually consumed," Hannum said. "There was much more room for error."
The findings appear in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
