Negative Calories
Foods said to burns calories, fact or fiction. Find out now!
These foods produce more enzymes than necessary for digestion, what happens to the excess, does it enhance your metabolic rate burning more calories.
There’s an avalanche of information about obesity, diseases associated with obesity, healthy eating habits and weight loss (with good reason, 65% of Americans are overweight and flirting with various diseases) so I’d like to look at something I think you may find interesting; negative calorie foods. Ok all foods do have some calorie content but these are foods that actually require more calories to breakdown and digest than the actual food contains.
Vegetables: Asparagus, beets , broccoli, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, celery , chicory chili peppers, cucumbers, endive, garlic, lettuce , onions, spinach, turnip, zucchini
Fruit: Apples, cranberries, grapes, lemons, mangos, oranges, papayas, pinapples, raspberries Strawberries, tangerines
One theory surrounding negative calorie foods states that they produce more than enough enzymes for digestion and that the excess enzymes are may be used to help accelerate the metabolic processes thus enhancing the body’s ability to burn calories.
According to a recent study performed by Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D., of the University of California, at San Francisco, a vegetarian diet consisting mostly of fruits and vegetables, was adhered to by research subjects as an experimental study on the reversal of heart disease. As a result each of the research subjects (all suffering from heart disease), lost an average of 20 pounds without cutting calories or limiting serving sizes.
In light of the fact that these subjects were 40 years and older (with relatively slowed metabolisms) and the research performed involved no prescribed exercise program, this constitutes a dramatic weight loss that could only be attributed to the consumption of various fruits & vegetables. Even though this information is theory we do know that a diet high in fruits and vegetables can benefit us on many levels:
- most fruits function as natural laxatives
- fruit regulates your body's digestive process
- fruit provides roughage and fiber that is important in helping your body get rid of wastes
- fruit contains important vitamins
- fruits contain important anti-oxidants protecting your body from the damage caused by free radicals
- vegetables are natural foods and contain different vitamins, minerals and thousands of other plant chemicals
- vegetables can help control weight
- vegetables are low in fat and calories, a good source of dietary fiber and provide us with extra energy
So whether you believe the negative calorie theory or not it just makes good sense to keep plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables on hand to nourish your body daily.
"Everything in nature contains all the power of nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff".-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
Reference: NFPT Personal Trainer Magazine
