5 Super Foods for Weight Loss

By Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS

Look, let's get real. Some foods make it really difficult to lose weight. They create their own self-sustaining cravings ("Betcha can't eat just one!") and play havoc with your blood sugar and, ultimately, your waistline.

But some foods do just the opposite.

By now almost everyone knows how great foods like broccoli and blueberries are and how they can help you lose weight -- but here are some foods you may not have thought of when you first saw the title of this article. Yet every one of these foods (and one beverage) meets at least one major criteria of being a super food for weight loss.

1. Grapefruit. Remember the old "grapefruit diet"? Turns out there may actually be something to back up grapefruit's reputation as a fat fighter. In a recent study at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, researchers studied the effect of grapefruit on weight loss and found that eating half a grapefruit before meals actually helped people drop weight.1 The researchers studied the effect of grapefruit capsules, grapefruit juice, and real grapefruit. All three seemed to help, but the folks eating the real grapefruit got the best results. The mechanism isn't completely understood but the results speak for themselves. As an added benefit, grapefruit contains cancer fighting compounds like liminoids and lycopene -- and red grapefruit has been shown to help lower triglycerides. And a half of a grapefruit has only 39 calories!

2. Sardines. I call sardines one of the greatest health bargains of all time, and it's definitely a boon to anyone wanting to lose weight. Why? First of all it's loaded with protein, which helps stabilize blood sugar, makes you feel full (and less like overeating), and helps stimulate metabolism. Second, it's a great source of omega-3's, which not only strengthen the cardiovascular system, but are helpful in boosting mood. (When you're in a good mood, you tend to crave less junk food!). Third, sardines are convenient, easy to find, and cheap! And because they're very low on the food chain, they're remarkably free of contaminants.

3. Pumpkin. You may only know this vegetable for its central role in Thanksgiving celebrations, but it's one of the great weight loss foods of all time. Plain old canned pumpkin is absolutely loaded with fiber -- each 1/2 cup serving has a whopping 8 grams and only a mere 40 calories. Dozens of studies confirm that high fiber intake is associated with a host of health benefits, not the least of which is weight management. And here's the deal: it's the easiest food in the world to prepare. You can sweeten it with some Xylitol (or even Splenda), sprinkle it with blood-sugar lowering cinnamon (and nutmeg for good measure), throw in some healthy almonds, and make it into one of the best tasting weight loss treats around. It's filling and it's delicious.

4. Grass Fed Beef. I'll be honest with you -- meat is a great weight loss food, but it's hard to recommend it if it's filled with antibiotics, steroids, and hormones. Buy grass-fed beef and avoid the problems while getting all the terrific benefits. (Buffalo burgers are a good alternative if you can't find grass-fed beef). Higher protein diets are associated with weight loss for a variety of reasons. Protein stimulates the metabolism, helps you feel fuller longer, and helps decrease the desire to overeat. High-protein breakfasts are one of the best weight loss tricks in the book (try a buffalo burger for breakfast sometime and see what I mean!). And grass-fed beef has a high omega-3 content giving you multiple health benefits as a bargain.

5. Green Tea. OK, technically it's not a food, but it's one of the great weight loss beverages of all time -- rich in antioxidants, promotes heart health, aids digestion, and regulates blood sugar and body temperature. It raises the metabolic rate and speeds up fat oxidation thus helping people lose weight. Drink it daily to boost your metabolism. Some research has shown that five cups a day is the magic number for fat loss. As an added benefit, the theanine in green tea is also a great natural de-stressor.
Make these foods part of your daily diet and watch the pounds come off!

I hope you enjoyed this article by Dr. Bowden.

Beste Gesundheit,

Werner

[Ed. note: Dr. Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health. He's a board certified nutrition specialist with a Master's degree in psychology and the author of five books including "The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why". His latest book is "Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why".

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

Comments

[Sky]

Eight grams of fiber in half a cup of pumpkin? Thats 16 grams of fiber in just one cup! I wonder where Dr. Bowden found his information.

I'm having a little trouble finding two resources with the same information on fiber content. For instance, according to whole foods market 1 cup of boiled mashed pumpkin has only 3 grams of fiber. According to the USDA 1 cup of mashed pumpkin has 7 grams of fiber. Yet Dr. Bowden has declared 8 in just "half" a cup.

So here I am looking at a can of Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin with 5 grams of fiber per 1/2 cup. Knowing that the FDA allows a 20% fudge factor on nutrition labels, who can we trust?

[Mark]

oh wow! these are great food ideas. thanks so much for sharing the link. :-)

[susan]

Thanks for the ideas. I never knew pumpkin was such a great help in weight loss, even if the fiber content is negotiable.

Susan: Thank you for your feedback. Yes, pumpkin is indeed a wonderful thing. Most people seem to have problems increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. As you might know, increasing food and vegetable consumption can assist tremendously in weight loss. Beste Gesundheit, Werner

[Body Mocha]

I love grapefruit! It used to be unbearably sour to me. But as I have gotten older, I have developed a taste and even a craving for it. Grapefruit is cleansing. I feel better after eating it.
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Body Mocha, the flavor of grapefruit does take some time to get used to it doesn't it? Not only is grapefruit cleansing, it is also very high in vitamin C. If you are on any prescription drugs, you might find this article published at U of M pretty interesting. Grapefruit juice can interact with certain drugs. It can interfere with some drugs, but can make other drugs more potent. Here is the link: http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=1790
Beste Gesundheit, Werner

[Werner]

Sky, I agree. 8g of fiber per 1/2 cup pumpkin seems excessive. I looked up fiber content for cooked, drained pumpkin, no salt on the USDA website. They list fiber content as 2.7g pretty close to Whole Foods Market information.
Here is the link.
http://tinyurl.com/6xx4m

Beste Gesundheit,

Werner

[Werner]

Mark: Thank you for taking time to leave a comment. It is greatly appreciated.

Beste Gesundheit,

Werner