Meals That Can Boost Your Metabolism, Help You to Lose Weight and Stay Slim, and Improve Your Immune System
You are What You Eat !
Eating the right food at the right time will increase your energy, help you to manage your weight and ward off major illness. Study after study has demonstrate that people who lose as little as 4kg reap all these rewards.
The meals that follow come courtesy of an exclusive weight-loss plan from Reader's Digest. Derive from the latest research, these meals deliver specific nutrients to help you fight disease and shed pounds. Not weight conscious ? You can still benefit from this plan; just allow yourself more generous portions .
One good idea emerged from all the controversy surrounding high-protein diets : Researchers have found that eating a meal with plenty of protein leaves you feeling more satisfied for longer when compared to a meal loaded with the low quality protein, leading to a gradual increase of blood sugar. Believe in Protein Power.
Many high-carbohydrate meals are absorbed quickly and send blood sugar on a roller coaster ride, taking your appetite with it and depleting your energy.
2. Disease-fighting at Lunch
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| Rainbow Salad with Tuna Sauce |
Many foods contain antioxidants, but fruits and vegetables may be the richest source. Behaving like chemical warriors. Antioxidants neutralize molecules known as free radicals before arteries and other cells can be harmed. This protect you from heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and diabetes, which is why antioxidant foods figure so prominently in recent studies.
Forget pills : Antioxidants work best when consumed in foods. In fact, the National Cancer Institute has been recommending more fruits and vegetables for men - up to nine daily servings. A serving equals a piece of fruit, a half-cup of cut vegetables, a cup of lettuce, or a small glass of juice. The typical salad delivers two to three servings. This lunch dishes up at least four antioxidant-rich servings of vegetables.
3. Fat-Burning at Dinner
The mineral calcium is a powerful weight-loss star, and weight-loss plans can capitalize on it. Scientists stumbled on calcium's magic by accident. In a Tennessee study of blood pressure in obese African Americans, people who added two cups of yoghurt a days to their diet lost an average of 5 kg of body fat in 1 year, even though they didn't eat less. A follow-up study found that people on high-calcium diet, the equivalent of over three daily servings of dairy, lost more weight and fat than dud people on a low-calcium diet- and again, both groups ate the same calories.
Researchers believe calcium works by encouraging fat-cells to stop getting fatter. Instead, the cells burn extra fat without your having to go anywhere near the treadmill. This dinner features tofu; it's calcium-rich and it helps lower blood cholesterol . More fat burners : milk, yoghurt , cheese, canned fish, calcium-fortified juice.
4. Mediterranean Snack
The traditional Mediterranean diet offers an abundance of fruits and vegetables, legumes, cheese, wine , and healthy fats from nuts, olives and olive oil. The fish and nuts provide filling, healthy protein; the produce delivers loads if antioxidants. Researchers studying thousands of Greek adults found that those who most closely ate a Mediterranean diet were least likely to die from heart disease and cancer .
5. Eat More, Lose Weight : High Fibre Food
Yes, you can and no, this isn't a scam. Just pick foods rich in fibre. High-fibre foods have what's officially called low-energy density ; that translates to few calories relative to weight, which means you can pile your plate high with these foods without fear of calorie overload.
Fibre also aids weight loss because it's filling. Most high-fibre foods take a lot of chewing, triggering your body's fullness sensors. Plus, you absorb the food more slowly so you feel full longer and are less susceptible to hunger-inducing quick rise and fall of blood sugar.
6. Hot Tomato
Here's a finding any man could love : Harvard scientists discovered that eating plenty of pizza seems to lower the risk of prostate cancer. The protective ingredient is tomato sauce or ,more specifically, the plant pigment lycopene in tomato sauce. The substance is most concentrated in cooked tomato products like sauce, ketchup and tomato soup ; cooking also makes it easier for the body to absorb.
Preliminary research on women suggests a diet rich in lycopene and tomato sauce may lower a woman's risk for breast and other cancer, as well as heart disease.
More Lycopene-rich food:
Pink grapefruit; watermelon
7. Smart Food : Fish
Studies abound on the health benefits of eating fish : lower risk of stroke in men eating fish at least once a month; reduced risk of Alzheimer's among people eating fish at least once a week; and heart health from two weekly servings of fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sardines). Though there are concerns about mercury levels in fish, only a few are worrisome. Most people can safely eat a few servings a week.
More Good Fatty Fish Options : Trout, sea bass, bluefish, catfish
extract from Reader Digest - Dec 2010
