There are 5 main food categories. The five main food groups include fruits and vegetables, grain products, dairy products, meat and fish products, and “other” products.
This article will explain the small things you can do to change the way you eat and possibly speed up your weight loss results immediately. There will be foods that you have to eliminate to achieve faster results.
5 essential food categories you need to know for Weight Loss
1. Fruits and vegetables
The recommendation of servings of both fruits and vegetables combined is 7 to 8 servings per day for women ages 19 to 50 and 8 to 10 servings per day for men ages 19 to 50.
a. Vegetables
+ Make vegetables your number one priority. Vegetables should be the foundation of your diet from now on. Your body gets many different vitamins and minerals from eating vegetables. It’s always best to make them as fresh as possible. Do everything you can to provide your body with the most nutritious food.
+ Vegetables are best eaten raw. Eating raw will ensure that the nutrients in it will always be abundant. Cooking vegetables is obviously fine but avoid overcooking. All that is good in vegetables will be stripped from vegetables if they are overcooked or burned, meaning there is nothing nutritious left behind. You can eat a serving of vegetables at lunch and dinner and snack on vegetables between meals.
+ Green vegetables are rich in iron as well as calcium. Green vegetables are also low in calories, low in fat, full of fiber, and carry a small amount of protein. The fiber found in vegetables and fruits is crucial to help cleanse your intestinal tract.
* Recommended vegetables are kale, spinach, broccoli, onions, red bell peppers, corn, and eggplant. These vegetables are also known to be high in antioxidants. An antioxidant will help keep your digestive tract healthy and eliminate unnecessary harmful chemicals inside your body.
* Vegetables you can cut back or avoid are carrots, peas, and sweet corn. I say this only because these vegetables have more calories than others. If you choose to eat potatoes, the safest bet is to avoid fried foods.
Vegetables is one of the 5 essential food categories (Image Source: healthyeating.org)
b. Fruit
+ All fruits are good for the human body but we should know which ones are the most practical. The top recommended fruits are: prunes, raisins, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, plums, and oranges. These fruits can also help lower cholesterol and are a great source of fiber.
+ Fruits you can cut back or avoid are fruit juice concentrates, canned fruit, coconut, and various dried fruits. A hand full of raisins is okay, but the reason to be cautious with dried fruit is that the sugar becomes more concentrated.
+ You can buy fresh fruits or grind them in a blender and make your fruit juice instead of buying fake fruit juice. The fruit juices you see in the store say “from concentrate,” leave them on the shelf. Citrus fruits like oranges, pineapples, grapefruits, and lemons help digest your food.
Fruit (Image Source: healthyeating.org)
2. Grain Products
+ Grain products include: wheat, oats, bread, rice, crackers, barley, cereals, all pasta and other kind of noodles. Some noodles are made from canola oil; others made of various oils or starch. Grains have a lot of carbs; if you eat too much of them, your body will store extra energy in the form of fat.
+ Grain products play a big role in creating different areas of hard-to-burn fat in the body. The reason why they play a big role is that grains are usually eaten as the main course. Like pasta with some grilled chicken or potatoes with steak. It is not just “on the side” but it is practically the main dish in most meals.
+ All good grain products are healthy and do not have to be neglected. Good grains are whole wheat or whole-grain products. Wild rice and brown rice are generally healthier alternatives to white rice or any other type of rice, both long grain, and short-grain. You should avoid using margarine or jam on your bread.
+ Dairy products such as chips and crackers are sometimes fried and have a lot of salt. You want to be careful about how much salt you eat. Salt affects your body in many ways. More salt can raise your blood pressure; less salt can lower your blood pressure. Salt entering the body will also retain water. This means that the more salt you consume, the more weight you could temporarily gain. On the other hand, the less salt you consume, the less weight you will be at. Salt also helps control cholesterol levels.
Grain Products is an essential group in 5 food categories (Image Source: healthyeating.org)
3. Dairy Products
+ The fact of the matter is that if you look at the back of a carton of milk and see how much calcium there is, there is actually the same amount of calcium but multiplied in different vegetables. The average daily calcium intake of 19 to 50-year-olds needs about 1000 mg.
+ Depending where you got your milk from, for every 1 cup of milk (whole, 2%, 1%, skim, chocolate), you will get about 300 mg of calcium. There, you’ll need to drink 3 ¾ cups of milk. Instead, you can cook 2 4/5 cups of broccoli and get the same amount of calcium.
+ Collard greens is another word for loose leafy vegetables like cabbage and broccoli. Collard greens can be cooked with other liquid leafy vegetables like kale, spinach, mustard greens, etc. So you can treat your bones with more calcium without drinking any dairy. Other dairy alternatives to provide calcium are molasses, soy (cooked), and soy milk (with vitamin D and without preservatives).
+ As for ice cream, yogurt, and all other dairy deserts are usually made with a good measure of sugar and being animal fat; it also has saturated fat. It also has saturated fat. Cheese products are said to be a good source of calcium and good for teeth, but cheese can also cause constipation because it is difficult to digest. You can eliminate milk without fear. Milk is a food that can be eliminated in 5 food categories
Dairy Products (Image Source: healthyeating.org)
4. Protein Products
+ For protein products, we have meats like beef, pork, and chicken. Fish, beans, and nuts are also rich in protein. Beef, “the red meat” is said to be bad for us to eat. Beef is high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Although beef has good iron, vitamin D, and protein, it also makes it difficult for your digestive system. Beef takes longer to digest because it is harder to break down.
+ Pork is considered a food that provides a lot of energy. It includes the same protein and fat as beef but is easier to digest than beef. For all meats, the fat and protein levels depend on the kind of meat and the cut of meat. For excample, the leanest part of pork with the least fat is the pork tenderloin. The fattest product of pork is ground pork if you fry it.
+ Chicken is always the best choice for protein because it is leaner and has less fat than pork or beef. It is one of the most cost-effective animal protein products available. Eggs are also a good source of protein. The trick to cooking meats for weight loss is to never fry them. You can grill, boil, roast, or grill them; the fat will melt off the meat.
+ Fish oil contains Omega 3, fats with essential oils in them are very good for your body. Omega 3 helps prevent heart disease and is good for your joints. Good sources of Omega 3 are flaxseed oil, nuts and salmon. You can also choose to eat canned fish, but there is nothing better than fresh fish.
+ Soybeans, tofu and red beans are other good sources of protein. Nuts can be used in cooking or for snacking. Nut products are peanuts, almonds, cashews, chestnuts, walnuts, etc. Packaged and flavored nuts are often highly salted, high in sugar, and possibly flavored with chemicals or spices. It’s best to choose plain, no salted nuts. Protein is an important group in 5 food categories.
Protein Products (Image Source: everydayhealth.com)
5. Other Food Products
+ Junk food! Anything filled with refined sugar, any desert, comfort food, select caffeine products, and all things that we know are not the best for our health, but we eat and drink them anyway
The most important thing we must do is control the amount of food we eat or even eliminate it. My suggestion is if you want to lose weight fast and healthy, avoid junk food as it does nothing good for the body anyway.
+ Take soft drinks for example. Drinking too much soft drinks leads to ulcers, fatigue, headaches, tooth decay, obesity, malnutrition, kidney problems, osteoporosis, and is prone to wrinkles and aging. Soft drinks are liquid sugar. The calories consumed and not burned will be stored in fat cells causing an increase in size. You will get all the calories you need from your daily diet.
+ If you already drink black coffee, there is nothing to worry. Coffee becomes fatter when cream, milk, and sugar are added. There is no real substitute for cream in your coffee, nor is there a substitute for sugar in your coffee. I do not recommend using any artificial sweeteners.
Drinking tea is similar to drinking coffee. No sugar, cream, or milk is needed. Coffee and tea are said to help boost the metabolism in average and overweight people.
+ Alcohol is also known as “empty calories.” Beer and coolers contain a lot of yeast and sugar. This will definitely keep someone overweight. Some drinkers also enjoy snacks in large amounts while drinking. Alcohol is a drug and impairs the ability to reason.
Other Food Products (Image Source: istockphoto.com)
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