Friday, September 12, 2008

Foods That Speed Up Metabolism

By Alexa Bjorkin


There are foods that make you fatter and foods that make you skinnier. What's the difference? The foods that make you fatter take minimal energy to burn. They are immediately processed and stored at fat. Foods that make you skinnier are actually foods that speed up metabolism by using up more energy to digest them.

The foods that speed up metabolism are classified as "negative calorie foods". These foods do not have some mystical properties that erase the number of calories in your body (don't I wish?) so the name can be a bit misleading.

Instead, what these foods do is make your body work harder when digesting them. These foods possess a low amount of calories to begin with but are full of fibrous materials that the body cannot easily break down.

So this means that your body requires more energy to turn the food into fuel (burns more calories) than the total amount of calories in the food to begin with. Thus, there is a negative amount of calories; you've used enough energy to burn off the calories of the food you ate PLUS some! Then your body uses stored fat as energy to complete the digestion process, thereby boosting up your metabolism.

Did I confuse you? Here is another example. I'll keep it simple.

Let's say you eat half of a grapefruit that contains about 40 calories and it takes your body 90 calories to digest it. You have used all of the grapefruit's 40 calories PLUS 50 additional calories from stored fat resulting in a net calorie loss.

For most of us, it works just the opposite. We devour a rich chocolate brownie that contains 175 calories but our body on uses 75 calories to digest it. We now have GAINED 100 calories to be stored as fat for later use. That's not a good thing. Unless you are working out regularly to burn up those calories, they're going to just sit there around your waist adding to your already bulging midsection.

So to get you started with negative calorie foods that speed up metabolism, I have created an extensive list consisting of mostly fruits and vegetables. Add these to your menu and you will begin to see and feel the natural changes in your body.

Salads - lettuce, tomato, onion, carrots cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower and radish; go light on the salad dressing. Use toppings like raisins or sunflower seeds sparingly since they are higher in carbohydrates.

You can also try steamed vegetable as a side dish using items such as broccoli, carrots, onion, cauliflower, cabbage, asparagus, green beans, spinach and zucchini. You can flavor with garlic if you like.

A low fat fruit cup is a healthy dessert. Try using strawberries, cranberries, mango, orange, pineapple, raspberries, tangerine, papaya, grapefruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, apple slices, and watermelon.

Smoothies are one of my favorites. You can use any combination of the fruits above mixed with ice or low fat frozen yogurt. Remember, you can also use these fruits in their juice form but fresh-squeezed is healthier than juice from concentrate.

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