Fat-Burning Foods

Fat-burning foods can improve your cholesterol, heart, and overall health. Here are some essential foods to add to your regimen of a healthy lifestyle.

You may already know the guidelines for having a healthy weight. Eat early in the day, stay hydrated, eat fiber, watch portions, eat high-nutrient unprocessed foods, and avoid sugar. Exercise will help you stay healthy, too.

You can also add fat-burning foods to your diet to improve your cholesterol and other fat-measures in your blood.

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Avocado

You might assume avocados, which contain fat, can increase the fat your body stores. But adding healthy fats to your diet can reduce your body fat and help you lose weight.

Avocados, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids, can break down fat deposits around your waistline and reduce weight gain. They also send an important signal to your brain to stop eating sooner, which can help reduce your calorie intake without restricting your diet unnecessarily.

Avocados not only benefit your waistline but also improve cholesterol levels and overall heart health. It’s easy add one to your daily meal plan, either in a salad, on top of a quesadilla, or simply as a snack with olive oil and salt.  

Ginger

Ginger has potential as an anti-cholesterol food.

Animal studies have found that feeding rats ginger helps lower total cholesterol That may occur because of gingerol, the chemical compound that gives ginger its warm, spicy flavor and seems to be linked to lower instances of obesity.

A few studies with humans show promise. In one small experiment, children with obesity who took 1,000 mg of ginger a day for 12 weeks lost weight and narrowed their waists, while improving their lipid profile. Twice that dose for eight weeks helped patients with diabetes on dialysis. Supplements also helped improve health measures in a group of men with clogged arteries, although neither group lost weight.

If you’re not ready to dive into supplements, you can try cooking with ginger or drinking ginger tea to get the benefits of gingerol.

Pulses

Pulse foods, or edible seeds that grow in a pod, are a category of food that includes dried beans, peas, and lentils. They are part of the family of legumes, which are high in protein and many minerals. They can also help you lose a few extra pounds.

In a 10-year study of more than 15,000 U.S. adults, researchers concluded that volunteers gained less weight the more often they ate legumes, and the key ingredient was fiber.

Use them to replace foods linked to weight gain, including red meat and white rice.  

Pistachios

Much like avocados, nuts are a high-fat plant food linked to lower body fat, research suggests.  

Pistachios may have special benefits. In a small study of 100 adults who needed to lose weight, half were assigned to diet counselling and the other group advised to eat 1.5 ounces of pistachios a day. Both groups lost weight and narrowed their waistlines, about equally.

But only the group that ate pistachios also lowered their blood pressure and improved their diet, eating more fiber and less sweets.

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