Tuesday, April 14, 2009

3 Foods to Cut Fat and Cholesterol

Lowering your cholesterol can be a challenge, especially if you day's schedule doesn't have a moment to spare. Here are 3 foods to cut fat and cholesterol while you lose weight fast.

Eat an apple a day. It's not just an old wife's tale that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Consuming a 5 ounce apple means you're adding 3 grams of pectin to your diet. Pectin is a soluble fiber that binds to bad-for-you fats cleaning them out of your system. Apples have flavonoids which are compounds that prevent holesterol's ability to cling to the inner walls of your arteries by as much as
38%. That's good news because it decreases your risk of a heart attack.

D-glucaric acid is a substance that decreases the body's ability to form LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol, in the liver by 35%. As an added bonus pectin also adds a feeling of fullness which means you can less than you usually do, lose weight, but still feel full. It's best to eat the apples raw to get all their benefits. Apple slices spread with peanut butter is a good way to start your day at breakfast.

Another fat fighter and food that lowers cholesterol are nuts. Only 2 ounces a day reduces the liver's production of LDL cholesterol by 33% and increases the good HDL cholesterol by 11%.

Nuts are rich in monounsaturated fats. Not only do monounsaturated fats cut cholesterol they also act as an appetite suppressant. Any kind of nut will do but almonds and walnuts are especially beneficial.

Nuts make a terrific snack by themselves. 2 ounces is what would fit in your cupped palm or about 2 tablespoons. Nuts can be added to salads, fruit smoothies, breakfast cereals and cooked vegetables. One red grapefruit daily decreases LDL cholesterol up to 20% and is twice as effective as white or pink grapefruit. The reason is red
grapefruit is richer in antioxidants which curb the liver's tendency to produce cholesterol.

As an added bonus one study showed that women who ate any color grapefruit daily lost 20 pounds in three months without any other change in their habits. Eat the whole fruit rather than just drinking the juice to take advantage of all the fiber.

Adding these three foods to your daily diet can help lower your bad cholesterol levels, increase your good cholesterol and as an added bonus help you lose weight.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Lose Weight Fast With Fruits

Green crisp apples, juicy mouthwatering pineapple, luscious red strawberries, fruit can not only be a delicious treat and a source of vitamins and overall health, but they can also help you lose weight fast. You just have to know how to go about it. Fruit has fiber which helps you feel fuller longer. Fruit also is packed with water, up to 80%. A valuable piece of advice in every diet is to drink plenty of water; it "cheats hunger" as well as hydrating your body. But you can also use fruit for a similar purpose, while giving your body plenty of fiber and prolonging the satiety sensation.

In order to lose fat fast by using a fruit-based diet, be careful about the type of fruit you choose. Choose the ones that have high water content and lower sugar content. You can go for citrus fruit, cantaloupes, and berries. Stay away from the super sweet ones unless they have a very high water content like watermelon. Sweet translates into a high sugar content and that can cause blood sugar spikes. A blood sugar spike causes your body to release too much insulin which then leads to a feeling of hunger. Also stay away from fruit that has been canned or processed in any way, the whole point of eating fruit is to obtain the maximum amount of vitamin and antioxidants with a minimal intake of fat and sugar.

Eating the whole unprocessed fruit is better than drinking the juice. The fiber in the whole fruit will keep you fuller longer. The fiber also slows down the digestive process so you won't get a sugar spike. It's better for you and your weight loss program to eat the whole unprocessed fruit rather than just drinking the juice.

Even though a fruit-rich diet might seem easy to pull off at first, a few days into it, you may be craving something else. The trick is to squeeze fruit into your daily eating habits, by replacing some of the major calorie providers in your daily diet with fruit. Make sure you always keep fruit handy, so that when you are itching for a snack, they will be the first thing you will set eyes on.

One study showed that women who ate a small apple before every meal lost more weight than woman who didn't eat the apple. It seems the pectin in the apple and fiber worked to help the women feel fuller longer. Apples contain a substance that binds to fat and helps it move through the body without being absorbed.

Fruit can help you lose weight in a delicious and healthy way, all you need to do is incorporate them into your daily eating habits.