Healthy Foods & Your Metabolism

Diet plays just as much of a role in your health and fitness as a good workout plan. And some foods are definitely better than others.

Today, I’m reviewing 7 of the healthiest foods to boost your metabolism, keep you toned and fit, and support an all-around healthy lifestyle. If these aren’t already in your kitchen, then make sure they make it on to your next grocery list!

Here’s the list…

7 Super Healthy Foods to Keep on Hand

Avocados – Avocados definitely top my list of super healthy foods. A single avocado can have up to 8 grams of protein, enough to give your lean muscle mass a little extra support. Avocados are also high in healthy polyunsaturated fats that have been shown in research to enhance your metabolism, much like the fats found in salmon.

Plus, avocados taste creamy and almost buttery, making them a great alternative for butter or margarine on your next sandwich. And the vitamin B6 content won’t go unnoticed, especially when it comes to your energy!

Almonds – Almonds are my favorite snack, and they should be yours! Of all the nuts, they’re one of the lowest in fat, and they offer some serious kick in the protein and healthy fat department. Snack on them during your mid-afternoon low, and you’ll avoid that daily post-lunch energy drain!

For an even more effective metabolism enhancing snack, check out these Cajun Lemon Pepper Almonds. The Cajun and lemon pepper seasoning will give your fat burning potential an added boost!

Quinoa – I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but if you still haven’t given it a try, today’s the day! Quinoa is one of the healthiest carbs to have on hand for lunch or dinner. Packed full of protein and fiber, this stuff can be used as a side dish in place of rice, or as part of a fresh summer salad. Either way you go, your metabolism will get a serious boost!

Spirulina – If you’re running low on your vegetable intake, spirulina is a great go-to replacement. It’s a blue-green algae that’s typically available in powder form. This stuff is one of the most nutritionally dense foods you can find. It’s high in protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to support a healthy and active lifestyle.

Try this NOW Spirulina Powder in a protein shake or sprinkle it on top of a salad. Trust me, this is one of the healthiest foods you can find!

Hemp Seeds – Hemp seeds also make a great snack, or they can be used as a salad topping for an extra health kick. They’re extremely high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids, they’re high in plant-based protein, and they contain a number of essential amino acids.

Green Tea – Green tea is probably one of the oldest super foods out there, but it remains a contender when it comes to burning fat, boosting metabolism, and supporting your overall health. It’s high in antioxidants and the caffeine is a great source of energy (without the jitters).

If you’re not a big fan of green tea’s taste, or if you’re looking for more regular support, try Mega-T Green Tea with South African Hoodia. It’s a green tea extract that’s been combined with a natural appetite suppressant, South African hoodia.

Lentils – If you’re looking for a healthy plant-based source of protein, lentils are your go-to food. They cook relatively quickly, and they’re packed full of fiber and protein to keep you feeling full and satisfied. Red lentils cook the fastest, so are often considered the most convenient. Mix them with some garlic, onions, veggies, and olive oil, and you’ve got a super healthy meal.

These are just a few healthy foods to keep in your kitchen. Other top picks include berries (especially blueberries and rasperries), salmon, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, pistachios. pistachios, and coconut oil.

What could be better than cold soup on a hot summer day? Sweet corn. Topped with avocado, lime, cilantro and jalapeño salad. You get a lovely meal with nourishing fiber, fats and phytonutrients in one bowl.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 7 ears fresh corn (6 + 1, divided)
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ avocado, diced
• ½ jalapeño, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Instructions

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until tender and golden, for 6 to 7 minutes.
3. Over a large bowl, use a serrated knife to shave the corn kernels from 6 of the ears of corn (approx. 4 cups).
4. Stir the corn into the pot.
5. Add the milk, 2 cups of water and salt, and bring to a boil.
6. Add the corncobs (for added flavor) and simmer until the corn is tender, about 15 minutes.
7. Let cool, remove and discard the corncobs.
8. Puree the soup in a blender until smooth.
9. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 3 hours.
10. Shave the corn from the remaining ear of corn and add to a medium bowl.
11. Add the avocado, jalapeño, cilantro, and lime juice. Stir to combine.
12. Divide the soup among bowls and top with the corn salad.

Nutrition information

• Calories 246
• Total fat 11g
• Saturated fat 3g
• Protein 8g
• Carbohydrate 6g
• Dietary fiber 5g
• Sugar 14g
• Cholesterol 6mg
• Sodium 638mg

Just the other day, a patient told me she had eaten a full meal: a burger, french fries, and a soda. Then, not even two hours later, she was hungry again. She craved something sweet.

After all of those calories, how could she still be hungry, she asked? And she’s not alone.

In overweight and obese patients especially, it turns out the brain’s reward processing system for food is similar to the brain’s mechanisms related to substance abuse. If unchecked cravings affect you, you might need to make a conscious effort to control them.

Below are four of the most “addictive” foods - and tips on how to curb your cravings.

French fries

Why you crave them: Potatoes have a high glycemic index. That’s a technical way of saying the carbs in potatoes really raise your blood sugar levels — quickly. They also stimulate the reward centers in your brain. You eat a big plate of French fries, and then you want more. Or you crave other high-glycemic foods such as candy bars.

The sudden increase in blood sugar makes your pancreas work in overdrive to secrete enough insulin. This insulin picks up and transports the sugar in your blood to various cells throughout the body. Within an hour of eating a high-glycemic meal, the insulin has done its job, and you’re left with low blood sugar. You feel hungry even though you just ate an hour ago.

French fries come with a double whammy, because they’re usually loaded with salt. Like sugar, salt stimulates receptors in your brain that basically say, “Mmm, this food is tasty.”

How to break the cycle: Eat potatoes with the skin on. The extra fiber in the potato skin will help slow digestion and keep your blood sugar in balance. Even better, swap out white potatoes for sweet potatoes, which are lower on the glycemic index and higher in micronutrients. And get your flavor with herbs and spices instead of added salt.

Soda

Why you crave it: The sugar in soda stimulates the reward system in your brain, too. And over time, you need larger and sweeter amounts to trigger the same level of reward. One can might do the trick today, but before you know it, you’re drinking several.

Consider this: An average 12-ounce soda contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. On its own, that exceeds the American Heart Association’s recommendation for daily added sugar.

Think diet soda is better? Artificial sweeteners are much sweeter than sugar. They actually may encourage your craving for sweets.

How to break the cycle: Next time you want a carbonated drink, opt for sparkling water without sugar or artificial sweeteners. And don’t just substitute sugary snacks or sugar in your coffee and tea. To really kick the sugar habit, sometimes you need a clean break.

Pizza

Why you crave it: Highly processed foods - most pizza included - have been associated with addiction-like eating behaviors. The heavily processed grains in many crusts are pretty high on the glycemic index. The way they’re processed removes the bran and germ from the grain. That makes the crust easier to digest, which causes your blood sugar to rapidly rise. You end up with that same, familiar blood sugar roller coaster.

How to break the cycle: Try pizza with 100 percent whole grain crust, either made from scratch or at restaurants that offer it. You can also make specialty crusts - made from ingredients such as cauliflower. And don’t skimp on the veggies!

Ice Cream

Why you crave it: The creamy satisfaction ice cream provides was hardwired into our brains years ago when our ancestors had few calorie-dense food options. They adapted to find fat-rich food rewarding as a means of survival.

Now, all we have to do is go to our nearest drive-thru to find calorie-dense food. But the reward system in our brain still tells us we enjoy certain types of fat. Ice cream has it — along with plenty of stimulating sugar, too.

How to break the cycle: Try to limit the fats found in animal products and opt for plant-based, unsaturated fats instead. Avocados and olive oil are great sources, for example. And be wary of “low-fat” ice cream options. A lot of manufacturers simply add more sugar and additives to replace the fat.

Ultimately the best way to curb your cravings is to avoid processed foods. Choose low-glycemic whole foods, which will help you control the added fat, sugar and salt.

Many times when you are searching for weight loss information online, you come across a bunch of fad diets. These are the diets which tell you how much weight you can lose by eating only cabbage soup, or maple syrup and lemonade or some other noxious kind of food that nobody who really likes themselves would ever eat.

As a matter of act these diets are among the most highly searched for topics on the entire internet. They are very popular for one particular reason – they bring you almost instant results in dropping a couple of pounds. They do work to get some weight off right away, within a week for many of them. 

But then, guess what happens? The weight all comes back with a vengeance and sometimes those pounds you lost bring their friends back to stay with you and you wind up weighing even more than you did before you started the crash diet.

This kind of weight loss program does not keep you healthy and does not result in keeping the weigh off permanently. You wind up bouncing up and down in weight and your entire metabolism suffers. And when your metabolism suffers it always does so in the same way – it slows down and stops burning calories.

This is why you gain the weight back.

Here are a couple of things you can do to help achieve a more permanent weight loss.

Stop eating so much – but don’t stop all at once

People love to punish themselves for dietary transgressions. But punishing does not help much. If you simply stop feeding your body, it will no know what to do and simply slows your metabolism to a crawl. Much better if you cut your calorie intake gradually. Start eating less a little bit at a time, so that your body gets used to running on the calories it already has stored away.

Gradual weight loss with a diet change that is not a crash kind of diet is much more successful for many more people than any of those fad diets. Do you really want to be eating cabbage soup three times a day for the rest of your life?

Another important tip is very simple, and works very effectively.

Give yourself a reward for losing weight.

Now this does not mean that when you lose a pound that you hop in the car and run right over to Cheesecake Factory and gorge yourself. A reward is supposed to be a nice thing you do for yourself, not something that is virtually guaranteed to make you feel bad all over again. That’s not what you need.

Instead you can give yourself a nice treat like a spa day, or a trip to the mall without the kids or anything else you enjoy. And if you like, you can give yourself a food treat. In a normal sized portion. A square of chocolate – not a 5 pound box. Split a piece of cheesecake with your friend – don’t order two for yourself.

Rewards are excellent things to do for yourself. Just don’t overdo the reward system or you will wind up punishing yourself all over again.

Losing weight does not have to be hard or painful. But you do have to make a couple of adjustments in how you think and act. No more punishing yourself, that didn’t work before and it won’t work now. Instead cut your calories slowly and give yourself a small reward when you succeed and you will be well on your way to lasting weight loss.

What if you concentrated on eating more foods that are good for you rather than trying desperately to completely avoid the bad ones? Can you actually eat more and still lose weight? Registered dietitian Julia Zumpano says you can. Here’s how it works.

Most trendy diets include some sort of restriction - such as cutting out carbohydrates, gluten or dairy products - which makes them hard to sustain. Typically, once you stop following the diet’s restrictions, the weight comes right back.

However, if you focus on adding more nutritious foods to your meals, as opposed to restricting foods, you’ll be more likely to lose weight and keep it off. You won’t feel like you’re depriving yourself, so you’ll be more likely to maintain the healthy eating habits.

And, if you concentrate on incorporating a certain amount of healthy food into your meals every day - like aiming for between five and seven servings of fresh fruits and vegetables - you may find that you’ll naturally limit the not-so-healthy choices. You honestly won’t feel as hungry for them.

Which healthy foods are best to add?

For weight loss and improved health in general, Ms. Zumpano recommends adding these nutrition-rich foods to your diet:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Whole grains
• A variety of beans
• Oils
• Nuts and seeds
• Lean sources of protein: dried beans/legumes, fish, white meat, eggs or egg whites
• Avocados

When adding fruits and vegetables to your meals, try to eat those first. They’ll help you feel fuller so you can cut back on your main-course portions to accommodate the extra calories.

Keep in mind that healthy foods tend to have a lot fewer calories than other foods, so you can eat the same amount of food overall and still lose weight.

4 quick tips for easily adding nutritious foods

1. Add something good to every meal: Start by adding a piece of fruit to your breakfast and a salad or other vegetable to your lunch and dinner.
2. Be prepared: Rinse and cut up fruits and vegetables during the weekend or at the beginning of the week. Then store them in containers in the refrigerator for easy use throughout the week.
3. Make it easy on yourself: If it helps you stay on track, you can buy fruits and vegetables that are already cut up and salad that is pre-washed and bagged.
4. Go for easy add-ins: Boost the nutrition in your salads by adding diced vegetables, seeds and nuts and using an oil-and-vinegar dressing. (Try balsamic vinegar for extra flavor.)

Swap bad foods for healthier options

After you start working more healthy foods in, take a look at the unhealthy foods you eat and see if you can come up with healthier alternatives. Here are a few examples:

• If you typically eat hot dogs a few times a week but also like roasted chicken breast, swap out hot dogs in favor of chicken most of the time.
• Replace ice cream with frozen yogurt or sorbet.
• Replace milkshakes with fruit-and-yogurt smoothies.
• Snack on a handful of nuts or seeds instead of potato chips.
• Try whole grain toast or cereal instead of pastries.
• Commit to changing your dinner entrée from red meats to fish once or twice a week.
• Opt for beans instead of potatoes in several meals each week.

Health benefits of adding nutritious foods to your diet

Eating additional nutritious foods and fewer foods that are unhealthy can do more than help you lose weight. It can also:

• Decrease your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke
• Help regulate your digestion
• Lower your cholesterol
• Help improve your mood and reduce depression

Allow yourself a few treats

“It’s unrealistic to expect people to eat healthy all the time,” Ms. Zumpano says. But if you want to lose weight and keep it off, aim to eat healthy foods at least 75 to 80 percent of the time. “Allowing yourself to have some unhealthy foods will help you stay on track,” she says.

When indulging in an unhealthy treat, try to choose food items that won’t exacerbate any chronic conditions you have, such as high cholesterol or diabetes. If you’re unsure which foods are safe and which you really should avoid, talk to your doctor or meet with a registered dietitian.