This is for all my binge-eating buddies out there, I feel your pain. You try and try to diet, but you have an insatiable appetite, and no self-control.
Let’s face the facts, being addicted to food is no different than being addicted to gambling, alcohol, or drugs. According to Higgins, the mechanism that keeps an alcoholic hitting the bottle is the same as the one that brings the binge-eaters back to the refrigerator (par. 1 - 3).
So, whereas I can’t give you prescription medications to curb your appetite, I can offer another solution that will let you eat your heart out: negative-calorie foods.
In a previous post I believe I briefly spoke about how this works. Basically, you have a food, like celery, that takes more energy to break down and metabolize than the caloric value inherent in it. Therefore you are burning energy by eating this food (not enough to make a diet out of though). What this allows you to do is to binge out on these foods, which won’t add to your weight. Keep in mind though that you don’t want to base your entire diet on these foods or else you’ll most likely experience malnutrition.
Here is an article that gives a brief overview of the negative-calorie diet plan and from which I have pulled the list of negative-calorie foods.
Negative-calorie foods:
Asparagus
Apple
Beet
Cranberries
Broccoli
Grapefruit
Cabbage
Lemon
Carrot
Mango
Cauliflower
Orange
Celery
Pineapple
Chile peppers
Raspberries
Cucumber
Strawberries
Dandelion
Tangerine
Endive
Garden cress
Garlic
Green beans
Lettuce
Onion
Papaya
Radishes
Spinach
Turnip
Zucchini
What you could do is to add some of these foods to your diet, especially if you realize that you are lacking some other nutritional elements. Antioxidants for example are hardly ever eaten in most people’s diets, but you can fulfill your requirements for them and curb your hunger by eating a fruit salad filled with oranges, strawberries, and raspberries. How about some fiber? You can grab an apple on your way out to work and have about 3 – 3.5 grams of fiber along with a healthy energy booster. If you start incorporating these foods into your diet you'll be amazed at how quickly the change will come about.
References
Higgins, Dilara E. Realization Center for Food Addiction Program. 24 June 2003. 15 November 2008 http://www.realizationcenter.net/fdaddct.htm.
Womens-Health-Questions.com. Women's Health. 2008. 15 November 2008 http://www.womens-health-questions.com/negative-calorie-foods.html.
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8 comments:
Your post are always very informative. I know as Marines, we have to meet certain guidelines and height and weight standars, and there are just some who can not seem to get it right. Your post are just another tool I can use to help those I work with slim down to meet requirements. Thanks.
I never knew there were so many types of vegetables and fruits that were negative calorie. The only vegetable that I knew about being negative calorie was celery. Your blog is great, and very informative as well.
Your post is very informative and has some god tips. I know alot of peopel at my work complain about not loosing weight even after the personal trainning. I always ask them if they eat healthy food or just normal what ever is avaliable at the time. Most of them said anything that comes to them. I believe that most of the time eating right can help you shed some extra pounds. and eating negative calories really helps alot.
Great info!
Nausheen
Good use of a reference here. Now make sure you mention your author in the text also. That is the two-part aspect of academic citation...
This is great. Whenever I'm reading or studying I always have to munch on something and it usually ends up being unhealthy and then I'm so frustrated that I pretty much cancel out any working out I did that day. I am definitely going to try to keep some healthy nibbles around me, thanks for the great info.
I enjoyed reading your post, but I would not compare eating to gambling, or any other addition; because you need food to stay alive. A lot of people are emotional eaters. I think it's good that you gave us low cal snacks.
Thanks,
Kathy
I don't think it's so much the substance of your addiction, be it gambling or alcohol, rather it's the reason(s) that you keep using said substance(s) to achieve a given desirable effect. It's easy to just write-off food addiction as "non-existent" because of the fact that it is necessary for survival but, I ask you -- what is the difference between someone dealing with emotional turmoil who uses drugs or alcohol rather than food to feel better?
Negative calorie is something new to me. I would like to thank you for the information you provide in your blog. I intend to run out and get some of these items and start incorporating them in to my daily intake. The only thing that stinks is that we are on the verge of two (2) major eating holidays! Way to go! Timing is everything.
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