Research

Energy balance

Higher habitual fruit intake is inversely associated with weight change (decrease) and waist circumference, whereas vegetable intake alone shows no significant association with weight change.

To support weight management, prioritize increasing your daily fruit intake. For every 100 grams of fruit you add to your diet, you can expect a small reduction in annual weight gain (approx. 14g). While vegetables alone did not show a significant weight effect in this analysis, high fruit intake is linked to reduced waist circumference and a lower risk of developing obesity.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Higher intake of fruits was inversely associated with weight change (decrease) (beta-coefficient per 100-g increment, -13.68 g/year; 95% CI, -22.97 to -4.40). No significant changes could be observed for combined fruit and vegetable consumption or vegetable consumption. Increased intake of fruits was inversely associated with changes (decrease) in waist circumference (beta: -0.04 cm/year; 95% CI, -0.05 to -0.02).
Lukas Schwingshackl et al. · PLoS ONE · 2015

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies (observational), not RCTs, with high heterogeneity (I2 > 90% for some metrics).

Source

Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Changes in Anthropometric Variables in Adult Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

Lukas Schwingshackl et al. · PLoS ONE · 2015

DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0140846

Meta-analysis · 17 studiesCited 219×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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