Negative calorie foods are foods that require your body to burn more calories than they provide. For example, a piece of broccoli contains 25 calories but your body uses 80 calories to digest it. This leaves you with a negative calorie intake value of 55. There are diets built around this concept.
Vegetables
The following vegetables have been identified as burning more calories than they provide: asparagus, aubergine, beets, green beans, broccoli, green cabbage, carrots, cauliflowers, celery root, celery chicory, garden cress, cucumber, dandelion, eggplant, endive, fennel, garlic, gourd, leek, lettuce, lamb's lettuce, marrow, onion, hot chili peppers, radish, spinach, tomato, turnip and zucchini.
A salad can incorporate many of these ingredients. Even using the negative calorie vegetables as a side dish will make sure you get at least one or two servings of them. Replacing a high-calorie food for one of these will allow you to cut caloric intake and at the same time burn additional calories. For example, instead of mashed potatoes on the side with your baked chicken you may use boiled carrots and green beans. In the summer, a cold refrigerated tomato will be as refreshing as any dessert (without the guilt).
Fruits
Fruits also present a variety of negative calorie options. The following fruits require more calories to digest than they provide: apples, apricots, blackberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, clementines, cranberries, damsons, grapefruit, guava, honeydew melon, lemon, mandarin, lemon, mango, orange, cantaloupe, papaya, peaches, pineapple, plums, prunes, raspberry, rhubarb, strawberry, tangerine and watermelon.
Fruits may be a little harder to work into a regular meal due to the short shelf life. Also the variety drops off after the fall of the year. Don't give up. Many fruits are imported so your grocer will have at least a few fruits to choose from.
Instead of high-calorie snacks, eat fruits from this negative calorie list. Instead of a bag of potato chips, try a fruit salad to satisfy your need to crunch.
Plan Your Shopping List
Use this list of negative calorie foods to plan your menu. Then use the menu to create your shopping list. This will help you stick to the diet and work as many of the negative calorie foods into your meals as possible.
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