There seems to be an epidemic. Low calorie foods are popping left and right. It seems that every respectable food manufacturer is launching line after line of low calorie foods. Heck even fast food chains are joining in the race for the ultimate low calorie food.
But are low cal foods healthy? Can they help you lose weight?
In theory it all sounds great. Just reduce the number of calories you eat and you will be able to lose weight. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t matter how many calories you eat, it is very important what is the source of the calories.
There are plenty of low calorie desserts. We like to eat them thinking that they will help us lose weight. In fact, the marketers bank on this. But the sad truth is that dessert is dessert. And if it is sweet and with low calories it means it is full of chemicals and sugar substitutes.
Your liver is the one responsible with breaking down your body fat. You can consider your liver a fat incinerator. At the same time your liver is also the waste management plant of your body. When you eat chemical filled food, your liver does its best to remove from your body all the harmful chemicals. Now, I have a question for you:
If your liver is busy eliminating the toxins from your body, do you think it has time to burn fat also?
Of course not! It can’t do both jobs well at the same time. What is even worse is the fact that if you eat lots of toxic chemicals – like those found in most low calorie foods – your liver will be overrun by them. In a desperate attempt to control the situation your liver will resort to its last weapon: packing the toxic chemicals in fat. And to do this it needs to make more fat.
That is right. If you eat too many chemicals (sugar substitutes, food colorants, preservatives and all the other nasty stuff) you practically force your body to produce fat. It doesn’t matter if it is low calorie food. It doesn’t matter if you want to lose weight. Your liver will do the best he can to keep your healthy, even if it means making you fatter.
As you can see the low calorie foods produces en mass nowadays aren’t really helping you lose weight. They aren’t even good for maintaining your weight.
And there is another disadvantage to low caloric foods. They are small and light weight. Hardly satisfying. That is why most people tend to overindulge and eat more than they should have. What is the point of eating 500 calories small meals if you eat 3 of them one after the other.
It is fairly easy to go back for seconds when eating low calorie food. “After all it is low call and it won’t make me fat” most think. And that is exactly the kind of thinking sneaky food marketers are trying to promote.
My advice to you is to stay away from the prepackaged or premade so called low calorie foods. They have the nasty tendency of making you fat.
If you want to eat real low calorie food, eat more vegetables. They are the ultimate low calorie food. Vegetables are super healthy, packed with vitamins and minerals, and because of the fibers they contain they also make you feel full for a longer time. What more can you ask for.
Eat more veggies and less packaged food.
For more information also check out:
- When On a Low Calorie Diet Be Careful Of Vitamins and Minerals
- The Best Low Calories Foods List
- Eat Healthy Foods at Home and While Out in Town
August 3, 2011
Diet Foods, Diets & Nutrition