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Sunday 28 April 2013

The Green Diet

Some foods can minimize the likelihood of inflammation and help the weight-controlling hormones to do what they do best: control our appetite and balance our blood sugar. These include fruits, vegetables, oily fish, nuts and seeds and their oils, whole grains and herbs and spices. All we can use for one green diet smoothie or start with the green diet.

- Herbs and spices are important because they are rich in antioxidants, substances that protect body cells from the damage created when the inflammatory process is in full swing. Antioxidants are like protective parents that form a shield around our body's cells and absorb free radicals, which lose their destructive energy and are safely excreted from the body.

- If you cut an apple in half and leave one half uncovered for 20 minutes you can see free radical damage occurring. The apple starts to go brown and dries up because it reacts with the oxygen in the air causing free radicals to be formed. If you soak the other half in lemon juice however, it retains its white color and texture. This is because it has been protected by the vitamin C in lemon juice. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant.

- The antioxidant-rich, anti-inflammatory properties of herbs and spices encourage fat burning while reducing fat storage. They also add flavor and excitement to food, which results in reduced salt consumption. Too much salt prompts fluid retention, another fat-loss adversary.

- It seems that every diet I have ever tried involved way too much shopping. All the nutrients that are important for fat loss appear to be richest in fresh foods, but after the first few days of struggling to find the time to shop fresh, I always returned to ready-made chilled foods. When I spotted a diet on the internet that promised weight loss by eating foods from the freezer, I learned that frozen fruits and vegetables are packed with almost as much nutritional punch as their fresh counterparts (sometimes more). If you have a few bags in the freezer you can create soups and smoothies, super-fast! I now always have at least six bags of frozen fruits and vegetables in the freezer and no longer have a weight problem.

- I drink chilled green tea mixed with fresh fruit juice and sparkling water when hunger strikes. Why it works: We often confuse hunger with thirst. A glass of water can take the edge off our hunger, but water can be unexciting. Caffeine-rich green tea mixed with deliciously sweet, vitamin-rich fresh fruit juice and topped up with fizzy water is a great idea. A filling, fat-burning and more exciting solution when water just isn't enough!

- I always have three apples and a bag of almonds in my handbag. Apples (and pears) are high in pectin, which helps reduce fat absorption; and they're rich in soluble fiber, which slows down the absorption of sugars into the bloodstream. Almonds are a great protein/essential fat combination. The two together make for a balanced, fat-burning and filling snack; perfect on the go.

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