What You Eat Is as Important as How Much You Eat – Fat Burning Foods

Longevity studies have shown the importance of not only eating the right number of calories to support your metabolism but eating low-glycemic nutrient-dense calories to prolong the length, health, and quality of your life. For some this might indeed mean having to cut back on calories. But for most this won’t be the case.

Our ancestors evolved by eating a diet of complex carbohydrates (high-fiber grains that took a long time to digest), lean protein, and fresh fruits and vegetables. In our current culture of processed foods, low-nutrition junk foods, and supersized meals, a person can go for weeks without eating a single piece of fresh produce. Because of large-scale, single-crop agri-business, which picks most produce before it has even ripened so that it can be shipped to supermarkets hundreds or even thousands of miles away, we end up eating almost no fresh, ripe fruits and vegetables. In addition, our food is grown in soil so depleted in minerals that we get little nutritional value from it.

It does not help that we live in a culture that fears fats and carbohydrates. Most of the popular diet plans restrict one of these food groups.

Fear of Carbohydrates

• People avoid carbohydrates because they think they are fattening. Some of the most popular, longstanding programs on the market such as the Atkins diet are based on the premise that you must severely restrict carbohydrates to lose weight. This is not true. Because you need a basic amount of carbohydrates just to keep brain function and other metabolic proesses efficient, low-carbohydrate diets can make you feel exhausted and irritable. No one can stay on a diet for long that leaves them depleted of energy and unable to concentrate.
• A very low-carbohydrate diet (or fasting) can induce ketosis. This condition occurs when the body is unable to completely burn fat for energy. Ketones are by-products of the incompletely burned fat. If there is no glucose (carbohydrates) available, then the body (including the brain) can use ketones for energy. The World Health Organization recommends at least 50 grams of carbohydrates daily to avoid ketosis.
• In the Fat Burning Metabolic Fitness Nutritional Plan presented in The Fat Burning Bible, I ask readers to eat a diet that includes 40 percent low-glycemic carbohydrates. Choosing the correct kind of carbohydrates is an important part of losing weight, maintaining weight, and staying healthy. Sugary and over-processed foods such as candy, cake, and soft drinks are simple carbohydrates. Bran muffins, brown rice, and whole-grain breads are complex carbohydrates. Also, each fruit vegetable, and grain has a different rate of digestion based on the glycemic index. Carbohydrates that digest slowly and release their energy into the bloodstream gradually result in less stored fat than those that digest quickly, releasing their energy in amounts greater than the body can use.

Fear of Fats

• Many people are afraid of eating fats because they associate them with instant weight gain. When my nutritionist, Molly Kimball, evaluates clients for my health and performance enhancement program (PEP), she often finds that people who are trying to lose weight frequently avoid fats. They believe that everything they eat must be low-fat or fat-free. This makes for a boring and tasteless diet. Their typical breakfast might be dry toast or a bagel or cereal with low-fat milk. Lunch might be a sandwich with very little meat and no mayonnaise or cheese. Dinner might be pasta, brown rice, or a potato and with a little protein. Eating all of these carbohydrates by themselves without a sufficient amount of lean meat (30 percent of the total diet) and acceptable fats (30 percent of the total diet) can trigger an insulin release, causing blood sugar to dip.
• No one can avoid fats and stay healthy. Because fat is an energy source, your body needs a certain amount to function efficiently. Most fats are commonly found in animal foods or can be synthesized in your body from carbohydrates. However, your body cannot make these essential fatty acids, which are omega-6 and omega-3. A deficiency of essential fatty acids will produce symptoms such as dry and scaly skin, dermatitis, and hair loss.
• Clients are often shocked to find out how the pounds begin to drop when they begin eating the right amount of fats. Again, the type of fats that you eat-mono-and polyunsaturated fats versus saturated fats – is the most important factor in weight loss, weight maintenance, and good health.
• Studies have shown that a healthy nutritional program consists of 40 percent low-glycemic carbohydrates, 30 percent lean protein, and 30 percent acceptable fats.
• This Paragraph was taken out page 10, chapter 2, of the book called: The Fat Burning Bible which you can purchase on Amazon explains fat burning foods. The book is very informative and is easy to understand.