Garlic’s reputation is well established and has been heralded for its health benefits for centuries. The Greeks, Romans, Native Americans, Japanese, Chinese, and Egyptians have been using it as a tasty cooking spice and health elixir. Recent research also indicates that weight management is another viable reason for adding this seasoning to our diet. Overweight people everywhere should consider garlic’s natural weight loss properties as a part of an overall diet strategy.
Research Studies Reveal Garlic’s Impact on Weight Loss
A study that investigated garlic’s effect on mice that were fed a high-fat diet shows promising results about this popular seasoning’s link to weight management. In one study, researchers gave mice a diet aimed at fattening them up for a period of eight weeks. Then, the scientists fed mice the same high-fat diet with two to five percent garlic-approved additives mixed in over the next seven weeks.
Study findings indicated that the addition of this flavorful seasoning to the mice’s diet decreased body weight with an added benefit of less fat stored. Shape reports that this spice minimized the negative impact of the unhealthy diet on both blood makeup and liver health. Oxford Academic explains garlic’s antiobesity influence as attributable to the activation of AMPK, a boost in thermogenesis, and suppression of genes linked to adipogenesis.
Our schedules often prohibit us from finding the time to develop the kind of physique we want to achieve for a healthy life. Disheartening as it may be, this fact also leads to the unnecessary accumulation of fat which only invites poor health. There’s the saying that “The Body is your Temple, keep it clean for the soul to reside in”. The statement though might be highly metaphoric but one thing is for sure, if you want to stay healthy and fit, you need to look out for yourself. This includes consuming the right kind of food. A lot of buzz is out there regarding ‘The Raw Food Diet’. Well, let’s just dig in and see what it’s all about.
Understanding the functions of the human body is very important when picking an effective weight loss technique. The human body undergoes life-sustaining metabolism in order for it to function. There is catabolism which is the primary function of breaking up molecules found in food that we consume to generate energy. There is also anabolism which is the fusion of the obtained energy into the cells. For proper metabolism to take place in the body, a person will need to take in the right quantity of nutrients such as minerals, carbohydrates, vitamins, and proteins.
Because of the modern lifestyle of most people, it is becoming quite common to find people who are overweight and obese. The main reason for this is that
people are taking in more calories than they burn. This leads to the body accumulating excess fat. Like most people, you will want to look into ways through which you can reduce your excess body weight. A popular way to cutting down your weight is to do vigorous daily exercises. However, eating spicy food in order to lose weight is becoming a trendy weight loss trick that
is being embraced by many people.
How spicy food increases the body’s metabolism
Spicy Foods
There are several factors that enhance metabolism in your body. Exercising is definitely a good way to increase the rate of metabolism in your body. Once you exercise, you increase the rate of anabolism as well as catabolism. The net result is that more calories get used up than those you are taking in. The temperature of the body goes up and this makes it ideal for more calories to be burnt up. When you take spicy food, you tend to sweat because the temperature of your body has gone up. By eating hot spicy food, your body temperature goes up by a margin of up to 8% which increases your body’s metabolism by the same margin.
The higher the temperature your body has, the more energy it expends. Cayenne which is a component of most spices is ideal to help you lose a few pounds. You don’t really need to do vigorous exercises in order to lose weight while you are using spicy food as your weight loss technique. However, it’s good to note that spicy food won’t enable you to lose large amounts of fat fast but rather it helps your body adapt a more efficient metabolism which eventually helps you in losing weight.
Several studies have been conducted and it has been proven that by eating it, your appetite goes down a notch. Of course, this is a good thing in your fight against excess weight because you will consume less while enhancing your body’s metabolism. The cravings for sweet salty foods which are also fatty become lesser once you consume cayenne. With you eating spicy food, there is a lesser chance of overeating also.
How does spicy food help you lose weight?
Hot Peppers
Most spices do have cayenne as a compound. Cayenne is hot and the element that gives it that hotness is called capsaicin. Capsaicin is also found in habaneras, jalapenos,
and a wide variety of chilies. In the many types of research done in chili-eating countries, it has been established that people who consume chili more have lesser chances of getting blood clot-related
ailments. It is preferred because it tends to thin the blood.
There are numerous studies conducted on the effect of spicy food on a person’s body. While there are those that will argue on the exact effect it has on the body, many agree that your body will get a higher temperature during and after you have eaten the food. Even at that brief moment, the metabolism will be higher than normal and this obviously means that you are burning up more energy.
When you eat capsaicin-spiced food, your stomach tends to feel fuller earlier than if you were eating nonspiced food. Studies have shown that men who took hot sauces ate 200 calories less than those who ate food without spices. These studies done severally by different organizations have found that by eating spiced food, you will reduce calorie intake by up to 16%. If eating lesser food combined with a higher metabolism can be sustained for a reasonable length of time, then you can rest assured that good weight loss results will be realized.
Eating spicy food is definitely a great thing if you are looking forward to losing the excess waistline that you have acquired over the years. While this is a very effective way to help you not gain weight, it might prove to be a hard endeavor if you are looking to lose weight when you are only using it. However, with a lot of discipline and a high appetite for spices in your food, you can rest assured that within a year (or a reasonable length of time), your weight will be less by several pounds. For faster results, many people will consider doing vigorous physical exercises together with adopting a spicy food diet. The results will be reached at a much faster rate this way.
Other benefits of eating spicy food
Eating spicy food is good because your food will be tasty. With chili, you have room to make a wide variety of dishes. Besides a nice flavor and the obvious weight loss benefit there are other benefits of eating spicy foods which include;
Capsaicin is used as an anti-inflammatory agent. It is also used in the controlling of pain.
Spicy food with capsaicin is ideal for your body because it helps in the thinning of the blood. This consequently helps your body fight blood clotting diseases which are on the increase.
Spicy food is directly associated with the reduction of cholesterol in the body. Cholesterol is a leading cause of serious diseases such as diabetes, lower blood pressure, and heart attacks among others.
Spicy food boosts the production of serotonin in your body. Serotonin is the compound that helps you feel happy. It is also a compound that reduces stress.
Everybody who isn’t living under a rock has heard that processed foods are very unhealthy. The obvious reason for this is that humans tend to have reactions when they are exposed to weird chemicals and chemicals that can’t be pronounced definitely fall into the category of weird chemicals. A holistic, natural diet is comprised of ingredients that can be pronounced, including many fresh fruits and vegetables as well as grains. But there’s a little more to nutrition than that. A heavy amount of research has shown that various types of processed foods—including red meat, gelatin, or the ever-infamous high fructose corn syrup—result in the increase of a variety of health risks. But what specifically makes processed foods so bad for us? The following article explores this idea.
Processed vs. Unprocessed Foods
Junk Food
Speaking simply, processed foods use artificial ingredients and additives while unprocessed foods use only natural ingredients (think apples, spinach, and the like). It is uncommon to find a food product that doesn’t have chemicals of any sort, but some foods are so processed that they barely resemble their natural-occurring food progenitors. The latter type is the foods people should avoid—or, at least, shove away until the holiday season. While Oreos, MnMs, and Cheetos admittedly taste pretty wonderful, they are filled with artificial colors, sweeteners, and flavors. Cheetos are so far removed from cheese that the flavors of each are highly distinct; Cheetos are distantly evocative of cheese, but their taste holds little direct resemblance to the taste of cheese. And usually, your taste buds will know it instinctively. Anything that tastes “fake” probably is fake—or, at least, uses a significant amount of artificial ingredients.
If your taste buds don’t cause you to run the other way, just turn the product over and look at the ingredients list. Check to see if there are any long, scientific-sounding names. Be honest. Instead of standing in the aisle and squinting at those words in question, employ the five-second rule. If it takes you more than five seconds to sound out the word, that product should not go in your cart. High amounts of sodium and trans fat are other things to look out for although sodium does occur naturally in most foods, it only does so in small amounts. And trans fat is all but manmade, rarely present in nature but booming in various portions of the food industry, most notably the dairy industry. (Have you ever looked at the back of your margarine container?)
Now to return to unprocessed foods: anything you can pluck right out of the dirt obviously qualifies, but people also generally include foods with any combination of natural ingredients, even if they were tossed in a blender or food chopper and therefore technically processed. Unprocessed foods range from whole grain bread to peanut butter to freshly squeezed orange juice. They are generally very easy to digest since there are no unhealthy additives present.
For more information on what makes processed foods bad for you, continue on to the next section.
Problems with Processed
“A raw seed will sprout and grow, whereas a cooked or processed seed will not sprout, and of course, it will not grow either. For days, and even weeks, raw, unripe food will continue to ripen.” ~ Unkown Wiseman
If you keep peeling back the layers of processing in food, you’ll start with the junk foods, move through something ground but only comprising one ingredient (such as peanut butter) and finally get to the living plant matter. The sooner fruit or vegetables are picked, the more life it still contains—and life bolsters life, with plants and animals supporting each other. After all, humans inhale oxygen and exhale CO2, and for plants the complete reverse is true. We give one another the ability to support and nourish our lives. Processed foods have all traces of plant life sucked right out of them, and as the above quote made abundantly clear, life cannot grow from death. Eating processed foods means eating food that is not helping you get the nutrients you need to live.
Some studies also show a connection between junk food and food addiction. Doing pleasurable things releases dopamine, and so eating pleasurable things results in pleasure—making you crave the aforementioned food items over and over again. Processed foods may not be good for people, but their flavors are a guilty pleasure to most of us.
Sugar
All this may seem a little bleak, but here’s some good news: you can turn bad eating habits around any time you want. If you don’t have a major disease like diabetes but your diet choices are getting you there (take it easy on the sugar!), you should schedule an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible and start working on a plan to reform your diet. If you change your eating tune and commit to unprocessed foods, you will in all likelihood be able to reverse health problems before you’re stuck with them. Poor food choices can be damaging to various organs if the damage goes on for a long time. That said, eating healthy, unprocessed food does wonders for any condition, mitigating dangerous unpleasant effects of conditions you’ve been battling for years. It is never too late to begin eating properly.
Conclusion
Perhaps the best tool people have for ditching processed foods is moderation. It’s a lot easier to eat one KitKat than it is to sit at the table with clenched fists, forcing yourself to not eat any. The latter is just a disaster waiting to happen—in the form of KitKat wrappers littering the floor of your room. At least start with the goal to reduce your intake to only healthy amounts before vowing to stop eating junk food altogether. You’re far more likely to be successful with smaller, more frequent goals—that way, you won’t overwhelm yourself. Wean yourself off of the junk food that’s prevalent all over the Western world and see how great you feel, even as early as the next day!
And watch……….:
Unprocessed – how I gave up processed foods (and why it matters) | Megan Kimble:
Just imagine what your life would look like if you owned a machine that was able to whip up a formula of pure goodness that entered your bloodstream and energized your day. The juicer was created to do just that, by turning essential vitamin and mineral-packed fruits and vegetables into one convenient and delicious health drink.
The old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” still holds true. In fact, it is recommended that every individual consume five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Most of us, however, don’t consume even close to the required amount, so tossing them into a juicer is a great way to ensure that we are getting the vitamins that we need. Fruits and vegetables are a great source of essential nutrients, fiber, and antioxidants without the high caloric content existent in many other foods. When substituted for other alternative food choices, maintaining this diet is the number one way to get trim and fit fast.
The fiber and antioxidants that exist naturally in fruit are natural cleansers that help to rid the body of toxic buildup, which in turn helps prevent disease and promote weight loss. Studies have shown that keeping this type of diet also boosts the immune system, increases energy levels, and supports brain health.
The juice made from a juicer is different than your standard carton of orange, apple, or carrot juice at your local grocer because it retains the vitamins and minerals of the fruit by pureeing the actual flesh of the fruit into a form of pulp. It, therefore, has the same health benefits as actually eating the fruit and is also much more easily digested and absorbed into the system because of its fine consistency. Easy digestion allows the consumer to gain from the full health benefits of the fruit.
Are you eager to begin leading a healthier lifestyle? Try this for one week: Every morning, instead of eating your usual less-than-healthy breakfast, substitute it for a fat-free milk or yogurt-based juice drink. Try adding a significant amount of greens to your drink since green vegetables are bursting with nutrients. Besides discovering a myriad of flavorful combinations, you are likely to find that you are more active, alert, energized throughout your day, and gratified that you have made a genuinely healthy choice.
You should also check out the trailer for Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. A great documentary about the health benefits of juicing:
Here’s how a solitary substance having absolutely no calories could be such a significant reason behind gaining weight in addition to colossal health challenges. How you will detect the disguised sodium to safeguard your health.
Sodium is a huge cause of gaining weight and frequently a cause for why the numbers on your scale are not heading down. The typical American consumes two times the quantity of sodium they ought to have on a daily basis, resulting in gaining weight, water retention, as well as the being unable to get rid of persistent weight. Sodium may also cause you to feel more hungry and also thirstier, check the nutrition product labels for high salt amounts and select fresh over commercially prepared as well as restaurant meals. You will see puffiness around your face and mid-section decrease rapidly by merely reducing your salt consumption and selecting more natural food items.
