In the most comprehensive study of its type, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the cost of obesity at $170 billion a year in 2008 dollars. Twenty five percent of US adults are overweight, and the number continues to increase rapidly.

The reasons people gain weight are simple. They eat too much and exercise too little.  Scientists have identified the food and drinks that are the most to blame
for America’s bulging waste lines. A recently published study in The New England Journal of Medicine entitled “Changes in Diet and Lifestyle and Long-Term Weight Gain in Women and Men” based its findings on the health histories of 120,877 U.S. women and men. The people were “free of chronic diseases and not obese” as each began the study. The average person in the study gained 3.34 pounds over four years. The study by Harvard scientists included factors which could influence weight loss and weight gain such as exercise and smoking.

24/7 Wall St. examined the results in the Harvard report and compared them to data from the CDC and the United States Department of Agriculture to see which foods may worsen or lessen the effects of obesity.  It was a sobering experience.

If Americans were to ever take these results to heart, which seems unlikely, it would have a major impact on the food business. For example, the study found thee the single largest contributor to weight gain is the amount of potato chips people consume. Fast food chains, food retailers, and  food processing companies make billions of dollars a year from their sale.

These are the six foods that cause the most weight gain per serving, and the five foods that cause the most weight loss. They are the Foods Making Americans Fat And Skinny.