I’m a big fan of Redondo Beach medical center Nourishing Wellness, which integrates a mind-body-spirit approach in their practice. Below is an except from an e-newsletter that I wanted to pass on because it’s filled with easy tips on how to eat healthier for greater fat loss and greater overall health.
Tip 1: Add Quality Fats to Lose Fat
That’s right! Eliminating fat intake to get rid of fat from the body may seem like a good idea at first glance; however, your body needs quality fats to maintain and repair all the cells in your body. Quality fats improve insulin sensitivity and allow the cell receptor sites to absorb more sugar into the cell to be burned as fuel. This greatly improves energy and cellular metabolism.
But, if you eat large amounts of trans-fats or have a severe imbalance between the omega-6 and -3 fats in your diet, your cell lipid layers are made up of these unhealthy fats which leads to insulin resistance and allows less sugar into the cell and puts you at risk for diabetes.
Balance your Fats: For ideal fat loss, you want a balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fats. Most people get way to many omega-6 fats because they are abundantly found in our diets in the form of nuts, seeds, grain fed meats and poultry and vegetable oils (corn, sesame, safflower, peanut, etc.).
Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish oil (often referred to as DHA, EPA and ALA) and naturally found in grass-fed beef and lamb, wild meats and omega-3 rich eggs. A study in the Journal of Nutrition showed that people who consumed fish oil with their higher-fat diet metabolized more fat and gained significantly less weight than the people who did not get fish oil.
Eating Tip: To improve your fat loss, we recommend a fish oil dose in the range of 1 gram of omega-3s per percent of body fat. For example, if you have 25% body fat you would take 25 grams of fish oil or 1.5 tablespoons per day. If you have more than 30% of body fat you will limit your fish oil intake to 30 grams a day or about 2 tablespoons/ day.
Think of this strategy as getting a good oil and lube job in your car. This helps your car to run better. Your cells need this to repair the lipid membrane. This is an excellent tip to consider if you want to see a difference in your fat loss in the next 6 weeks. After a few months, your cells will be in such good shape that you can cut back your dosage to a .5 gram of fish oil per percent of body fat up to 30%.
Tip 2: Aim for 30 Grams of Fiber Daily
Fiber slows stomach emptying and suppresses ghrelin, a hormone your stomach produces to remind you to eat. More fiber means you’re less likely to have cravings during the day. A study in the journal, Nutrition Review showed people who ate 14 grams of fiber a day, lost four pounds over four months without any additional food restrictions. Getting 30 grams of fiber per day will helps you detox heavy metals, lowers total and LDL cholesterol, raises HDL cholesterol, and helps support a healthy gastrointestinal tract and feel more full between meals.
Eating tip: If you’re not meeting your fiber quota from food, try adding in a scoop of a fiber such as Paleofiber from Design for Health or Medibulk from Thorne Research. Both of these products provides a therapeutic eight grams of fiber per scoop.
Tip 3: Eat Breakfast With Protein: No Cold Cereal Allowed!
Eating breakfast is one of the easiest things you can do to boost your metabolism, increase energy, burn more fat and improve brain function and neurotransmitter levels such as dopamine. But there’s one catch. You have to eat sufficient quality protein at breakfast. Eating cold cereal for breakfast doesn’t count! How much is ideal? Aim for about 1/4 to 1/3 of your daily needs should be eaten at breakfast or about 15-20 grams for breakfast. Most cold cereals give you about 5 grams per serving.
Cold cereal is a poor choice because it is typically higher in carbohydrates than protein. A high-quality protein breakfast will produce the neurotransmitters or chemicals that send messages from the brain to all your muscles and tissue throughout the whole day. If you eat a high-carb cereal along with a banana or orange juice, you’ll produce a lot of sugar which triggers a big insulin response which slows down fat loss and gives you a feeling of a “foggy” brain soon afterwards. To counter these feelings of fatigue, people will grab an energy drink or another cup of coffee which raises cortisol and causes a new round of problems such as anxiety and stress.
Eating Tip: Aim for a breakfast that includes grass fed meats or high quality eggs + a cup of cooked or raw veggies. Or, try 1 Cup of Plain Greek Yogurt + 1/3 C of mixed berries + 1 Tbsp fresh ground flaxseeds and a few walnuts. This provides a nice dose of protein and “good” fats to start your engine and keep your metabolism going throughout the day. Plus, these with these low carb meals you will have a very moderate insulin response and more constant blood sugar level.
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