Foods That Help You Stay Fit

We need food in order to survive. That’s a given. Along with water, food is a necessity of life that we can’t do without. That’s why we grow food in order to survive. Our ancestors did it thousands of years ago and we continue doing right into the future.

While food is generally good for us, too much can be bad as well. As of today, obesity is probably the biggest problem that we face as a society. That’s because people are eating too much food and doing too little in the way of physical activity.

Take protein for example. Protein helps our body develop. We need protein in order to grow. The thing is people in developed countries tend to eat a lot of protein. Americans that live in the United States tend to eat more protein than the rest of the world.

That’s all fine and good but most of that protein happens to include a lot of fat. That’s not good because for the most part the fat gets stored in the body and that’s why you have what’s called ‘love handles.’

In order to help your body stay fit one of the things that you need to do is to lower the amount of the protein that you take. Technically, you only need to eat about 3 ounces of protein to last you through the day. Also, make sure that it is lean protein. This means get rid of the fat and gristle that come with it.

Speaking of fat, saturated fat is not good for you. This is the type of fat you typically find in butter, lard or margarine. On the other hand, monounsaturated fat is good for you. This is the type of fat that’s usually called the good fat.

In order to get this kind of fat into your body you should try and cook with olive oil. Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fat. It’s an ideal food for your heart and is also known to have anti-inflammatory properties. You can use to cook or as a dressing and even as an addition to your protein shake.

If you want something that’s light and refreshing yet has the power to help lessen the chances of cancer, help you with your weight loss and even slow down Alzheimer’s then green tea is the tea drink for you. You can really get a boost from drinking tea. It can also be calming – just what you need after a long and hectic day.

Beans are a good food source that can help power your body with none of the bad stuff. Yes, it can potentially give you gas but beans, like black beans, are rich in fiber to help you feel full as well as protein that helps your body grow. They carry no saturated fats and are also full of complex carbohydrates that take a while to convert to energy.

Then there’s water. It has no calories and no fat or sugars or anything like that. For all intents and purposes it is plain as plain can be. However, this is really something your body can’t do without.

While technically not food it can help you fill full nonetheless. Also, it helps to hydrate your body. It also flushes out the toxins that build up in your body.