Are you searching for food that fills you up, but that has almost ZERO calories? Lots of people in Irvine, CA are doing the same thing. Finding foods with low or no calories isn’t as hard as you think. You start with food that normally is lower calorie, contains fiber and burns more calories to digest as it contains. These are called negative-calorie foods, which is a hot topic today.
Is there such a thing as a negative calorie food?
You hear celery tossed around frequently when this effect is mentioned. Digestion requires energy. In fact, it takes between 5 and 10 percent of your daily energy expenditure. Even though celery contains few calories, it still takes energy to digest the food. The net calorie intake for these foods are minimal, but not necessarily negative. Other vegetables, like leafy greens, alfalfa sprouts and even fruit like cantaloupe and watermelon are almost zero calories because of thermogenesis and the cost of calories it takes to digest the food.
Adding more flavor doesn’t mean adding calories.
Adding a tablespoon of butter or mayonnaise to add flavor will definitely increase the calorie count, so why not add almost zero calorie herbs and spices, like ginger, garlic or cayenne pepper. Spicy cayenne pepper or other hot foods actually can boost the calorie burning. It causes the heat to build in your body and increase its temperature. That increases your metabolism, burning even more calories and lowering the calorie count for the food that’s spiced. Cinnamon, cumin and turmeric also have weight loss benefits.
There’s a reason why salads are often the center of diets.
The best diet foods are actually quite popular. Not only are the leafy lettuce and sprouts excellent as zero calorie foods, so are some of the toppers, like radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers and mushrooms. Slice up some summer squash like zucchini or make zoodles. You’ll have almost no calories per serving. Even nicer as a side dish are fresh asparagus. Steam baby asparagus and top with a little lemon and salt. It’s the perfect “almost no calorie” side dish.
- Cauliflower is another low calorie food that has almost no net calories when you consider those you burn during digestion. Fennel bulb is another dish that has almost no calories, depending on how it’s prepared.
- One popular green for salads in bags is cabbage, since it stays crispy longer. One cup of chopped cabbage is just 29 calories. Mix it with other veggies or grate it with apples and carrots and you have a super low calorie satisfying salad.
- Bell peppers are also low in calories and high in vitamin C, especially the red ones. You can eat them raw or stuff them with brown rice, beans or lean ground beef and tomatoes for a delicious lower calorie dinner.
- Broccoli is another veggie you can eat raw or cooked with just 31 calories for every cup of chopped broccoli. For a few calories more, 7 to be exact, you can have a cup of cooked green beans.
For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness