Katie Skipper

You don’t have to want to lose weight, be focused on health, want to save the planet or be an animal’s rights activist to appreciate the benefits of eating less meat. It’s simply cheaper. A can of black beans provides about 24 grams of protein but costs about a dollar, even less if you use dried beans. A four ounce serving of sirloin steak can cost from $6 to $8 a pound, so a four ounce serving ranges from $1.50 to $2.00. It’s about half the price.

Does going meatless provide any health benefits?

The answer is yes! First, meatless meals that have plant based protein provide the body with fiber. Soluble fiber feeds the microbes in your digestive tract that are beneficial. Those same microbes boost your immune system, affect your digestion and absorption of nutrients, affect your nervous system and brain and even help you lose weight. The insoluble fiber in plant protein sources also helps keep your elimination running smoothly, while slowing the absorption of carbohydrates to regulate blood sugar levels. Both can make you feel fuller, so you’ll eat fewer calories.

If you opt for a vegetarian lifestyle, you’ll lower your risk for several diseases.

You don’t have to be a vegan to get the benefits. Just cutting back on meat and becoming a flexitarian can help. Flexitarians simply eat less meat and focus meals more on vegetables and fruit. They may have a meatless Monday, Wednesday and/or Friday, but include meat in their diet the rest of the week. It can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, colon cancer and even live years longer than meat eaters.

Do you want to lose weight? It’s easier when you have a highly plant based diet.

Besides the economic, environmental and health benefits, plant based sources of protein are often more filling, so you eat less. They’re also often lower in calories in many cases. Studies of vegetarians show they have a lower BMI—body mass index—than those that ate meat on the average. The same studies also show vegetarians have a much lower waist-to-hip ratio, meaning less belly fat.

• Red meat takes longer sitting in your intestines. It can take as long as four days before you eliminate it, which may be why it’s linked to colorectal cancer. It’s high in cholesterol and saturated fat.
• Not all plant based proteins are complete. In order to get a complete protein with all the amino acids our body can’t make, you have to combine them or eat several types throughout the day. It’s easy. Peanut butter on whole grain bread is one example, just as black beans and rice is.
• You don’t have to opt for fancy vegetarian foods that cost extra, although I do love cashew burgers that have their own unique taste that’s nothing like meat. Cheap simple vegetarian options are available.
• Toss nuts and red beans in your salad or include meat in your meal, but make the amount you use smaller. Combine leftover meat that’s a serving or less with meatless options if you need more protein. Chop it up and use it for flavor, rather than the main source of protein.

For more information, contact us today at Wholly You Fitness

We know there’s no magic formula for being fit. It takes devotion to eating healthier and a program of regular exercise. At Wholly You Fitness in Oceanside, CA, we focus on that. However, tips about healthy “fat burning” foods, can help you save a few extra calories every month. Fat burning foods have a thermogenic effect. It means the calories necessary to digest them can cut the number of calories they provide by a significant amount. Basically, they make your weight loss easier. Think of celery, which is often touted as a dieter’s friend. It contains very few calories, but takes quite a few to digest.

Some higher protein foods, such as lean meat or beans have a thermogenic effect.

Food high in protein not only take longer to digest, so you feel full longer, they also burn about 30% more calories than other types of food. If you ate a serving size of meat that had the same number of calories as a cookie, you’d only be able to use 2/3rds of the calories from the meat, since the rest went into digesting the meat. Protein can increase your metabolism by as much as 35% for several hours after consumption.

Hot spicy food can boost your metabolism.

If you’re a fan of chili peppers, there’s good news for you. That heat from the capsaicin in the ribs and pith of the chili not only burns your mouth, it burns calories, too. Capsaicin helps prevent metabolic slow down and reduces your appetite by making you feel fuller. In a mega study using thousands of participants, people who consumed capsaicin burned about 50 extra calories a day. Unfortunately, if you consume chili peppers every day, your body adjusts to the heat and the thermogenic effect declines. Capsaicin is also an anti-inflammatory.

Food with fiber or omega3 burn calories and some burn fat specifically around the middle.

Food high in fiber has the same benefits as protein. It keeps you feeling fuller longer and burns extra calories for digestion. Fiber also slows the absorption of sugar, which levels blood sugar and reduces insulin levels that can spike and cause fat to accumulate around your mid section. Foods high in fiber include whole grains, oatmeal and brown rice. Foods with Omega3 fatty acids, like salmon, walnuts and kale, trigger fat burning.

Green tea contains EGCG, which promotes fat burning, especially around your middle. It also contains caffeine, which increases your metabolism.

Seeds and nuts have a thermogenic effect. Sprinkle some pumpkin seeds or ground flaxseed on your cereal in the morning to increase nutrition and burn extra calories.

Adding herbs and spices to your food not only boosts flavor without adding extra calories, it can boost health benefits and metabolism. Turmeric, especially combined with black pepper, has a thermogenic effect.

Foods like bananas are higher in potassium, which can boost your basal metabolism, which is the number of calories burned as you rest. Get your potassium from food rather than a supplement, as too much can have dangerous side effects.