Some diets and weight-loss plans have been built around the consumption of negative calorie foods. The premise is that these foods require more calories to digest than they actually contain, resulting in negative calorie consumption. Some diet plans laud these foods as a way to actually burn calories while you eat. While these foods can be part of any healthy diet, they aren't a solution unto themselves.
Using Calories
The number of calories in foods is a measure of that food's energy content measured in units of heat. This is the number of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms the food contains. Because a calorie is a unit of heat, it can't be negative. But when foods are of such low calories that it takes more energy to eat and digest them than the food contains, this food is referred to as having negative calories.
The energy required to digest and absorb the majority of foods we eat is only a small percentage of the calories that food contains. However, some foods, such as those high in fiber, are an exception. Part of the energy in high-fiber foods is unable to be absorbed by our bodies. Because of this, some of those calories are passed through the digestive track without being used.
The same is true of some other low-calorie fruits and vegetables. These calories aren't completely absorbed by the body, causing a negative calorie effect.
Negative Calorie Foods
The list of well-known negative calorie foods includes apples, asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, celery roots, celery chicory, chili peppers, cranberries, cucumbers, dandelions, endive, garden cress, garlic, green beans, eggplants, grapefruit, lemon mango, lettuce, onions, oranges, papayas, pineapples, radishes, raspberries, spinach
strawberries, tangerines, turnips and zucchini.
Considerations
Celery is recognized as the ultimate negative calorie food. This vegetable is very low in calories to begin with: two large stalks of celery contain only 18 calories. Of those calories, there is 1g of protein, 4g of carbs and no fat. While celery does contain 10 percent of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, it's hardly a nutrient-dense food. Negative calorie foods should be eaten, but not to the exclusion of other nutrient-rich foods.
A diet that focuses on the above foods while restricting protein and healthy fats consumption should be undertaken only under direction from a healthcare provider.
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