Recently, somehow something motivated me to be careful in my diet.
I researched online and came up with a list of food that you absolutely should include in your diet if you want to lose weight, get as healthy as you can and look your best!
It's interesting, read it (:
The most thermogenic fat burning food is lean protein from solid foods, especially the following:
-chicken breast
-turkey breast
-game meats (venison, elk, etc)
-bison, buffalo
-very lean red meat such as top round and lean sirloin (grass fed is especially nutritious)
-almost all types of fish
-shellfish and other seafood
-egg whites (limit the yolks)
10 best food for US.
10. Bean
they're nutritious, low in fat and are cheap to boot. Be a good bean counter and check out the fiber in beans. There's over 5 grams of fiber in one measly half-cup serving -- that's a whopping fourth of your daily allowance. Pretty good, huh? Even better when you consider that a fiber-rich diet is one of the first components to colon cancer prevention. And with more women dying of colon cancer than breast cancer every year, you've just gotta bring on the beans!
9. Kale
Kale is an often-overlooked vegetable that is positively loaded with folate, an important B vitamin for women. Having a deficiency in folic acid during pregnancy may cause neural-tube defects in babies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommend that women take in 400 micrograms of folate daily. That's more than twice the current RDA! Don't forget that kale is also an excellent source of vitamin C and calcium, too.
8. Beta Sight
Those orange squashes (and tubers) like pumpkin, butternut squash and sweet potatoes are a gal's best friend. Beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, is just screaming to get out and work its antioxidant magic on your body. All you have to do is eat it! Beta-carotene is thought to help reduce the risk of breast cancer and is responsible for helping your body repair your skin.
7. Just the Flax
Ma'amFlax seeds and flax seed oil have so much to offer women. For starters, flax is full of Omega 3 fatty acids (EFA's) which may help protect a woman from heart disease (the leading cause of premature death among women) and the pain of arthritis. The fiber in flax is due to lignans, an important type of fiber especially for women. Lignans are thought to be both an antioxidant and phytoestrogen and are currently being studied for their role in cancer prevention. Use care with flax. It would be preferable to grind your own seeds and sprinkle them on your cereal each morning. The EFA's are very fragile and grinding your own (in a clean coffee mill, just for this purpose) is the best way to utilize both the flax's fiber and oils.
6. Iron It Out
Women need to eat more iron-rich foods. Getting iron from food sources (as opposed to a supplement) is a better way to get the iron needed because the form of iron contained in food is much easier to absorb than in pill form. Lean red meats and dark poultry, as well as lentils, are a few of the best sources for iron.
5. Nuts to You
With equal parts monounstaturated and polyunsaturated fats in these little gems, you’ve got the power of the monounsaturated’s cholesterol lowering properties and the polyunsaturated’s power to help prevent heart disease. Not only that but they’re a great little protein snack, as well as a great source for zinc (for pretty skin), calcium, ... phosphorus (strong bones), folate (prevents birth defects), vitamin A & E, too (powerful antioxidants). Though they are rich in calories, a little can go a long way—try limiting your nuts to just a handful a day.
4. Water, Water Everywhere
Hey, don't think you're getting gypped out of a food here. Water IS a nutrient and the fact is, we need it... and plenty of it. Water keeps the fat away, plain and simple. Water may be one of the best tools in the weight loss game. It suppresses the appetite and helps your body metabolize stored fat! Now can you see why water made it to the top ten? Bottoms up!
3. Broccoli Power!
Broccoli was on a "best foods for kids" list I did in a previous life. But aren't you glad it's on the gals' list, too? That means we can all eat together at the same table! Broccoli is a fabulous source of calcium and contains other important nutrients like potassium and a good smattering of B vitamins, too.
2. Chalk up the Calcium
Women really need to crank it up in the calcium department. The RDA is 800 milligrams a day, but some experts say that isn't enough and it should be more like 1,200 to 1,500 milligrams a day. When you take into consideration the epidemic of osteoporosis among older women, it might not be a bad idea to up your dairy product intake. My personal preference would be yogurt. You get the nutritional extra of beneficial bacteria for good colon health and it's a lot easier to digest than other dairy products.
1. Something's Fishy Here!
Salmon was once turned down in favor of white fish or sole by weight-conscious women. Now that we understand the value of Omega 3 EFA's, it's time to get serious with wild salmon (farm raised isn’t as rich in Omega 3’s). Salmon is also high in protein, low in cholesterol and contains quite a few B vitamins, calcium, zinc, iron and magnesium. Don't swim upstream -- net yourself a good helping of salmon!
Top 10 food that you MUST have
1—Tomatoes.
The all-powerful tomato can do all kinds of things, besides make your favorite spaghetti sauce. It’s rich in lycopene, an important nutrient that may lower the risk of all kinds of cancer, prostate included. Plus the vitamin C factor is an added bonus!
2—Greens.
I love braised greens (steam them till bright green, then sauté in olive oil and garlic, put a lid on them and let them finish cooking after I turn off the heat). Any kind of green will do, from Swiss chard, to kale, to collard greens. They’re all delicious. I can eat 1/2 a pound in one sitting!
3—Almonds.
I’m a huge fan of nuts, especially raw almonds (and walnuts, too). I place 10 of them in a ramekin and munch them at my desk, lingeringly (it’s too easy to eat too many, so I measure them out). I take my time and they seem to last. I also make up little ziplock bags of almonds to have on hand. One bag of these nuts is always in purse for an emergency snack!
4—Salmon.
I absolutely adore grilled salmon. It’s gotta be WILD though, if you want the benefit of the omega 3 fatty acids (farm-raised salmon doesn’t cut it). My absolute fave is wild Alaskan Sockeye. I just had it for dinner tonight (with some braised greens) and I’m in love. I heat up the barby (I have a gas one), throw the frozen salmon on, skin side down, sprinkle some salmon seasoning from Paul Prudhomme (generously, I might add) and that’s it! EASY BUTTON and absolutely delicious; no planning necessary!
5—Frozen berries.
I make my smoothies from frozen berries every morning. I buy the wild blueberries and blackberry/raspberry mix. Blueberries are especially healthy and have more antioxidants in 2/3 of a cup than FIVE servings of broccoli!
6—Kefir and Yogurt.
Kefir is like liquid yogurt. Chocked full of probiotics, kefir helps your body balance in the gut. Remember those stories of people living to be 120 years old in Russia? Yogurt and kefir were what they credit their longevity to -- and that’s nothing to sneeze at! I use kefir in my smoothies and eat yogurt with a splash of vanilla and a squeeze of honey, yum!
7—Onions.
The lowly onion seems to find its way into most everything you make, especially come dinnertime! Eating onions is a cheap way to get your flavonoids in. Flavonoids are important nutrients that help protect your lungs from cancer and your gut from ulcers. Not only that, but they help prevent heart disease and raise the “good” cholesterol in your blood.
8—Oats.
Fiber rich, oats help your body to stabilize blood sugar levels and reduce cholesterol. A perfect breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal with about 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries stirred in, yum! Fiber is critical for important bodily functions, if you know what I mean -- and oatmeal is a great way to get it.
9—Dark Chocolate.
HALLELUJAH!!! At last, my dream came true! When some girls were singing, “someday my prince will come,” I was humming, “someday they’ll discover chocolate is healthy”. Well, I may not have gotten my Prince Charming (yet), but I can have my chocolate and eat it too! Dark chocolate is rich in catechins and favonoids, giving you a big dose of antioxidants and helping to boost the good cholesterol, too. An ounce a day is more than adequate and it needs to be dark, the darker the better.
10—Oranges.
While we may no longer suffer from scurvy, a lot of us have marginal levels of vitamin C in our blood and some of us have a deficit. When you consider the fact that oranges in their flavonoid richness have the ability to fend off cancer and cardiovascular disease and protect one’s DNA, it’s amazing that most of us aren’t chugging a glass each morning of OJ! Get the pulp-rich variety and you’ve got extra C to boot.
Woo.
i guess i must be health-conscious from now onwards!!!