What Foods Have Negative Calories?

Are there foods with negative calories? Are there foods that really take more energy to digest than what they contain? The calories burned to digest food is called the thermic effect. About 10% of all the calories you consume are used in this way. Foods higher in fiber, such as fruit and vegetables, tend to burn more, approximately 20%. Protein uses about 30% and fat only burns 3%. Fruits and vegetables are low in calories and high in fiber and water. Are they actually the key to a negative calorie food? One thing is certain, you’ll get to eat more, get more nutrients and feel fuller when you consume fruits and veggies.

Celery may actually be a negative calorie food.

Food that is low in calories and high in water and fiber may actually burn more calories than they contain. Celery fits that description. With so few calories and so much fiber, it’s something to consider, but there’s no scientific proof that celery has negative calories. One thing is certain, it helps you lose weight, plus celery is a natural diuretic if you have water weight. It lowers inflammation, reduces hypertension, aids cholesterol balance, boosts metabolism, improves digestion and helps the body in many other ways.

Caloric intake for most fibrous fruits and vegetables is low, zero or negative.

You have to chew most fruits and vegetables quite a bit, especially if you’re eating the peeling or they’re extremely fibrous. They also fill you up do their high water content. Think cantaloupe and watermelon for example. They have almost no calories due to their high water content and thermogenesis—the body’s requirement in calories to digest a food. Other foods that are low in calories but take a lot to digest include leafy greens.

Spices have almost no calories but flavor your food and require calories to digest.

Boost your calorie burning with hot spicy foods and cayenne peppers. Hot food, like hot peppers boost calorie burning, since it builds heat in the body. The increase in the body temperature causes a boost in your metabolism. You can add hot herbs and spices to your food to lower the calorie count. Other spices and herbs that help burn more calories include cumin, cinnamon and turmeric.

• Eat noodles while you burn more calories. Of course, these aren’t regular noodles, but ones from vegetable sources, like zoodles made from zucchini or natural noodles from spaghetti squash.
• Make a salad of beets, kale and spinach to burn fat. These foods are low in calories and while may or not contain negative calories, are especially good for weight loss and overall health.
• Steamed baby asparagus with a little lemon and spice is the perfect side dish that may take your calorie count to the negative side. No matter how you make asparagus, the calorie count is low and thermogenic effect is high.
• The way you prepare any food, celery, cabbage, asparagus or beets included, will also make a difference. Celery on a salad may cut your calories, but French fried celery (yes, there is such a thing) doesn’t have negative calories.

For more information, contact us today at Prime Fitness