Diet experts often disagree about what foods you should eat if you want to lose weight. Dr. Dean Ornish and Robert Pritikin urge you to eat more carbohydrates and fewer high-fat foods, but the late Dr. Robert Atkins and "South Beach Diet" creator Arthur Agatston contend that most carbohydrates are bad and high-fat foods are good. However, there are numerous low-fat carbohydrates with a lot of fiber that high-carb and low-carb advocates agree are foods to eat if you want to lose weight.
Vegetables
Most vegetables are an excellent food if you want to lose weight. Almost every vegetable has zero cholesterol and nearly no saturated fat and is a low-fat food, "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease" reports. "The South Beach Diet," though, reports that body fat is caused by carbohydrates that raise your body's blood sugar. The glycemic index measures how fast carbs raise blood sugar. It shows that low-fat root vegetables like carrots and potatoes cause fat.
The following low-fat vegetables have low glycemic index scores and are foods that should be substituted for high-fat and/or high-glycemic index foods if you want to lose weight: artichoke, asparagus, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, kale, lettuce, mushrooms, peppers, snow peas, spinach, squash, tomatoes, turnip, watercress and zucchini.
Fruits
Losing 10 pounds is very difficult, The Merck Manual of Medical Information reports. You must burn 3,500 calories more than you consume to lose one pound or 35,000 calories more than you consume to lose 10 pounds. You should also consume between 1,600 calories to 2,400 calories daily to get the energy needed to carry out everyday activities, with sedentary women, young children and senior citizens needing the least and adolescent men and young men needing the most.
Fruits have so few calories that substituting them for other foods can reverse heart disease, Ornish reports. About 40 fruits are on Ornish's Reversal Diet list. Many of them, though, have high glycemic index scores and increase body fat, "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution" reports. Fruits on Ornish's list that have low glycemic index scores include blackberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries and strawberries.
Legumes
Legumes help you lose weight because they are loaded with fiber. The fiber in food prevents you from overeating because it requires more chewing, expands inside your stomach, delays "gastric emptying" and makes you feel full, according to "The New Pritikin Program."
The legumes on Ornish's no-fat list that are also low on the glycemic index include black beans, butter beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils and lima beans.
Grains
The United States Department of Agriculture food pyramid urges you to eat more grains, but the process that converts them from unrefined to refined foods "eliminates valuable fiber and nutrients and overconcentrates sugars and starches to create foods that are calorically more dense," according to "The New Pritikin Program."
The grains that you should eat lose less fiber and add less sugar and starch during the refining process. Low-fat and low-glycemic index grains include barley, rice bran cereal, pumpernickel bread and rye bread.
References
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
- "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution"; Dr. Robert Atkins; 2002
- "The South Beach Diet"; Dr. Arthur Agatston; 2003
- The Merck Manual of Medical Information; 1999
- "The New Pritikin Program"; Robert Pritikin; 1990
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