Nutrition

Food that Burn Fat

April 13, 2008
By J White

To get the most out of every bite we take we need to consume foods that burn fat. What type of foods are these? To understand this, we need to take a quick look at your bodies reaction to ingesting food.

Your body reacts differently to the type of food source you’re consuming. Fat for instance is processed quickly by your body since very little chemical breakdown needs to done it for your body to use it. As such, when you consume fat your body will either use it as an immediate source of energy or store it as fat.

The food source protein on the other hand takes the longest for your body to process and as such requires more calories to burn during digestion. This is one reason some people are big proponents of a high protein diet. However, a high-protein diet cause a build-up of ketones which makes the body more acidic and puts more stress on your kidneys and liver in handling these compounds. As a result a high-protein diet is not the healthiest long-term diet to adhere to.

Carbohydrates are your primary source of energy and likewise are the source for the majority of our calories. Carbohydrates can be classified as either simple or complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates consists of sugars, white breads, or any type of processed foods. Processing foods takes out most of the fiber which makes these carbohydrates easy to digest.

Complex carbohydrates on the other hand retain much of their fiber and as a result the body has to work harder to process them before they can be used as energy for your body. These are the types of foods people typically refer to when they want foods that burn fat.

Another way of classifying carbohydrates are by their glycemic index number. Glycemic index or GI describes the difference in ranking of carbohydrates according to how they effect your blood glucose and insulin levels. High insulin levels, the result of high glucose levels in your body, signal your body to start storing that excess glucose as fat. Carbohydrates with a high GI causes this reaction. As such you want to choose carbohydrates that have a low GI index. These Carbohydrates tend to produce a smaller flucuation in your blood glucose and insulin levels.

So what are some foods that burn fat or more precisely have a low glycemic index? The following is a list of foods and their GI index number. To burn fat faster, consume foods with the lowest GI index number.