Reaching one's optimum weight requires a knowledge base and discipline sufficiently complex to feel overwhelming to many. But there's something to celebrate in this regard: certain foods are actually short-cuts to weight loss (including raw vegan superfoods), actively promoting fat burning and increased metabolism. Adopting a few of the healthy foods from the following diet food list may produce impressive results.
Drinking Coffee for Weight Loss
Both green tea and coffee contain caffeine, which promote increased calorie burning through raising the heart rate. Coffee has many times more caffeine, however: a cup typically contains 40-150 milligrams of caffeine (instant coffee has less than filtered), and specialty cafe drinks may pack up to 500 milligrams.
The downsides of drinking coffee, however, are considerable; remember that heavy doses of caffeine encourage hypertension (high blood pressure), dependence, energy spikes/crashes, and withdrawal. Adding sugar and fat to drinks, in the form of milk, cream, and other additives, may also outweigh the weigh loss benefits of coffee.
Losing Weight with Green Tea
Green tea contains about 15-30 milligrams of caffeine per cup, which may still invite dependence and withdrawal if consumed in significant quantities. The weight-loss perk of green tea, as opposed to coffee, is that green tea contains the chemical EGCG, which is known to boost brain and nervous system activity and aid calorie burning. EGCG does not increase heart rate.
Milk and Calcium for Fat Burning
Calcium has been discovered to kick-start the metabolism; one study at the University of Tennessee concluded that dieters who took 1200-1300 milligrams of calcium per day lost twice as much weight as those who didn't. Calcium-rich milk may be a potent weight-loss tool.
Milk is also rich in complex carbohydrates, which help maintain optimum weight through keeping blood sugar at appropriate levels. Foods composed of simpler carbohydrates, such as highly processed and sugary foods, spike blood sugar, jacking insulin release and promoting the storage of these sugars as fat.
Spicy Foods for Losing Weight
Eating one spicy meal a day has been shown to (remarkably) increase metabolism by up to 25%, making spicy foods an excellent choice for burning fat and weight loss. Spicy foods include jalapenos, habaneros, and cayenne chiles and cayenne pepper.
Jalapenos also include the beneficial chemical capsaicin, which (like caffeine) ups calorie consumption through increasing heart rate and boosting metabolism. Habaneros also have a special property: one university in Quebec found that consuming coffee and habaneros each day led to burning up almost 1000 extra calories.
Healthy Whole Grains, Breakfast, and Weight Loss
Whole grain cereal and oatmeal are both rich in complex carbohydrates and fiber, which promote healthy metabolism. One Navy study of recruits found that eating breakfast may increase metabolism up to 10% over those who do not eat breakfast, making this meal a part of one's weight-loss arsenal.
Burn Fat by Snacking on Raw Foods
Eating often seems to be key for maintaining metabolic activity: when blood sugar is low, metabolism sinks, and when food is eaten the body will be of a mind to store it as fat. Healthy, regular snacking on whole and fresh foods (which are rich in leptin, the hormone which creates the feeling of being full) may actually trigger weight loss. To read more about the benefits of raw foods, see Dramatic Benefits of the Raw Food Diet and Top Reasons to Adopt the Raw Food Diet.
Source:
"15 fat-burning foods to help boost your metabolism." NY Daily News 28 Apr. 2009: n. pag. Web. 27 May 2010.
Cass, M.D., Hyla, and Patrick Holford. Natural Highs: Feel Good All the Time. New York: Avery, 2002. Print.
Josefine Cole - Josefine is a BA graduate of Naropa University's Religious Studies program, which emphasizes self-transformation through practice of ...
