Friday, January 28th, 2011
Negative Calorie Foods Factor Fiction
Negative Calorie foods have been talked about on weight loss message boards, newspaper articles and on TV shows, but how can we know the facts? Can a food really have negative calories?
Everyone knows that each item of food we consume contains calories which we use for energy. Extra calories are hung on to by the body, resulting in unwanted fat. That’s easy enough to understand but some nutritionists state that some fruit and vegetables , In particular those that the body works harder to digest, actually have the ability to burn calories because working through them uses more energy than what is contained within them. Technically, foods like these should not be named ‘Negative calorie’ foods as really, they do have calorific content, but the body will burn these calories… and more, just by the act of digesting them.
For instance:
Celery contains around 5 calories in a stalk. You start eating the celery and the consumption, digestion and processing of the celery will take more than 8 calories to process, increasing the final number of calories consumed by eating the celery to a negative number, -3!
Different foods which apparently contain a zero calorie effect include lots of unprocessed form, including; beets, spinach, cabbage, asparagus and carrot.
Even water uses more energy to drink and process than the calories it has as it, contains no calories.
Seems amazing? Well it can be, but there are downsides. Your body will struggle to function if you continue to eat only these negative calorie foods to lose weight. Your body needs energy for moving, thinking and exercising and if your digestive system is using more calories than the foods that you eat contain, you will simply burn out. Also, you may also deny yourself of essential fats and proteins which are necessary for a nutritious diet.
Another option for utilizing these negative calorie foods would be to maintain a calorie controlled meal plan that permits you to eat an adequate quantity of calories used for energy daily. Then, when you’re keeping within your calorie ingestion, but need a snack, opt for a negative calorie food. Because these calories really don’t count, you may eat as much as you want and still keep maintaining a low calorie diet.
In conclusion, what do we think about the negative calorie theory? It appears that the negative calorie diet is just another trendy diet for ignoring exercise by relying on food to eliminate more calories. Super low calorie foods are superb as snacks to stay within a set calorie diet; however they must not be depended upon as a crash diet aid. Again it is clear that the most reliable way to lose weight in a healthy way is to exercise regularly and to eat a large variety of nourishing foods.
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