Free List Of Negative Calorie Foods

You'll find a free list of negative calorie foods below, but first let's consider what this term means. There is no such thing as a negative calorie - a calorie is a unit of heat and it is not nor can it be negative. So when people talk about negative calorie foods, this just means food with calorie levels low enough that it takes more energy to eat and digest it than the amount of energy the food contains.

For example, if you consider water to be a food, then cold water is a negative calorie food. It contains no calories and the body has to expend energy to bring it up to blood temperature. So every time we drink a glass of cold water we burn up a couple of calories and lose a little weight. But there are very few foods like this. Most foods that are on the negative calorie food list do not really use more calories than they add, or if they do the effect is negligible ... until you remember that at the same time the body expends energy just to keep it alive and breathing. Celery for example does not give us enough calories to cover both the energy that it takes to digest it, plus the energy that we expend even when we're doing nothing. So that's why people call it a negative calorie food.

Sadly, negative calorie foods are most attractive to anorexics. A negative calorie diet would obviously result in starvation in the long term and nutritional deficiencies can occur very quickly. The calories burned usually come from muscle mass, and the result is debility and wasting.

A more healthy way to use a negative calorie diet is as a form of fasting or detox. It's something you can do for one to three days right after the Christmas season or another time when you've been eating an over-rich diet. Provided you're otherwise healthy it can be a great way to clean out your system. However it's still best to get medical advice before attempting this.

If you decide to use a negative calorie detox, keep the following points in mind:

1. It is never a good idea to eat huge quantities of one type of food. A lot of foods contain substances that can be damaging if consumed to excess. For example, the acid in grapefruit and pineapple can damage your stomach lining and your teeth enamel if you're eating several at one sitting. Other cooked foods put an excessive burden on the liver or may cause diarrhea. So try to eat living foods - that is a lot of fruits and vegetables.

2. Do not spend all day eating. You will just become bloated and feel sick. If you are only doing this for a couple days, you should not feel too hungry. Plan four or five dark green salads a day (never eat iceberg letttuce-- it has very little nutrition). Juice vegetables and fruit and let your digestion rest at other times.

3. You'ill feel more satisfied if you eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly. You will also use more calories that way. So if the foods can be eaten raw, that will be more effective than cooking them. Foods like carrots and beets will also be more satisfying if you eat them grated or juiced.

4. Schedule time when you do not have any important commitments. As with fasting or any kind of detox or cleanse, you may suffer some uncomfortable symptoms including headaches, tiredness, depression and irritability. If these become severe, stop the diet and see a diet doctor.

5. When you end the fast, detox or cleanse, plan a gradual return to normal eating or better yet, incorporate juicing and eating fruits and raw veggies in your diet for the long term..

If all the above points are checked and passed, let's move on to the free list of negative calorie foods. Organic is best.

    * Apples
    * Asparagus
    * Beets, purple or golden
    * Blueberries
    * Broccoli
    * Cantaloupes
    * Carrots
    * Cauliflower
    * Celery stalks
    * Celery root
    * Cranberries
    * Cucumbers
    * Eggplant
    * Endives
    * Garden cress
    * Garlic
    * Grapefruit
    * Green beans -steamed
    * Green cabbage or Purple cabbage
    * Lamb's lettuce
    * Lemons
    * Green lettuce, such as green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce or romaine
    * Onions. red, green, yellow
    * Papayas
    * Pineapples
    * Prunes or plums
    * Radishes
    * Raspberries
    * Spinach
    * Strawberries
    * Tangerines, mandarins, clementines
    * Tomatoes, salad tomatoes cherry tomatoes
    * Turnips
    * Zucchini

Please use this free list of negative calorie foods wisely.