If you want to lose weight, start adding herbs to your diet. You don’t have to spend a fortune at the health food store, just go to the market and get fresh or dried herbs to add both flavor and nutrients—without a lot of calories—to your next meal. Some herbs do more than just add nutrition and flavor, although that still makes using them a good idea. Some speed up weight loss. They help you lose weight in a number of different ways.
Try some fennel seeds for weight loss.
Fennel produces a beautiful plant that looks almost like a fern with soft fronds in the spring that make you want to pet them. However, it’s the seeds and bulbs that are what most people use. Fennel bulbs are edible and good for a diet and the seeds provide a licorice flavor that makes favorite dishes even more flavorful. The seeds, saunf, provide fiber to keep you fuller longer. Both the bulb and seeds act as a diuretic. Eating the seeds may help prevent and reduce the storage of fat by boosting the absorption of vitamins and minerals. The oils in fennel also boost digestion, a key component for weight loss and good health.
Spice up your diet with some cayenne pepper and watch it heat up weight loss.
While there’s just a small difference, the heat from the Capsaicin in pepper can ignite more calories and boost your metabolism. Capsaicin is also known to help reduce hunger and cravings. That certainly makes it a diet aid. Studies show that when people ate meals that had capsaicin—the chemical in peppers that make them hot—it lowered levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin.
Oregano is well known for the flavor it adds to Italian dishes.
Herbs all contain phytochemicals that react in the body in different ways. In oregano, carvacrol, a phytochemical compound, can help increase weight loss. An animal study showed that it helped lower both fat gain and weight gain by changing the synthesis of fat by affecting the various proteins and genes that control its synthesis. While the animal research shows it helps, there are no human studies, but using oregano won’t hurt you and it definitely adds flavor, nutrients and may even help weight loss without adding calories, either.
- Turmeric is from the root of the turmeric plant and gives dishes a bright yellow glow. It contains curcumin, which is an anti-inflammatory and can help with a number of health issues. It also is considered an aid for fat loss and weight loss.
- If you want the curcumin in turmeric to work better, add black pepper to the dish. It contains piperine that’s also beneficial for inhibiting the formation of fat cells and encouraging weight loss.
- Keeping blood sugar level can boost your weight loss efforts. Cinnamon is good when it comes to that. Maintaining blood sugar level helps you control your appetite better, so you aren’t as likely to snack on junk between meals.
- Black cardamom has been found helpful in reducing visceral fat—belly fat—the most dangerous type of fat. It’s also been found to help reduce total body fat in those same animal studies.
For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness