Choose plant foods for weight loss. - T. Burak
Why don't diets work? What are the best foods for weight loss? What's the best kind of exercise? How do I keep the weight off? Science has the answers to these questions.
- Forget about dieting. Many people know from experience that diets really don’t work. “We decided to dig up and analyze every study that followed people on diets for two to five years. We concluded most of them would have been better off not going on the diet at all,” says researcher Traci Mann in an article ("Dieting Does Not Work") on PhysOrg.com. A large number of dieters find that they not only regain what they lost but often regain more.
- Make lifestyle changes for long-term healthy weight control. A change to a diet of unprocessed fruits, vegetables, whole grains, plant-based fats and proteins is an important strategy in long-term weight control. The typical North American diet, high in protein, fat and processed foods not only leads to obesity, but causes many health problems. “The totally cooked food, processed food, radiated food, chemicalized food diet is actually the extreme diet, as no other people on the face of the earth have ever before existed on it and there is no scientific evidence that they can,” says naturopath Carolee Bateson-Koch in her book Allergies: Disease in Disguise (Alive Books, 2002). The Mayo Clinic reports that research confirms vegetarians are more likely to maintain a healthy weight.
- Allow time to form new healthier habits. Repetition is key, since repeated actions form stronger neural pathways. In other words, the more often you repeat a behaviour, the more likely it is to become a habit because repeated actions actually change brain physiology and this takes time. It’s often said that forming a new habit will take around three weeks, but it may take longer, so persevere. Research done by Phillippa Lally and colleagues (as reported on University College London’s website UCL News) showed it takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit, though the time it takes an individual to form new lifestyle habits may actually be longer or shorter.
- Eat whole grains. Complex carbohydrates are important in a weight-loss program. While protein diets have been linked with a variety of health problems, a diet high in complex carbohydrates is linked with improved health and healthy body weight. Fibre in complex carbohydrates assists weight loss because fibre absorbs liquid in the stomach, causing the stomach to feel full. Also, the body uses twice as much energy to break down complex carbohydrates as it does to burn fat, according to Prevention’s Lose Weight Guidebook (Rodale Press, 1994).
- Use fats to burn fat. Some types of fats actually help to burn fat. Research on virgin coconut oil has shown that including this oil in the diet reduce fat stores in the body.
- Walk. “It’s not the intensity that leads to better health,” says Joh Duncan, Ph.D., exercise physiologist at the Cooper Institute. “It’s the time you spend exercising.” (Prevention’s Lose Weight Guide Book; Rodale Press, 1994) What’s important is incorporating daily activity into your schedule. Buying a pedometer can be motivating to get more exercise.
- Drink water. Researchers at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute of Oakland California “found that drinking water may promote weight loss by lowering total energy intake and/or altering metabolism”. (Stooky, Constant, Popkin and Gardner, 2008 Nov;16(11):2481-8. Epub 2008 Sep 11). Water also helps to flush toxins released from metabolized fat stores in the body. So drink six to eight glasses a day.
Copyright Tammie Burak. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
Tammie Burak - A former elementary school teacher, Tammie Burak traded in her daily commute for a classroom at home where she now homeschools her own ...
