Potent Foods

It would be unrealistic to think that you can successfully lose weight and enjoy what you eat with just a handful of foods, no matter how tasty, nutritious, and satisfying they may be. So we're adding another list of anti-fat foods that you can eat along with the great foods mentioned in the last section. 

It lends different flavors and textures to any food and provides a wide range of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and other vital nutrients. Each one is naturally high in fiber, low in fat, and safe when it comes to sodium content.

Many of them have the crunch and flavor we've been craving for snacks and nibbles. If you're like most of us, you might have a real habit of snacking on junk food—a habit you'll need to change in order to lose weight. Many of the foods in this section can be valuable substitutes.

 

Barley

This filling goes well with rice and potatoes. It has 170 calories per cooked cup, decent amounts of protein and fiber, and relatively low fat. Roman gladiators ate this grain regularly for strength and complained when they had to eat meat.

 

Studies at the University of Wisconsin show that barley effectively lowers cholesterol levels by up to 15 percent and has powerful anti-cancer properties. Israeli researchers say it treats constipation better than laxatives and may also promote weight loss.

 

Use it as a rice substitute in salads, pilafs, or stuffings, or add it to soups and stews. You would also mix it with rice for an interesting texture. Ground into flour, it makes excellent bread and muffins.

 

Beans

Beans are one of the best sources of plant protein. Peas, beans, and chickpeas are collectively known as legumes. Most regular beans have 215 calories per cooked cup (lima beans go as high as 260). They have the most protein and the least fat of any food and are high in potassium but low in sodium.

 

Plant protein is incomplete, meaning something needs to be added to make it complete. Combine beans with whole grains—rice, barley, wheat, corn—to get the amino acids necessary to make a complete protein. Then you get the same quality protein as in meat with just a fraction of the fat.

 

Studies at the University of Kentucky and in the Netherlands show that regular consumption of beans can lower cholesterol levels.

 

The most common complaint about beans is that they cause gas. Here's how to solve the problem, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA): Before cooking, rinse the beans to remove any foreign particles, place them in a kettle and cover with boiling water, soak for four hours or more, remove all beans. that float to the surface, then boil the beans in fresh water.

 

Berries

This is an ideal food for weight loss. Berries have natural fructose sugar to satisfy your sweet tooth and plenty of fiber so you take in fewer calories than you eat. British researchers have found that high insoluble fiber in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains reduces the absorption of calories from food enough to promote width loss without limiting nutrition.

 

Berries are a great source of potassium, which can help you control your blood pressure. Blackberries have 74 calories per cup, blueberries 81, raspberries 60, and strawberries 45. So use your imagination and enjoy the berries of your choice.

 

Broccoli

Broccoli is America's favorite vegetable, according to a recent survey. A cup of cooked broccoli has only 44 calories. It provides a staggering nutritional payload and is considered the number one cancer-fighting vegetable. It has no fat, lots of fiber, cancer-fighting chemicals called indoles and carotene, and 21 times the RDA of vitamin C and calcium.

 

When buying broccoli, pay attention to the color. The tiny rosettes should be deep green and without yellowing. The stems should be firm.

 

Buckwheat

It is great on pancakes, bread, cereals, soups, or on its own as a grain meal commonly called kasha. It has 155 calories per boiled cup. Research at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences shows that diets including buckwheat lead to excellent blood sugar control, resistance to diabetes, and lower cholesterol levels. You cook buckwheat in the same way as rice or barley. Bring two to three cups of water to a boil, add the grain, cover the pan, lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the water is absorbed.

 

Cabbage

This Eastern European staple is a true miracle food. There are only 33 calories in a cup of cooked kale and it retains all of its nutritional properties no matter how long you cook it. Eating raw cabbage (18 calories per chopped cup), cooked, sauerkraut (27 calories per drained cup), or coleslaw (calories depend on the dressing) just once a week is enough to protect against colon cancer. And it can be a life-extending food. Surveys in the United States, Greece, and Japan show that people who eat a lot have the least colon cancer and the lowest overall mortality.

 

Carrots

What list of healthy, fat-fighting foods would be complete without the all-time favorite Bugs Bunny? A medium-sized carrot contains about 55 calories and is a nutritional powerhouse. The orange color comes from beta-carotene, a powerful cancer prevention nutrient (pro-vitamin A).

 

Chop them up and add them to pasta, grate them into rice or add them to stir-fries. Combine them with parsnips, oranges, raisins, lemon juice, chicken, potatoes, broccoli, or lamb to create delicious dishes. Season them with tarragon, dill, cinnamon, or nutmeg. Add finely chopped carrots to soups and spaghetti sauces – they add natural sweetness without added sugar.

Tomatoes

A medium tomato (2.5” in diameter) has only about 25 calories. These garden treats are low in fat and sodium, high in potassium, and high in fiber.

 

A Harvard Medical School study found that people who eat tomatoes (or strawberries) every week are less likely to die from cancer.

 

And don't overlook canned crushed, peeled, whole, or stewed tomatoes. Thanks to them, sauces, casseroles, and soups taste great while maintaining their nutritional value and low-calorie status. Even plain old spaghetti sauce is fat-burning when served over pasta, so think about adding tomatoes to your diet

 

Turkey

Thank these Pilgrims for starting the wonderful tradition of the Thanksgiving turkey. It just so happens that this healthy food disguised as meat is suitable for year-round weight control.

 

A four-ounce serving of roasted white turkey has 177 calories, and dark meat has 211.

 

Sadly, many people are still unaware of the versatility and flavor of ground turkey. Anything a hamburger can do, ground turkey can do at least as well, from conventional burgers to spaghetti sauce to meatloaf.

 

Some ground turkeys contain skin, which slightly increases the fat content. If you want it lean, opt for ground breast meat. But since it doesn't contain any added fat, you'll need to add stuffing to hold the burgers or meatloaf together.

 

Four ounces of ground turkey has about 170 calories and nine grams of fat — about what you'd find in 2.5 teaspoons of butter or margarine. Incredibly, the same amount of regular ground beef (21% fat) has 298 calories and 23 grams of fat.

 

Buying a turkey just got easy. It's no longer necessary to buy the whole bird if you don't want to. Ground turkey is available fresh or frozen, as are individual parts of the bird, including drumsticks, thighs, breasts, and chops.

 

Yogurt

The low-fat version of plain yogurt has 120 calories per cup and the low-fat version has 144. It provides a lot of protein and, like any dairy food, is rich in calcium and contains zinc and riboflavin.

 

Yogurt is good as a breakfast food - cut up a banana and add cereal of your choice.

 

You can find ways to use it in other types of cooking – sauces, soups, dips, toppings, stuffings, and spreads. Many kitchen appliance departments even sell a simple yogurt cheese-making funnel.

 

Yogurt can replace heavy cream and whole milk in a wide variety of meals, saving lots of fat and calories.

 

You can substitute half of all fatty ingredients. For example, combine yogurt, garlic powder, lemon juice, a pinch of pepper, and Worcestershire sauce and use it to top a baked potato instead of pouring it over fat-laden sour cream.

 

Supermarkets and health food stores sell a variety of yogurts, many with added fruit and sugar. If you want to keep calories and fat under control, buy plain, low-fat yogurt and add your fruit. Apple butter or fruit spreads with little or no added sugar are a great way to turn plain yogurt into a delicious sweet treat.

Chicken

White meat contains 245 calories per four-ounce serving and dark meat, 285. It’s an excellent source of protein, iron, niacin, and zinc. Skin-on chicken is healthiest, but most experts recommend waiting until after cooking to remove it because the skin keeps the meat moist during cooking.

 

Corn

It’s a grain – not a vegetable – and is another food that’s gotten a bum rap. People think it has little to offer nutritionally and that just isn’t so. There is 178 cal in a cup of cooked kernels. It contains good amounts of iron, zinc, and potassium, and University of Nebraska researchers say it delivers a high-quality protein, too.

 

The Tarahumara Indians of Mexico eat corn, beans, and hardly anything else. Virgil, Medicine Doc, at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, points out that high blood cholesterol and cardiovascular heart disease are almost nonexistent among them.

 

Cottage Cheese

As long as we’re talking about losing weight and fat-fighting foods, we had to mention cottage cheese.

 

Low-fat (2%) cottage cheese has 205 calories per cup and is admirably low in fat while providing respectable amounts of calcium and the B vitamin riboflavin. Season with spices such as dill, or garden-fresh vegetable such as scallions and chives for extra zip.

 

Add raisins or one of the fruit spreads with no sugar added to make it sweeter. You can also use cottage cheese in cooking, baking, fillings, and dips where you would otherwise use sour cream or cream cheese.

 

Figs

Fiber-rich figs are low in calories at 37 per medium (2.25” diameter) raw fig and 48 per dried fig. A recent study by the USDA demonstrated that they contribute to a feeling of fullness and prevent overeating. Subjects complained of being asked to eat too much food when fed a diet containing more figs than a similar diet with an identical number of calories.

 

Serve them with other fruits and cheeses. Or poach them in fruit juice and serve them warm or cold. You can stuff them with mild white cheese or puree them to use as a filling for cookies and low-calorie pastries.

 

Fish

The health benefits of fish are greater than experts imagined – and they’ve always considered it a healthy food.

 

The calorie count in the average four-ounce serving of a deep-sea fish runs from a low of 90 calories in abalone to a high of 236 in herring. Water-packed tuna, for example, has 154 calories. It’s hard to gain weight eating seafood.

 

As far back as 1985, articles in the New England Journal of Medicine showed a clear link between eating fish regularly and lower rates of heart disease. The reason is that oils in fish thin the blood, reduce blood pressure and lower cholesterol.

 

Doc. Joel Kremer, at Albany Medical College in New York, discovered that daily supplements of fish oil brought dramatic relief to the inflammation and stiff joints of rheumatoid arthritis.

 

Greens

We’re talking collard, chicory, beet, kale, mustard, Swiss chard, and turnip greens. They all belong to the same family as spinach, and that’s one of the super-stars. No matter how hard you try, you can’t load a cup of plain cooked greens with any more than 50 calories.

 

They’re full of fiber, loaded with vitamins A and C and free of fat. You can use them in salads, soups, casseroles, or any dish where you would normally use spinach.

 

Kiwi

This New Zealand native is a sweet treat at only 46 calories per fruit. Chinese public health officials praise the tasty fruit for its high vitamin C content and potassium. It stores easily in the refrigerator for up to a month. Most people like it peeled, but the fuzzy skin is also edible.

 

Leeks

These members of the onion family look like giant scallions and are every bit as healthful and flavorful as their better-known cousins. They come as close to calorie-free as it gets at a mere 32 calories per cooked cup.

 

You can poach or broil halved leeks and then marinate them in vinaigrette or season with Romano cheese, fine mustard, or herbs. They also make a good soup.

 

Lettuce

People think lettuce is nutritionally worthless, but nothing could be farther from the truth. You can’t leave it out of your weight-loss plans, not at 10 calories per cup of raw romaine. It provides a lot of filling bulk for so few calories. And it’s full of vitamin C, too. Go beyond iceberg lettuce with Boston, bibb, and cos varieties, or try watercress, arugula, radicchio, dandelion greens, purslane, and even parsley to liven up your salads.

 

Melons

Now, here’s great taste and great nutrition in a low-calorie package! One cup of cantaloupe balls has 62 calories, a cup of casaba balls has 44 calories, one cup of honeydew balls has 62 calories and one cup of watermelon balls has 49 calories. They have some of the highest-fiber content of any food and are delicious. Throw in handsome quantities of vitamins A and C plus a whopping 547 mg of potassium in that cup of cantaloupe, and you have a fat-burning health food beyond compare.

 

Oats

A cup of oatmeal or oat bran has only 110 calories. And oats help you lose weight. In Dr. James Anderson’s landmark 12-year study at the University of Kentucky, subjects lost three pounds in two months simply by adding 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of oat bran to their daily food intake and nothing else. Just don’t expect oats alone to perform miracles – you have to eat a balanced diet for total health.

 

Onions

Flavorful, aromatic, inexpensive, and low in calories, onions deserve a regular place in your diet. One cup of chopped raw onions has only 60 calories, and one raw medium onion (2.15” diameter) has just 42.

 

They control cholesterol, thin the blood, protect against cholesterol, and may have some value in counteracting allergic reactions. Most of all, onions taste good and they’re good for you.

 

Partially boil, peel and bake, basting with olive oil and lemon juice. Or sauté them in white wine and basil, then spread over pizza. Or roast them in sherry and serve over the paste.

 

Pasta

The Italians had it right all along. A cup of cooked pasta (without a heavy sauce) has only 155 calories and fits the description of a perfect starch-centered staple. Analysis at the American Institute of Baking shows pasta is rich in six minerals, including manganese, iron, phosphorus, copper, magnesium, and zinc. Also be sure to consider whole-wheat pasta, which is even healthier.

 

Sweet Potatoes

You can make a meal out of them and not worry about gaining a pound – and you sure won’t walk away from the table feeling hungry. Each sweet potato has about 103 calories. Their creamy orange flesh is one of the best sources of vitamin A you can consume.

 You can bake, steam or microwave them. Or add them to casseroles, soups, and many other dishes. Flavor with lemon juice or vegetable broth instead of butter