Foods To Lose Weight Faster - Shrink Belly Fat For Good!

A little while back I heard a news item which shocked me to the soles of my feet. It was reported that in the developed world children today, statistically, have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

I still can't take it in. How can that possibly be? Children today are better educated, have access to better health care, have a range of food available that would have seemed impossible to their grandparents and study physical education as a compulsory subject in school.

So what in goodness name has gone wrong? Why are so many adults and children clinically obese?

The answer would seem to lie in the lifestyle we are choosing to live. Its not just one thing but a combination of many factors including -

• fewer people are in jobs involving heavy manual labour
• we drive everywhere instead of walking
• children have more sedentary leisure persuits - games consoles etc
• our diet consists of far too much 'industrialized' food

Not all food is created equal.

Most foods will assuage your hunger. But the food you eat is meant to do so much more than that. If it doesn't then you will have problems. Hunger is your body's way of telling you that it needs fuel. You eat and your body tells you that you are no longer hungry.

But what if the food you eat does not contain the nutrients your body was looking for? Your body will react by sending the hunger message again, in an attempt to get you to give it what it needs. This is why, when we eat junk food, we get hungry again very quickly. The reason is simple - your body is not satisfied.

Processed foods, ready ,meals and so on are not good sources of nutrition. Most of the original goodness in the food has been destroyed by processing. A lot of the flavour which was there is gone too, hence the heavy use of salt, sugar and, worst of all, artificial sweeteners.

The first and most important step in losing weight is to give your body proper food.

How Can I Shrink Belly Fat?

So What Are The Right Foods - What Does My Body Want?

Basically you need foods from all of the five main food groups. Some 'miracle diets' tell you to cut out certain groups of food altogether. This is bad advice - don't do it. You body needs ALL of the groups, yes including fat. Fat is a vital nutrient. The problem is that most people eat the wrong type, many without realising it.

Fat has had a really bad press over the last few years and it is mostly unjustified. Hour bosy cannot survive without fat - your brain itself is made up of fatty tissue! Fats contain vital nutrients and if those are missing from your diet then you will suffer health problems and you will have great difficulty in controlling your weight.

That's not to say that you should go out and eat as much fat as you like. What it means is that you must include the good fats in your diet and ignore any advice to the contrary.

A low fat diet is not the key to losing weight. Fat is essential for growth and development in children and for maintaining a healthy body in adulthood. However there are good fats and there are bad fats. The bad fats need to be avoided like the plague.

The bad guys are the man made chemically altered and highly processed variety which appear in most processed foods. The fats are damaged in processing and ingesting them into the body over a prolonged period of time is a major health risk.

Here are some tips on getting the right fats.

• Use extra virgin olive oil instead of other varieties. It comes from the first pressing and so contains more antioxidants. Also the method of extraction does not involve using industrial solvents and bleaching.
• Fish and seafood generally are very good sources of the natural omega 3 polyunsaturated fats. Sardines, wild salmon mackerel and herring are particularly good.
• Nuts are an excellent source ofnatural unprocessed fats. Try peanuts, almonds, cashews, macademia and walnuts. s(any and all - walnuts, almonds, peanuts, cashews, macadamias, etc
• Seeds are a healthy form of snacking!
• There is a common misconception that animal fat is bad for you. The fact is that most of the meat we consume today does contain unhealthy fat but that is because the animals are not reared in a healthy manner. They are fed a diet of antibiotics and growth promoting hormones. Organically farmed animals have a healthy diet and are allowed to grow at a natural pace. The fat in organic meat is therefore very different and is not harmful.

Here Come The Bad Guys !

• Hydrogenated fats - these are subjected to very high temperatures, chemically altered and mixed with industrial solvents such as hexane for extraction. This turns them into 'hard fats' for use in processed food. An example is its use in bread where it enables low grade bread to keep its shape when it would otherwise collapse due to its poor quality. These fats have been linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer. Even small amounts can be a health hazard. How this stuff is still allowed into our food is beyond belief.
• Refined oils - most oils on sale in supermarkets are refined which means that they have been through the high pressure, high temperature treatment which destroys the antioxidants they originally contained and creates free radicals which are harmful to the body.
• Deep fried food such as tortillas, chips, donuts etc