What do naturally slim people eat?

A new “Slim by Design” study conducted by researchers at the Cornell University Food & Brand Lab investigated the characteristics and behaviours of people who are within their healthy weight range and who don’t struggle with weight problems, with one question in mind: What’s their secret?

Well, it turns out, the secret is that there is no secret. There are no freaky paleo-style or otherwise shocking dietary revelations here that could help kick start any gimmicky new food regimen craze. What these people do is live healthy lives, eating the right kinds of foods (and responsibly).

In fact, what’s so great about this research, which is being presented at Obesity Week 2015 in Los Angeles, is that it backs up what we already know. Nearly two thirds of the respondents — 147 people in total, 118 being female — eat vegetables with dinner every day (63 per cent). The majority also prefers chicken over red meat (61 per cent). They’re veggie-loving at lunch as well as at dinner, with more than a third of the slim people surveyed enjoying a salad (35 per cent) in the middle of the day.

But despite the integration of vegetables in their diets, these people aren’t for the most part vegetarians, with only 7 per cent identifying as such. Nor do they abstain from other pleasurable things; 81 per cent of slim respondents drank alcohol, and while the majority enjoy soft drinks (65 per cent), more would opt for a diet soda (33 per cent) over a Coke (10 percent). They snack, of course, much like the rest of us, but do so with healthy food (fruit at 39 per cent, nuts at 20 percent).