Top 5 Foods To Eat Regularly For Weight Loss

Despite what people who follow me on Facebook and Instagram might think, I eat a fairly straightforward diet. These are my recommendations of the top 5 foods to eat regularly for a healthy lifestyle and a slimmer waistline.

There is usually some kind of healthy, grass fed and finished meat or wild caught fish making up my evening meal, but for me, the main focus is on the veggies.  These are probably my top 5 foods to eat regularly, not particularly fancy but they give amazing nutritional value for their money!

Avocados have become somewhat of a “meme” ever since Tim Gurner’s viral quote about how millennials spend too much money on avocado toast. But this superfood is way more than a punchline: they’re also popular because they’re good for you (but you can eat them home and save money!). Many people eat avocados because of their “good fat,” but they don’t know the true extent of their benefits.

This also goes for the other superfoods I’ll be discussing today. It’s evident that they’re healthy, but arming yourself with the knowledge of how and why they’re so salutary can push you to eat them more often.

Top 5 Foods To Eat Regularly

Avocados 

When we say that these fruits (yes, they are fruits!) have “good fat,” we’re talking about omega 3-6-9 acids. Some omega acids aren’t naturally produced by the body, but they’re essential building blocks for creating other acids that reduce inflammation and make you more sensitive to insulin (thus reducing your chance of getting diabetes). One of the reasons a HFLC diet is so beneficial is because our cells run on fat, which means our hearts and brains run on fat, too.

Avocados are also packed with potassium, fiber, and almost all of your B vitamins! An even bigger bonus: eating healthy fats means your body absorbs more carotenoids. What the heck are those? Well, they aren’t in avocados, but they’re in another item on my favorite food list…

Sweet Potatoes 

The soft, savory goodness of sweet potatoes is usually only truly appreciated on Thanksgiving. Most people are getting their carotenoids from carrots instead. Carotenoids are powerful antioxidants that also give many foods their bright colors. You might have heard of beta-carotene; that’s the carotenoid in carrots and sweet potatoes. Beta-carotene helps sweep out the icky heavy metals that bog down our digestive system.

There are so many ways to cook them, too — like using them as a healthier white-potato-substitute to make french fries! The recipe is simple: just toss the potato wedges in some mustard, rosemary, and salt, and after half an hour of baking, you’ll have something way better than fast(er) food. Recipe here.

But – for anyone following my M.A.D.E Diet and wanting to lose weight, sweet potatoes are not recommended everyday, and only in very small amounts. Make them count when you enjoy them!

Brussels Sprouts

Healthy fats in foods like avocado help protect cell functioning, and beta-carotene in foods like sweet potatoes protect the body from heavy metals and other damaging molecules. That’s great, but Brussels sprouts do them one better: protecting your DNA itself. These sprouts block degenerative enzymes and keep DNA stable, preventing genetic mutation. That’s about as good as it gets, right?

Well, if you’re not a fan of the sprouts’ taste, you may be thinking you’ll have to force them down. Not the case! Often, people who think they dislike the taste actually dislike the overpowering smell, because our perception of taste is so directly linked to our sense of smell. To stop these sprouts from stinking, cut them open before steaming them so that they cook more evenly, and only steam for about five minutes. Try them with lemon juice, pomegranate sauce, or honey mustard sauce. Yum!

Eggs

The only non fruit/veg on my list of top 5 foods to eat regularly list. Eggs are much more popular without much worry about spices or preparation methods. However, people are confused about how healthy they are. To clear up the egg-regious rumors, the high cholesterol levels in eggs do not translate to cholesterol in the blood (what causes heart disease). In fact, as you may have always heard, eggs raise “good cholesterol” levels…but as you may not have heard, eggs are able to do this way more efficiently if you’re on a HFLC diet!

Yes, a study by the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry showed that being on a HFLC diet and eating eggs regularly resulted in higher HDL (good) cholesterol levels than just the egg consumption alone. Low carb intake resulted in lowered levels of VLDL (super-bad cholesterol!) and those who ate eggs experienced accelerated increase of good cholesterol! So much for the anti-egg gossip.

Spinach

Last but certainly not least, it’s a leafy green with even more carotenoids (antioxidants!). We’ve talked a bit about these powerhouse cleansers get rid of the toxic heavy metals that accumulate in our systems (and how healthy fats help the carotenoids soak in). But what makes spinach green is chlorophyll, and recent studies have shown that chlorophyll helps decrease hunger-related hormones. No wonder Popeye wasn’t hungry for anything else!

Not only is spinach potentially great for weight loss, but it goes great with our previous superfood, eggs. Try adding spinach and crimini mushrooms to poached eggs, with a bit of chicken broth and some tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle in some garlic and you’ve got an incredibly rich taste. It’s a slightly healthier take on eggs benedict.

But you can get more creative than that. What ways can you think up to combine two or more of these superfoods into one meal? What are your top 5 foods to eat regularly?

Sources:

Global Healing Center

Health

Healthline

Ncbi

Whfoods

Whfoods

Whfoods

Whfoods

Whfoods

Precision Nutrition

Precision Nutrition