Can eating raw foods help with weight loss?

Eating a huge, delicious salad is the secret to successful weight control and a long healthy life. Since they have a negative caloric effect, the more you eat, the more weight you will lose. A negative calorie effect means that the food contributes so few calories and is so bulky that it displaces space in the stomach, leading to a full feeling, which has the effect of limiting the consumption of other, more calorie-rich options. The high levels of micronutrients and fiber also help to retard appetite. Typically, you eat fewer calories at meals that feature lots of high-nutrient and calorie-negative foods. Some foods, especially raw green vegetables, supply fewer calories (even if you filled your stomach with them) than the total number of calories needed for their digestion and other important metabolic processes prior to eating again. This means that you can eat large sized portions of these foods and still lose weight because your body will need to burn its excess fat to meet basic metabolic needs.

Raw foods also have a faster transit time through the digestive tract, resulting in more weight loss than their cooked counterparts. The objective is to eat as many raw vegetables as possible, with the goal of one-pound daily. An easy way to accomplish this is to eat a salad at the beginning of your lunch, and then have some raw vegetables with dip before dinner. This could be an entire head of lettuce with one or two tomatoes and some shredded peppers, beets, or carrots. Or, you could have cucumber and shredded cabbage with shredded apples and raisins, or raw broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and snow pea pods with a delicious humus or salsa dip. The possibilities are endless, and my menus and recipes detail many ways for you to reach this goal.

Though it may seem daunting, it is far from impossible to consume one pound of raw vegetables, especially if it is split between two meals. Believe it or not, an entire pound is less than 100 calories of food.