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Foods to aid weight loss


If you're struggling to lose weight, depriving yourself of certain food is not only potentially harmful to your body, but is also totally unnecessary. Current thinking dictates that if you choose your food carefully, it will actually help you lose weight and protect you from a wide range of diseases.

We've listed the foods to increase in your diet to help you slim

Chillies: Recent studies from Canada suggest that a key chemical contained in chillies could boost your body's ability to burn fat and curb your appetite. This is due to capsaicin, the chemical that gives chillies (such as cayenne and paprika) their characteristic pungency, stimulates a natural process whereby some of the food we eat at each meal is converted immediately to heat. Called thermogenesis, this process is good news for dieters because it means we burn up calories automatically rather than storing them.

Carrots: Root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes and parsnips are particularly high in fibre. Foods that are high in fibre pass through the gut more quickly than other foods and they fill you up because of their high water content so you eat less. Nutritionists recommend eating a minimum of 18 grams of fibre a day. Juicing root vegetables, such as carrots, is an ideal way to stock up on fibre and keep slim at the same time. Also, many root vegetables have fewer calories compared to other foods such as pasta.

Cous cous: Cous cous is an excellent source of carbohydrate. As a low fat and low calorie grain, it converts to glucose more slowly than refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, encouraging energy rather than lethargy. It also swells in the stomach, which means you fill up more quickly and tend not to eat so much. Instead of adding butter, which is fattening, try adding lemon juice - a good source of vitamin C. Lemon juice also contains quercetin, which acts as an antioxidant - our body's defences against free radicals. These are highly reactive molecules that may lead to premature ageing and disease.

Pulses: A diet rich in pulses such as kidney beans is high in fibre. Research from Minnesota University shows that men and women who ate at least 21 grams of fibre a day gained 8 pounds less than people who ate the same number of calories but 40 per cent less fibre. Although eating pulses won't necessarily make you shed pounds, it helps maintain regular bowel movement because the texture of the fibre helps it move through the digestive system more quickly than some other foods. This helps to maintain a healthy gut because soluble fibres create 'friendly bacteria' needed to fight off bad bacteria - meaning that your body is less exposed to harmful toxins that could cause cancer.

Low-fat milk: Many dairy products are not as fatty as people think - and are widely available in low-fat versions. Although surveys show that many people believe whole milk is 50 per cent fat, in fact it contains only four per cent fat. A 200ml glass of whole milk actually contains much less fat than a packet of crisps or a chocolate bar. If you are on a strict calorie-controlled diet choose a low-fat version - semi-skimmed milk, for example, contains 1.7 per cent fat, skimmed milk contains 0.1 per cent fat. The good news is low fat dairy products do not lose any of their calcium content.

Several pieces of research also show that the calcium dairy products contain can actually help you lose weight. Two studies by Professor Michael Zemel from the University of Tennessee in America, published last year, show that a low calcium diet increases the laying down of fat in the body. It is thought this is because calcium makes the body heat up slightly causing it to burn fat more easily.

Cereals: Research now shows that people who eat breakfast live longer, have healthier hearts, are less prone to stress and depression and - perhaps most surprising of all - are slimmer. It is now proven that people who don't eat breakfast will be hungry mid-morning and will compensate by eating high fat snacks such as crisps or chocolate, which in turn means you are more likely to put on weight. Cereals such as All-Bran Plus, Healthwise Sultana Bran, Special K and Weetabix are high in fibre and/or have a low glycaemic index (GI) (raise blood sugar levels relatively slowly). The GI is a ranking of how quickly foods raise sugar levels - the lower the GI, the lower the rise. Foods with low GI can help curb mid-morning snacking by helping you to feel full for longer. The good news is even sugarcoated cereals have no more calories bowl for bowl than other fortified cereals, and because they are highly palatable, they make it more likely you will stick to a reduced calorie diet.

Green leafy vegetables: Eating plenty of spinach, cabbage and broccoli can prove quite filling. This is thanks to their sheer bulk made up of plenty of leaves and stalks. Apart from containing folic acid - essential for nerve function and helping to prevent heart disease - green leafy vegetables contain trace elements or minerals needed for basic bodily functions such as cell growth. Broccoli, for example, contains around one-seventh of the calories found in pasta.

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