A new report on weight gain has produced some bad news for the potato industry.

According to the study, from the New England Journal of Medicine, eating more potatoes is likely to lead to more of a weight gain over the years than if eating other foods.

The research stands out because it quantifies how much weight a person is likely to gain or lose over four years based on one additional daily serving of a range of specific foods.

Within the 4-year period, participants gained an average of 3.35 pounds. On the basis of increased daily servings of individual dietary components, 4-year weight change was most strongly associated with the intake of potato chips (1.69 pounds), potatoes (1.28 pounds), sugar-sweetened beverages (1 pounds), unprocessed red meats (0.95 pounds), and processed meats (0.93 pounds).

It was inversely associated with the intake of vegetables (-0.22 pounds), whole grains (-0.37 pounds), fruits (-0.49 pounds), nuts (-0.57 pounds), and yogurt (-0.82 pounds).

The study looked at 120,877 US women and men who were free of chronic diseases and not obese at baseline, with follow-up periods from 1986 to 2006, 1991 to 2003, and 1986 to 2006.

The relationships between changes in lifestyle factors and weight change were evaluated at 4-year intervals, with multivariable adjustments made for age, baseline body-mass index for each period, and all lifestyle factors simultaneously.

Cohort-specific and sex-specific results were similar and were pooled with the use of an inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis.