Eating is believing -- you can feel full on fewer calories

Eating is believing -- you can feel full on fewer calories

University Park, Pa. -- For years, Penn State's Barbara Rolls has shown, in laboratory studies, that a volumetrics approach to weight management based on calorie density of foods and satiety enables people to lose weight and keep it off while eating satisfying portions of delicious food.

Now, meal plans and recipes based on those Penn State laboratory studies are available in Rolls' new book, The Volumetrics Eating Plan, published by HarperCollins, which is on sale as of March 1.

The recipes are quick and easy-to-prepare, contain every day ingredients, and are delicious. The book also contains practical lifestyle advice, menu planners, charts and sidebars on healthy food choices for weight management and 44 color photographs that illustrate how much more food you can eat if you follow the volumetrics way, rather than dieting.

Rolls holds the Guthrie Chair of nutritional sciences at Penn State and directs the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior. Some of the recipes in her new book were actually served in laboratory studies. Others are home favorites of her lab staff. However, most of the recipes were developed by Rolls' partner, Charlie Brueggebors, in his own home kitchen, including Creamy Broccoli Soup and Charlie's Pasta Primavera.

The new book includes recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as advice on snacks and beverages. For example, there's Jennifer's Fruit-Smothered Whole-Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes, Open-Faced Roast Beef Sandwich, and Shrimp Creole developed by Jennifer Meengs, R. D., laboratory manager. Jenny Ledikwe, postdoctoral fellow in nutrition, developed the Mexican Egg Wrap, Zesty Tuna Salad Pita and Santa Fe Steak Salad with Lime Cilantro Dressing. From Rolls' home kitchen, there's B's Favorite Smoothie and Creamy Apricot Oatmeal.

Over the years, Rolls' research has focused on controlling portion size and lowering the energy density, or calories per gram, of meals by incorporating more vegetables and fruit in recipes and also using food products reduced in fat and sugar. The subjects in her studies find the smaller, lower energy dense meals just as palatable, filling and satisfying as big, high-calorie menu items.

In one recent study, for example, when the Penn State researchers reduced calories by 30 percent and serving size by 25 percent by using volumetric principles, the women in the study ate 800 calories less per day and never missed them.

Rolls says, "Weight-loss clinics across the country are using Volumetrics. Both physicians and dietitians love it because it is a healthy, sensible weight management program. They tell me that their patients are asking for simple and practical advice, as well as recipes to help them achieve and sustain their weight loss. This book will give you just that. It is intended as a companion to The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan. You can read more about the science behind Volumetrics in that book."

Rolls' research is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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To read the cover story from U.S. News and World Report on Rolls and her new book, go to http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/050307/home.htm