Friday, March 27, 2009

Be a Smart Food Shopper

March 27, 2009 12:24 pm

Be a Smart Food Shopper

Want to lose a few pounds? Start shopping smarter. If you know which foods are healthier and how to read the food labels, you’re on the way to lowering your weight.

Here are a few helpful tips

The Fat Fighters

A diet high in fiber can take weight off quickly.

Eat fruit, (don’t forget berries, blueberries, full of antioxidants, raspberries, lots of fiber, strawberries, believed to be a cancer fighter, blackberries, (have anti-inflammatory properties,) elderberries, black currants, (not easy to find) , vegetables, pasta, anything made with whole grains, beans, breads, a bran muffin.

Fiber will make you feel full. It swells up in your stomach.

Eating oatmeal, lowers your blood sugar. And therefore, you will be less likely to get diabetes.

High fiber diets absorb the fats in food before you can absorb it and gain weight.

These foods have less calories, for example,

An apple unsliced and peeled, has 75 calories and 3.5 grams of fiber

But if you drink 8 ounces of apple juice, it has no fiber and almost
120 calories!

Since you cannot only eat fiber, you should also include some healthy fats in your diet.

The good fats are:

Monounsaturated fat

In olive oil, canola oil, avocados, almonds, peanuts and cashews

Polyunsaturated fat

Omega 6 is found in:

corn oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil.

Omega 3 is found in:

herring, salmon, sardines, trout, bluefish, walnuts, wheat germ, canola oil.

Try not to eat:

Saturated fat

Found in butter, chicken skin, coconut oil, fatty meats, palm oil, cottonseed oil. Always include oilve oil in your diet, it is naturally cholesterol free.

Trans fat

some cookies, pie crusts, snack foods, some crackers.
It is believed that trans fats are worse for you than saturated fats.
They can raise the bad cholesterol levels.

By: Phyllis Wasserman

writer and gourmet cook. Visit my websites: www.the articlegenie.com and submit all your articles for FREE! Play Poker at www.medicineestore.com