Like many celebrity dieters, Wilson focused on eating a predominantly plant-based diet rich in vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, and nuts –– all foods full of nutrients, and high in fiber that helped her feel full for longer. Wilson added walking and other physical activity to her daily routine, and the pounds melted off.

The result of these doable, positive changes was not a deprivation diet but a lasting lifestyle shift that helped her shed pounds and keep them off. More importantly, it was part of a decision to be kinder to herself, according to her social posts, and to gain control of her emotional eating. This particular celebrity diet is a stellar example of how to shift one’s mindset and focus on prioritizing health and making positive changes that allow for a lasting lifestyle of sustained healthy habits.

Not all celebrity diets are as doable or as healthy as Wilson’s. Some are also not sustainable, while others require surgery, and still, other stars rely on medication to achieve weight loss.

Here, we take a look at the weight loss strategies that work, as well as some that are not worth trying to emulate – since the point is to be healthy long-term, and eat nutrient-rich foods that keep you full and energized to help you reach your physical, mental, and well-being goals.

Find a strategy that is right for you and that you and your medical provider both agree on – since you should always check with your doctor or nutritionist before embarking on any dramatic change in eating.

Which Celebrity Diets Work?

Not all celebrities take a healthy approach to weight loss, and even if they do manage to lose weight, it may not be something you should try, since you need to follow the plan that is right for you. Oprah is an investor and an advocate for WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and it has been an approach that consistently helps her maintain a healthy diet. So while it may not be new or sexy, WW works, for the right person.

By contrast, some A-listers are taking the diabetes drug Metformin in order to lower blood sugar levels and allow the body to burn fat for fuel. But this drug has side effects that range from diarrhea to more serious conditions, according to the Mayor Clinic, so no one should consider taking anything without discussing it with their doctor.

Celebrity Diets For Weight Loss: Which Ones Are Worth Trying?

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1. The Sirtfood Diet

Adele brought the Sirtfood Diet to our attention two years ago, when she lost some 90 pounds, but many other stars have tried the Sirtfood Diet, including Pippa Middleton, Lorraine Pascale, the Food Network chef, Jodi Kidd, and a boxer named David Haye.

A Sirtfood Diet is mostly plant-based and contains high levels of foods that help trick your body into burning fat at a higher rate. Sirt foods help signal the body to should rev up your metabolism and increase muscle mass while you burn fat.

The foods you eat are called “Sirt” foods because they are high in sirtuin activators, which promote seven proteins that regulate metabolism, inflammation, and the longevity of cells. When you eat more foods that contain sirtuin activators, it helps speed up fat burning in the body while creating lean muscle mass.

What Are Sirt Foods?

• arugula
• blueberries
• coffee
• dark chocolate
• kale
• matcha green tea
• Medjool dates
• red wine
• soy
• walnuts

But another reason you lose weight on the Sirtfood Diet is that during the first week of the plan, you eat just 1,000 calories a day and drink three green juices throughout the day, each containing Kale, arugula, parsley, celery (including the leaves), half a green apple, lemon juice, and matcha green tea. By week two you can increase your calorie intake to 1,500 a day and drink two Sirtfood Juices a day, and eat two Sirtfood meals.

Bottom Line: Calorie restriction works, but it’s impossible to sustain.  What’s healthy about this diet is that it encourages eating greens and high-antioxidant foods. High-fiber foods (such as arugula and kale, parsley, and other dark leafy greens) keep you feeling full longer. However, the more restrictive any diet is, the less likely it is that you can sustain it.

When we tried the Sirtfood Diet, we lasted about half a day, until the middle of the afternoon, when we had to lie down and take a nap. This diet just does not allow for enough calories to fuel an active person, and the restrictions are too harsh to stay on it for more than about 24 hours.

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2. The Mayr Method

Rebel Wilson lost more than 60 pounds during her “Year of Health” by following a diet called the Mayr Method, which is less of a diet and more of a healthy approach to changing your relationship with food. The eating strategy itself is focused on a healthy diet of mostly whole foods like vegetables and lean protein, but the key is to stop stress eating, which leads to reaching for junk, and instead be mindful about what’s triggering your emotional eating in the first place.

Practicing journaling and writing down petty slights or unhappy emotions and then flushing or burning these notes helps you process your emotions in a healthier way than smothering them in donuts and chips. By learning how to kick stress-eating to the curb, you are less likely to reach for high-sugar or carb-loaded snacks to comfort your feelings.

Wilson learned to follow the Mayr method, a nearly 100-year-old approach to healthy weight loss that combines emotional healing with smaller portions, plenty of plant-based foods, lean protein, and taking long daily walks for gentle but consistent calorie-burning every day.

A unique aspect of the Mayr Method is that it isn’t so much a specific diet as it is a way of approaching food and exercise that is kinder to your body and allows you to stop being self-destructive with food.

Wilson explained her new approach to her fans in a social media video, telling them how this method helps people put themselves in better situations where they feel in control of their food decisions and less distracted by other thoughts while they eat, so they don’t make poor choices.

Bottom Line: The Mayr Method is a healthy approach to losing weight and keeping it off. The Mayr Method focuses on eating more plant foods like vegetables and high-protein foods which is great. And because it is about being “good to yourself,” it can become a lifestyle. You learn to eat healthy foods that make you feel energized and avoid inflammatory foods such as added sugar, processed foods, dairy, caffeine, and gluten.

We also love the part about Rebel Wilson’s weight loss approach that encourages practicing self-care, self-kindness, and journaling. There’s no question that this method helps you break self-destructive habits and feel better about yourself as you prioritize your health.

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3. Intermittent Fasting

Stars like Halle Berry, Scarlette Johansen, Jennifer Aniston, and many others have talked about how effective Intermittent Fasting can be when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight. This strategy, of only eating during short stints and abstaining the rest of the day or night, is as old as Hollywood itself. Some people succeed by only eating one or two meals a day, and not eating for 12 or 14, or even 16 hours, allowing the body to reset and burn fat for fuel.

The question isn’t whether Intermittent Fasting works, but how to do it safely and effectively, by prioritizing eating foods that are nutritious and full of fiber during the hours when you do choose to eat.

Nearly every celebrity who has to get ready for a movie or a red-carpet appearance has tried Intermittent Fasting. This practice requires you to not eat for a long window of 14 or more hours, then eat only during the remaining window of 8 or 10 hours, and choose foods that are healthy, nutrient-dense, and high in fiber. The science was first tested on patients with dire health issues such as obesity and type 2 diabetes and has been written about extensively by doctors, like Dr. Jason Fung, who has co-authored the book, Life in the Fasting Lane.

Dr. Fung told The Beet that Intermittent Fasting can also help the body fight off infection, since in the absence of food, the body is better able to do the important housekeeping of finding viruses and other cells that are foreign or broken, and perform “autophagy” where it literally eats these cells and destroys them.

How long you fast for is up to you but we don’t recommend pushing it too long. However, Dr. Fung tells us that we sometimes “get hungry” just because we are accustomed to eating breakfast lunch, and dinner, and that our hunger signals are not necessarily to be trusted. We don’t need to eat that often for our health and longevity, he explains since most of us have plenty of fat stores that our body can use to get to a meal a little while later.

Bottom Line: IF is not for everyone. If you are hungry (or hangry) and distracted, then eating more often and choosing smaller portions might be the better route for you. But if you have the ability to eat an early dinner and then a late breakfast, and space out your meals, you may be able to train the body to use the calories already stored (as fat) and lose weight.
When you do eat, however, choose the healthiest foods you can, to resupply the body with nutrients, antioxidants, and the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals to give your cells the important building blocks they need to be healthy and fight off disease.

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4. The Low-Carb Diet

When Kim Kardashian needed to lose weight to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “Happy Birthday dress, she chose to cut out carbs and managed to drop 16 pounds, making the red carpet appearance a success.

Counting carbs has become popular with keto diets. But should you cut out all carbs and eat fewer than 1,000 calories a day to lose weight? It’s actually a terrible idea, according to all medical and nutrition sources.

According to the USDA, you only need to reduce your daily calories by 500 to lose one pound in a week, or 1,000 calories per day to lose two pounds. So if you’re regularly eating 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day (and most Americans actually eat 3,600 a day) simply cutting down on total calorie intake is enough, without over-restricting or cutting out an entire food group.

Not to be confused with keto, the low-carb diet is a gentler way of teaching your body to burn fat instead of carbs, by eating fewer calories from carbs. But we know that not all carbs are unhealthy. Most vegetables (like carrots) and fruits (apples and oranges) have naturally occurring sugars that come packaged with healthy vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other antioxidants that make them healthy foods that should not be avoided.

As it is, most Americans don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables. Only 1 in 10 of us get the recommended 5 servings a day, and instead eat carbs in the form of refined flour, highly processed foods, added sugar, and sweets. If you cut out those and instead focus on eating natural whole foods, you will lose weight and stay energized and healthy.

Bottom Line: Rapid, dramatic weight loss often leads to gaining it all back.

Achieving rapid weight loss (more than 2 pounds a week) tends to come in the form of losing muscle, bone density, and water weight rather than fat, and when you regain the weight you usually add it back as fat (unless you are strength training). The result: You’ve succeeded in lowering your metabolism.

Instead of cutting out all carbs and restricting your calories to less than 1,200 a day, try cutting out added sugar, refined or processed flour (like crackers, white bread, regular pasta, and white rice), and all junk food. When you choose healthy high-fiber foods such as fruit and vegetables, you stay full longer and unlock satiety cues while curbing cravings.

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5. Raw Vegan Diet

Lizzo shared with her fans that being vegan has been pretty easy for her, and it looks like she’s ready to level up and begin a new challenge. In an IG story she posted on July 28th, the “Bop Star” announced to her 9.1 million followers that she was making the leap to go fully raw vegan, a decision that she made after citing its numerous health benefits.

A raw vegan diet requires you to only eat plant-based foods that haven’t been put through any cooking, heating, or processing so the food remains in its most natural state. We applaud Lizzo’s quest for health and focus on natural whole foods. “So since being vegan I’ve found that I eat a lot of meat substitutes, whether it’s tempeh or jackfruit or Beyond burger or whatever,” Lizzo told her followers.

Lizzo then added more about why she was adopting this new lifestyle, saying, “Just to piggyback on the conversation I was having earlier on raw veganism, a lot of nutrition has been, you know in the zeitgeist lately, and a lot of it has been exterior-based, but being raw has a lot of internal benefits, and those are the ones that are important to me. …

“So for all those people who have GERD, or who have digestive issues, it gives your stomach a break from breaking down and digesting all of those complex, hard-to-break-down substances we eat… “I think it’s important whether you’re vegan, not vegan, pescatarian, vegetarian,” she encouraged fans, “to have one meal a day that’s just simple, from the earth.”

Bottom Line: The more minimally processed whole foods you eat the better, especially when it comes to high-fiber vegetables, fruit, legumes, and whole grains. You don’t have to go fully raw vegan to benefit from this kind of eating. Just try to get more plant-based foods in your diet and avoid processed foods, including fake meat or packaged foods with added sugar.

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6. Juice Cleanse

Stars like Blake Lively and Nicole Richie have been reported to enjoy cleanses over the years, and science supports juicing as a way of adding more healthy nutrients to your diet. As long as it isn’t your only source of calories, juicing can be a healthy way to get vitamins and antioxidants. The problem is that when you use a machine to get juice from vegetables and fruit, you also remove most of the fiber, which means these foods won’t keep you as full as if you ate the whole ingredients instead of drinking only the juice.

Research has shown that even juicing some of the time, over a short stint of 3 days, can help to jumpstart gut health, and possibly promote weight loss. The subjects in this study showed improvements in their gut microbiome after juicing, even days later. According to the study, which followed subjects for 17 days, a three-day juice-intensive diet resulted in increased weight loss and healthier gut microbiota, and the healthy bacteria stuck around for 14 days after the juicing period was over.

Bottom Line; Add juicing to a healthy diet rather than replacing every meal. Juicing can be a great way to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet, but it can wind up being extreme if you do it as a replacement for meals. Instead of removing all the pulp and fiver, add back some pulp or squeeze the juice, allowing some of the fiber to stay in the drink. Dietary fiber is a key component in keeping our gut microbiota healthy.

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7. The Alkaline Diet

Kelly Ripa eats an alkaline diet, which is a way of focusing on a mostly plant-based diet that cuts out inflammatory foods like processed carbs, red meat, and added sugar. Dr. Daryl Gioffre, celebrity nutritionist, and alkaline diet expert explains that eating more alkaline foods reduces acid-promoting foods (not to be confused with citrus or other fruits). Ripa’s diet is clean, mostly plant-based, and brimming with green vegetables and moderate protein intake — mostly plant-based sources with wild-caught fish thrown into the mix.

Alkaline diets are not absolutes, however, which means they are more sustainable over time. “Our motto when working together with her demanding schedule is it’s all about moderation, not deprivation, Gioffre has said, adding that none of his clients think of this as a “diet” per se, but simply making their nutrition part of a healthy lifestyle.

Bottom Line: Steer clear of added sugar and load up on fruits, veggies, healthy fats, and lean protein. Avoid inflammatory foods like processed meat or refined carbs, and make the healthiest choice by prioritizing nutrient-dense foods.

So What Works for Healthy Weight Loss? A Plant-Focused Approach

A Plant-based or plant-focused diet full of whole foods is the best way to think about how to eat for sustained weight loss. It doesn’t have to be a strict diet or rely on restricting calories since if you eat more fiber-filled foods, you will stay full longer and keep blood sugar at a healthy level and avoid unwanted blood sugar spikes.

Seeking nutrient-rich foods and avoiding added sugar, as well as avoiding saturated fat (in red and processed meat) and highly processed foods will naturally lead to weight loss.

Bottom Line: Any diet that is plant-focused and avoids processed foods and refined carbs will likely help you lose weight and feel energized.

Check out The Plant-Based Diet and Cooking Course, to learn how to meal prep and eat healthier all year long.

The post Which Celebrity Diets Actually Work? The Healthiest, and Which to Skip appeared first on The Beet.

First, know your personal weight-loss style. Perhaps you’re trying a weight loss meal plan, like The Beet’s Plant-Based Diet, or you are simply eating less junk food and more weight loss-friendly meals (hello, endless non-starchy veggies!).

If weight loss is a New Year’s resolution of yours, what happens over the next few weeks is the key to your long-term success. (Almost every study tells us that about 80 percent of resolutions will get abandoned in February.) Instead of over-restricting your diet, and then allowing yourself to backslide into bad habits, there are ways to keep the healthy weight loss going and keep it off. Here are six tips to help you maintain weight loss, over the long term, from a registered dietitian.

How to Maintain Weight Loss On a Plant-Based Diet

1. Enjoy Your Food

If you search for the ‘best diet for weight loss’ you will get many different answers. All these diets are basically designed to put you in a calorie deficit – which will lead to weight loss – however if you don’t like what you are eating, you won’t maintain that weight loss.

If a diet is designed to restrict you from your favorite foods, you will be miserable and there is no way that you will stick to it long-term. Too much restriction may also cause you to binge on your favorite foods on a later day, and lead to a hard-to-escape restriction and binge cycle.

2. Experiment With New Vegetables

Expanding from the first tip, the one thing that all weight-loss diets have in common is that it’s recommended to eat a lot of vegetables. Vegetables are nutrient powerhouses, providing fullness and energy, with a low-calorie count. Try to load half of your plate with veggies at each meal –– this may seem daunting, but it gets easier the more you experiment with new types of vegetables or prepare your favorite types of vegetables in new ways.

Try adding some riced cauliflower to your bowls or in your smoothies. Make a zucchini or eggplant lasagna. Scramble up a bunch of veggies and add to your tofu scramble –– the possibilities are endless! The more you experiment with different types of veggies and preparation methods, the more veggies you will be adding to your diet.

3. Familiarize Yourself With Your Eating Patterns

You may or may not be tracking your food during your weight loss journey –– if you’re not, you may want to start. Tracking your food can be as simple as writing it down in a food journal. The goal here is to simply be aware and mindful of your food choices.

Tracking doesn’t have to be a punitive tool, instead, it can be a tool to help you learn more about yourself and your hunger. Approach tracking with a sense of curiosity vs judgment – i.e., you can assess why you were hungrier on certain days (are you eating less protein-rich foods, or are you at a certain time in your cycle?). Tracking your food can also be a way to help you with meal planning.

4. Meal Prep and Plan

Speaking of meal planning –– do it. Don’t leave it to chance that you will just make healthy choices when mealtime comes – it’s hard to make healthy choices when you are starving.

Usually, more nutritious choices take a bit more time to prepare, so your best bet is to get into the habit of meal prepping. It’s important to make this a habit and not just a one-time thing. Mark some time in your calendar each week to set aside some time for meal planning and meal prepping.

To master the art of meal prep, sign up for The Beet x Rouxbe’s Healthy Plant-Based Diet Cooking Course.

5. Don’t Try to Out-Exercise a Poor Diet

Exercise has many benefits; however, your workouts may not necessarily be helping to maintain your weight loss efforts. This is for a few reasons. First off, we tend to overestimate how many calories we burn during exercise. Research has even shown that high-tech watches overestimate the calories we’ve spent working out.

Sometimes seeing how much we burned working out can provide justification to consume more calories –– if we aren’t hungry. Or if we are hungry, it is common to over-reward ourselves with food after a workout. As well, this is a justification in our minds that since we worked out, the quality of the food doesn’t matter –– however, this is so far from the truth. We could end up consuming processed or high glycemic index foods, which can lead to insulin spikes, which can lead to extra fat storage.

6. Look Beyond Weight Loss

When I’m discussing how to maintain weight loss with my clients, I normally recommend capturing those reasons for change beyond weight loss. What does that weight loss represent, that is important to the person? Is it a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk which runs in their family? Does that weight loss mean that the person has more energy to play with their kids? Would weight loss mean more confidence?

All these end goals are important to highlight, as they will likely help the person further commit to the changes that they are making to achieve weight loss. Weight loss is more than aesthetics.

Bottom Line: Use These Strategies to Maintain Weight Loss.

If you follow these tips, you are more likely to maintain that weight loss that you worked so hard to achieve. Sometimes the biggest battle is maintaining.

For more expert advice, visit The Beet’s Health & Nutrition articles. 

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In these moments, it can be easy to find ourselves overeating and overdrinking. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, and you shouldn’t restrict what you eat on the days following. Here are some tips I share as a dietitian after a holiday full of eating and drinking.

How to Get Healthy After Thanksgiving

Take a Walk

You’re feeling insanely full and all you want to do is lay down, but taking a walk is much more beneficial. A randomized controlled trial found that doing some sort of physical activity around 30 minutes after eating can help blood glucose response. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy either. Even a 10-minute, low-intensity walk or activity can help get post-meal blood glucose balanced.

Stay Hydrated

If you had one too many alcoholic beverages, make sure to follow that up with plenty of water. Alcohol is considered a diuretic, which means it makes your body remove fluids at a quicker rate. If you’re not staying well hydrated, dehydration could be a culprit behind those dreaded hangover symptoms such as headache, dry mouth, and fatigue.

Not to mention, drinking water can help with our metabolism and energy expenditure. One small study on 50 girls found that when they drink 2.5 cups of water 30 minutes before each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) they had reductions in BMI and body composition after 8 weeks without making any dietary changes.

Don’t Skip Meals

We are often hard on ourselves after a day of eating more food than we anticipated, leaving us feeling like we need to skip a few meals to make up for how much we ate. Skipping a meal or two could wind up making you overeat again, with one 2020 study stating that adults who skipped breakfast and lunch wound up eating almost 200 more calories at dinner. The same study also states that skipping breakfast, lunch, or dinner all resulted in a lower intake of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and other healthy options.

Not to mention, skipping meals with the mindset that you don’t deserve to eat” because of overeating can lead to a negative relationship with food. That may potentially turn into something serious, such as an eating disorder.

Eat Stomach-Friendly Foods

Your digestive system may still be processing the heavy meal you ate, so it’s a good idea to avoid eating more food or having drinks that may cause additional tummy troubles.

Some foods that are hard to digest:

• Dairy products: Milk and other dairy products contain lactose (the sugar found in milk) can be hard to digest for many people, especially those that are lactose intolerant. This occurs when our body doesn’t have enough of the correct enzyme to break down lactose leaving side effects such as diarrhea, upset stomach, and other digestive issues.
• Fatty, fried, and processed foods: High-fat foods contract the digestive tract, which will make the digestion process slow down. After a large meal, we want to aid our digestive process instead of slowing it down.
• Alcohol: Following up with more alcohol after a night of too much is never a good idea. Not only does it increase our chances of becoming dehydrated, but it may also make us feel even worse in the long run.
• Caffeine: Put a pause on any caffeine-filled beverages, like energy drinks, coffee, or tea. After a large meal, our blood sugar may be higher than normal. If you mix that with caffeine, a stimulant, you may start feeling jittery or nauseous.

Eat Fiber-Rich Foods

Instead of those hard-to-digest foods, fiber-rich options can give your gut a little extra help. According to MedlinePlus, dietary fiber (especially insoluble fiber) can help speed up the passage of food through the digestive system. Soluble fiber is another form that can help feed our gut bacteria which, in turn, also aids digestion, states the National Institute of Health. Many foods contain both insoluble and soluble fiber.

High-fiber foods include:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Leafy greens such as kale and spinach
• Whole grains, such as oats and barley
• Beans, lentils, and peas
• Nuts and seeds

Sip on a “Detox” Drink

While our kidneys and liver are the main organs that help to remove toxins from our body, it doesn’t hurt to assist them with a “detox” drink. The water base of the beverage can help keep things moving in the digestive process and prevent constipation or bloating.

Sipping on a detox drink (like this Apple Lemon Ginger version) is a great way to help out your cells and support your immune system. Ginger has been used for years as a medicine, and evidence finds that it can be a great ingredient to prevent nausea and vomiting (two side effects that may come along with a day of overeating). Plus, that pinch of cayenne could help out with digestion and speed up metabolism.

Bottom Line: Overeating is part of life. Just get back on track

Overeating during the holidays is natural, but it can make us feel sluggish, bloated, and uncomfortable. The best thing to do after indulging is to get active and start to eat high-fiber healthy foods that will give you your healthy energy back, and start moving.

For more expert advice, visit The Beet’s Health & Nutrition articles. 

The post What to Do After Overeating and Drinking, From an RD appeared first on The Beet.

My mission is to help everyday athletes fuel their fitness with plants. I truly believe that everyone can benefit from eating more plants, especially those who are serious about their sport. Whether you’re running a marathon, attempting your first 5k or spinning every other day, you will benefit from incorporating sports nutrition principles into your routine. My goal is to teach you how to use science-based sports nutrition techniques to feel and perform at your best.

Plant-based eating is a sustainable way to lose weight without following a crazy diet that’s not viable in the long run. Ginger Hultin, MS, RDN, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and owner of ChampagneNutrition, says, “Plant-based diets –– vegetarian and vegan, specifically –– have good research behind them that they can help manage weight, and they are associated with lower BMI (body mass index).”

But not everyone who goes on a meatless, dairy-free vegan diet will automatically lose weight. After all, there are plenty of vegan candies, ice creams, and cookies. You still have to be smart about the foods you eat on a plant-based diet in order to drop a few pounds. These simple tips will help guide you on your plant-based weight loss journey. Here’s how to lose weight while eating a plant-based diet.

How to Lose Weight on a Plant-Based Diet

1. Eat Protein at Every Meal

Protein is known for its role in regulating hunger and controlling appetite. Research suggests that eating protein may tell the gastrointestinal tract that it should release certain appetite-regulating hormones. For those new to plant-based eating, it’s easy to fall into the trap of overconsuming carbs and under consuming protein.

This is especially true at breakfast and snack time, which are generally full of carb-heavy foods, like cereal, toast, chips, or crackers. “Make sure to meet your protein needs through soy foods, beans, and lentils, as well as nuts and seeds,” says Hultin. At breakfast, include soy foods, like tofu or soy milk. Rely on protein-rich snacks, like roasted chickpeas, nuts, or chia seed pudding.

Read More: Everything You Need to Know About Plant-Based Weight Loss

2. Count Calories Correctly

Calories aren’t the only thing that matters when it comes to weight loss. As a matter of fact, you should definitely eat some higher calories foods, like nuts, seeds, and avocados (see tip number five ). But if you’re eating more calories than you’re burning off, the body will store those calories as fat. That doesn’t mean you need to obsess over calories, but do pay attention to them, especially in packaged foods.

The serving sizes of processed foods are often smaller than most people eat in one sitting, and those calories can really add up. If you really want to become familiar with the calories in the foods you’re eating, use an app to track your intake for three to seven days. This will help you recognize which foods and drinks may be contributing the most calories to your plate.

3. Fill Your Plate With Veggies

“When moving to a plant-based diet, make sure to focus on eating lots of fruits and veggies,” says Hultin. “Half your plate at meals should be veggies, actually, whether you’re plant-based or omnivorous” she adds. Not only are fruits and vegetables lower in calories than other foods, but they are also rich in fiber, which takes a long time to digest and contributes to overall satiety. That means you’ll feel fuller longer after eating fiber-rich foods, and you’ll be less likely to overeat later in the day.

As an added bonus, fruits and vegetables are also rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, which “can also help reduce certain types of cancer and improve both blood sugar and some cardiovascular markers,” says Hultin.

4. Limit Added Sugar

Unfortunately added sugar is in most packaged foods. The top sources of added sugar in the American diet come from soft drinks, flavored yogurts, cereals, cookies, cakes, candy, and most processed foods. Not only does eating more than the recommended 150 calories of added sugar per day cause weight gain, but research has linked added sugar intake to an increased risk of death from heart disease.

The best way to limit added sugar intake is to eat a whole food plant-based diet and read the nutrition labels. Some foods have natural sugar, which is perfectly fine to have but look for the “added sugar” line on the nutrition facts label. If it’s more than 5-6 grams, consider that food a once-in-a-while treat.

5. Sprinkle in Healthy Fats

Although fats have more calories per gram than carbs and protein (9 calories per gram versus 4 calories per gram), they do play a role in a healthy weight loss plan. A study of healthy young adults showed that regularly consuming foods that contain polyunsaturated fats like walnuts, may be associated with favorable responses in appetite-regulating hormones. In other words, eating “good” unsaturated fats helps keep you feeling full, which is a necessary component of weight loss.

6. Exercise, Sleep, and Hydrate

Although weight loss is primarily linked to diet, it’s also important to pay attention to exercise, sleep, and hydration habits. Make it a priority to get at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity each day, as well as 7-8 hours of sleep per night.

Sleep deprivation is linked to greater chances of being overweight. Some people reach for food when they are dehydrated. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated throughout the day to avoid falling into this trap.

Bottom Line: A Plant-Based Diet is Great for Sustaining a Healthy Weight

For more research-backed content, visit The Beet’s Health & Nutrition articles. 

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What Causes Belly Fat and How to Lose It

There’s good news and bad news about belly fat. The bad news is that, according to a recent government estimate, no fewer than 88 percent of the US population is walking around with belly fat, and most likely it is a symptom of insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is a condition that can lead to type 2 diabetes since your body essentially stops listening to your insulin response to food, which makes you produce even more insulin, and this cycle continues until you either change your diet and get healthy, or the insulin production, which is essentially stuck in the “on” position, short circuits and your pancreas begins to wear out, which is essentially the state in which diabetes starts to happen.

The good news about belly fat? There are dietary changes, specifically a plant-based high-fiber diet strategy, that can help you reverse insulin resistance to lose weight, shrink belly fat, and get back on the road to being your healthiest.

Why Is Belly Fat so Bad for Your Health?

Belly fat isn’t just a vanity issue, but a sign of underlying health issues, which can become conditions that compromise your health, such as type 2 diabetes. So when belly fat shows up and acts stubborn, which it often does, and you find it hard to lose weight,  you need to heed your doctor’s advice and do something about it. That’s the message from one MD we spoke to, who treats people with metabolic conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and insulin resistance. Here’s how to get rid of belly fat.

By changing your diet, and adopting a low-carb, high-fiber approach by eating more vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains (and less processed foods such as refined grains like added sugar and white flour foods), you can reverse metabolic syndrome, which is a condition that includes insulin resistance, this doctor’s research has found.

Before you despair about what you can’t eat, or how hard it is to lose weight and belly fat, there are 22 foods that have been scientifically shown to help fight belly fat, and can even reverse insulin resistance, if you eat them daily, and avoid simple carbs (such as sugar, crackers, chips, sweets, and other processed foods) that drive up blood sugar.

You can get rid of both belly fat and lower your insulin resistance, and achieve overall health, just by avoiding processed foods and adding these 22 foods to your diet, and it works even better if you exercise daily. First, cut out added sugar, animal fat, and processed or fast foods that are full of the types of simple carbs that cause insulin to spike in the first place.

What Is Insulin Resistance and How Can You Reverse It?

Insulin resistance is a term that describes what happens when your body “stops listening” to insulin, so you create more and more of it, in an effort to get blood sugar to safely be used by the cells or carted away to be stored as fat. Insulin resistance is especially hard to solve since once the extra fuel (whether it’s sugar or fat) gets locked up, your blood sugar dips, and you sense that you’re hungry – even though you just ate not too long ago – and you eat again to satisfy the hunger cue. Then insulin goes up again, and your cells resist the signal, and as insulin gets ignored (or resisted) it pumps more and more, until finally there’s an answer.

Your blood can only hold a teaspoon of glucose or blood sugar at one time, so insulin is just trying to do its job to clear out the excess glucose before it can cause harm, but until you either fast or eat high-fiber foods, this ugly cycle continues, explains Dr. Cucuzzella, MD, author of the book Low-Carb on Any Budget. Insulin resistance–and excess belly fat–starts because your blood, all five liters of it, can only tolerate a finite amount of sugar in it, specifically the equivalent of a teaspoon or110 milligrams per deciliter, says Dr. Cucuzzella, who is a Family Medicine professor at West Virginia University School of Medicine.

When you eat more sugar or simple carbs (such as junk food, white bread, white pasta, sweets, chips or other highly processed foods) than your body can burn up by moving about, insulin response goes up, signaling to the body to store the extra fuel as fat. “Insulin knocks on the door” to tell your body that blood glucose needs to be delivered to the cells, first to the liver, muscles, and other cells, to be used for fuel, but then to your fat cells, where it can be stored till later.”

Things go awry when you eat more sugar than you can use, he explains. The average American meal has about 60 to 75 grams of carbohydrates in it. On average Americans eat about 250 to 300  grams of carbs a day, which is about ten times what your body can use–unless you’re training like an Olympic athlete. (Side note: Dr. Cucuzzella says he has eaten 20 to 30 grams of carbs a day for ten years, and as someone with diabetes, this level “keeps me well and running.”)

The more carbs you eat, the more insulin is released, causing insulin resistance

If you throw the typical meal with those 60 to 75 grams of carbs, then your insulin is going to do whatever it has to do to store the extra. Instead of knocking on the door, it is now pounding on the door, to alert the body that there is too much blood sugar, and it has to do something to get the body’s attention, so it starts rising and rising and rising. When those fat cells are full, the body says: enough! But insulin has to bang on the door even louder to get the body to listen and move that sugar out of our bloodstream.”

This back-and-forth signaling (the insulin getting louder, bullying the body to store extra glucose as fat, the body resisting this message since it has had enough), sends insulin higher and higher, and the body becomes more and more resistant to the message. The body just does not want to hear from insulin again and again, like a spam caller. It stops picking up.

A better way to phrase it is carbohydrate intolerance, which means your body does not hear or see the insulin. Your body eventually acts the way someone who is gluten intolerant acts when they eat wheat: You get inflamed, your immune system overwhelmed, and your gut reacts as if all these carbs are making it sick, which in fact they are.

Whether you eat plant-based or not you have to be conscious of added sugar and simple carbs. If you were peanut-allergic, you can’t eat them, but to someone who has central obesity, or who has insulin resistance, they are essentially carb allergic.

Only 12 percent of the population is “metabolically well,” Dr. Cucuzzella says, and for the other 88 percent with metabolic conditions, eating foods that help lower blood sugar is the key to shedding that unwanted belly fat, lowering the volume on insulin, and getting healthier.

What Is Metabolic Syndrome?

“The primary driver of belly fat and insulin resistance is excess sugar in the bloodstream, which comes from the food we eat,” such as excess carbohydrates, causing insulin resistance and creating a “metabolic storm” inside our bodies,” Dr. Cucuzzella explains.

As the metabolism breaks down, people develop a condition called metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions, which together act to increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Given the implications associated with these conditions (increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and a high cholesterol profile ), Dr. Cucuzzella has written an article, “Is It Time for a Lockdown on Sugar?,” published in the current issue of Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine.

Why is Belly Fat Dangerous?

Belly fat is more than just a cosmetic issue, he adds: “Belly fat or abdominal fat is the dangerous fat,” Dr. Cucuzzella says.  “It’s called visceral fat, not brown body fat. We need brown fat as protection for vital storage. Women store differently than men, and more for endocrine function and for reproduction. But when you store it in the abdomen it increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. The primary driver of that apple shape is metabolic syndrome.

“Of the patients I see, 90 percent of them have it and they don’t know it. Essentially the body does not metabolize carbs the way it should. When you look at glucose per deciliter of concentration, they may not even eat more carbs than other people by the time they come to see me, but their body has become intolerant of the carbs they do eat.”

The problem is that if the liver is already filled and your muscles are filled (with the energy they need) and then you add more carbs and fat to the blood and over time, you have liver fat. . So not just sugar but the fat that comes with it, so now you have fat trapping. Insulin is a switch, which says store. So if you need to use that fat as fuel you need to reduce carbs and you can do that with a mostly plant-based diet.

Carbs are the primary driver of insulin. So to do this you have to lower insulin and if you do that you need to lower carbs. It’s not going to go away with a 30-day diet, he explains. Instead, the answer is to change your way of eating and to approach it as a lifestyle. You have to make that switch.

Reverse Metabolic Syndrome and Lose Belly Fat

The number one thing that Dr. Cucuzzella recommends to his patients is to follow a diet of low-carb, high-fiber foods, and to stick to eating real or whole foods. By doing this, it’s possible to lose belly fat and ultimately succeed at lasting weight loss. 

“It’s really not anything extreme. It’s what your grandmother would eat: Nothing in a box or a bag with a label. Plenty of real food with carbs, but also high in fiber, so while a banana would qualify, it will behave differently in the body than leafy vegetables.”

Eating a diet high in fiber and low in carbs is the best way to combat and reverse insulin resistance, Dr. Cucuzzella says. Choose carbs that have fiber, like green leafy vegetables, and focus on getting as many of these high-fiber foods as you can, while cutting out the simple sugars and starchy foods.

“Fiber is magical. What fiber does is feeds the gut. Take zucchini for example. It might have six grams of carbs but 2 grams of that is fiber. That means the carbs in zucchini are not behaving like glucose in the body. The fiber will become food for the healthy bacteria in our gut. The same thing is true if I eat an apple, the carbs behave differently than apple juice with no fiber. Fiber feeds the healthy trillions of bacteria in the gut and helps to fight obesity and heart disease, and it makes you feel full.

“We don’t understand all the ways that the microbiome helps keep us healthy,” says Dr. Cucuzella, “but we know that feeding it vegetables, and high-fiber foods such as greens, can help reverse disease and lower insulin. Simply said, eat fiber, in the colors of the rainbow, to provide nourishment to the microbiome and lower your insulin response to the food you eat.”

Why It’s So Important to Eat Fewer Simple Carbs

Carbs create inflammation explains Dr. Cucuzzella, which is dangerous when you get sick from the flu or other virus. “I work in a hospital so people in the hospital often have these conditions associated with insulin resistance, which is obesity and hypertension, and diabetes. If you want to protect yourself from the flu or the next wave of COVID-19, get healthy now. You can lower the chances of having complications or severe symptoms if you get healthy now by maintaining a low-carb diet.

“If you are ever in hospital you need to have the host or body be healthy to fight the infection. The cytokine storm causes hyperglycemia. And when we have hyperglycemia our whole immune system function is disabled and it starts a cascade of negative effects. We don’t have a good treatment for the cytokine storm yet. You have to ride it out. The people who have it the worst are people with some spectrum of high blood sugar or metabolic syndrome.”

The 22 foods to eat to help lower insulin resistance

Here is Dr. Cucuzzella’s list of non-starchy plant foods that he gives to his patients, from his book, Low Carb on Any Budget. It should not be expensive to eat healthily. He calls it the Green Food list. Eat these to help lower insulin resistance and lose stubborn belly fat.

• Avocado
• Asparagus
• Bell Pepper
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Cucumber
• Green Onions
• Jalapeño
• Mushrooms
• Olives
• Onion
• Pickles
• Romaine Lettuce
• Spinach
• Sauerkraut
• Tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Macadamia Nuts
• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Pecans

Bottom Line: Stubborn Belly Fat Could Be a Sign of Insulin Resistance. Here Are 22 Foods to Fight Back

Belly fat may be a sign that you are battling with insulin resistance, a potentially dangerous condition that can lead to diabetes, according to this doctor. To fight back and get rid of stubborn belly fat, and reverse your insulin resistance, eat these 22 foods that are part of a high-fiber diet rich in vegetables, legumes, fruit, and whole grains, and avoid highly-processed foods that cause insulin levels to spike.

For more ways to incorporate a healthy, plant-based diet into your life, check out The Beet’s Health and Nutrition articles.

You may think iron is synonymous with meat, and while animal protein certainly has it, that doesn’t mean you can’t get enough iron if you eat a mainly plant-based diet. In fact, you can, if you know the right foods to choose and how to pair them. The daily recommendation from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for iron intake is 18 milligrams (mg), but not all iron sources are created equal. Here’s what plant-based eaters need to know about iron and which iron-rich foods are best to help reap the benefits.

1. White Mushrooms

1 cup cooked = 3 mg iron (17% daily value (DV))\There are many reasons to eat mushrooms on the regular, but their meaty texture (try a Portobello cap as a meat replacement for a burger!) and ample protein are two of the highlights. Add them to your stir-fry, tacos, or even instead of meat in a faux Bolognese sauce.

2. Lentils

1/2 cup = 3 mg iron (17% DV)You don’t need to eat a huge serving of lentils to get a hearty dose of iron. Just a half-cup provides close to 20% of the iron you need in a day. Just like mushrooms, lentils have a meaty texture that works well in burgers, tacos, or grain bowls.

3. Potatoes

1 medium potato = 2 mg iron (11% DV)The poor potato has gotten such a bad rap. Fear of this carb-rich spud is unwarranted because it’s actually an affordable and delicious source of iron and potassium. So go ahead and have that hash, baked potato, or potato soup and leave the skin on for some added fiber.

4. Cashews

1 ounce = 2 mg iron (11% DV)Most nuts contain iron, but cashews are a standout because they have less fat than some of the other nuts. One ounce of cashews (about 16 to 18 nuts) has 160 calories, 5 grams of protein, and 13 grams of fat. Add a handful of cashews to smoothies, soups, or sauces for some extra creaminess.

5. Tofu

½ cup = 3 mg (15% DV)Not only does tofu have plenty of protein and calcium, but it’s also a good source of iron. It’s very versatile and takes on the flavor of any sauce or marinade, making it a great meat substitute.Keep in mind that you can easily get the iron you need from a plant-based diet.

The post The 22 Best Foods to Lose Belly Fat, Lower Insulin Resistance, From a Doctor appeared first on The Beet.

Chances are if you have been paying attention and like to read up on ways to be healthier, you’ve heard about the benefits of green tea. The active ingredient in green tea is a polyphenol called Epigallocatechin Gallate (or EGCG for short). That’s one reason Matcha tea is popular – it contains the highest amount of EGCG of any tea on the market.

EGCG has been shown to help animals lose body fat by increasing their metabolism. Green tea is associated with dramatic weight loss in the lab. Now human studies are beginning to show that this works for us as well.

Green Tea Can Help Aid in Weight Loss

Black, green, and oolong tea all come from the same plant leaves, but the amount of EGCG is higher in green tea due to the way it is processed, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND). Polyphenols are powerful antioxidants that have been shown in studies to reduce cell damage, fight inflammation, and lower the risk of type 2 diabetes. EGCG especially has been found to help control blood sugar, which can help with weight loss.

During the processing of teas, some of the polyphenols are destroyed, so tea powders, decaffeinated teas, and bottled tea drinks may not deliver as many polyphenols as tea bags steeped in hot water. Green tea has more EGCG because it is less processed than black, keeping the polyphenols intact.

The longer you steep your tea (at least ten minutes) the more EGCG gets released. Here’s what you need to know to try adding green tea to your diet to help your body get the benefits of this powerful polyphenol. Another important note: Some studies suggest that caffeine and catechins, or type of polyphenol, appear to help with weight loss. But, these studies have also found that decaffeinated green tea does not appear to produce the same results

If the scientific studies are reliable, they suggest that EGCG is the closest thing we have found to a magic pill for weight loss (and we don’t suggest you take supplements of any kind, even green tea extract since when processed and powdered, the polyphenols are deactivated and destroyed). So what’s the best way to add drinking green tea to your day as part of a healthy diet to achieve weight loss, if losing weight is on your list of health goals?

First, let’s examine the studies and what they tell us about tea and body weight.

Tea Linked to Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Another new study just published has found that people who drink tea (black, oolong, or green) are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who don’t drink tea or drink very little tea. Looking at data from over 1 million people who had been followed in 19 studies, the researchers found that people who routinely drink several cups of tea daily were 17 percent less likely to have type 2 diabetes over 10 years.

How much tea does it take to lower your risk? Four or more cups a day were required to see such dramatic results. But even less tea had a beneficial effect, the researchers suggest.

Green Tea and Metabolism

We found other studies that have shown that green tea helps speed up fat metabolism, which helps promote weight loss when paired with a healthy diet high in plant-based whole foods and low in nutrient-void processed foods such as sugar, white flour, and junk food snacks.

The fact that EGCG promotes fat burning and natural weight loss in mice has been known for years. So how do you use this information in your life, if losing weight is on your list of health goals? Yes, you may want to drink more green tea, but you can do it without having to attach an IV drip of Matcha to your arm.

Here’s the research, backed by science and repeated in several studies.

How Green Tea Works in the Body

Green tea helps turn up the body’s natural fat-burning process. It also has other remarkable health benefits, studies have shown, from metabolizing fat to fighting tumor growth.

Green tea has been shown in studies to contain a remarkable compound called EGCG, or Epigallocatechin Gallate, which is such a powerful polyphenol that it has been shown in the lab to halt tumor growth in its tracks. Other teas, such as Oolong are also healthy, but green tea has the most EGCG of any other tea.

EGCG has been called a “chemopreventative” polyphenol since it has been shown in cancer studies to hinder growth. The way it does that is to use a “fuel gauge” pathway called AMPK in the body that essentially keeps tabs on when fuel is plentiful (so cells are prompted to grow) and when fuel supply is short (so cells are instructed not to grow).

While this has major implications for cancer, checking it from growing and proliferating, EGCG also manages to help send a message that “fuel is short” which causes the cells to instead start burning fat.

EGCG Prompts the Body’s Fat Burning Signal

Studies show that when EGCG is present, it uses your body’s natural pathways to signal to your body that “fuel is scarce” which then turns on your natural signals to start fat burning instead of looking for ready energy.

This means that drinking green tea, even as little as two cups a day, can help your body burn more fat, especially belly fat. In one often-cited study, subjects who were given green tea extract lost between .2 and 3.5 kg more in 12 weeks than those not given green tea extract. While 3.5 kilograms doesn’t sound like a lot, this means that by changing nothing else (diet or exercise) you can lose six pounds in 12 weeks with the help of green tea.

How to Prepare Green Tea for Best Results

When it comes to brewing your green tea, don’t overboil the water, since if you put the teabag in boiling water it can damage the catechins, according to The Times of India. Instead, boil the water first and let it cool off for several minutes before pouring it onto your teabag.

The latest research also suggests that you drink it after a meal, for best results. Other studies suggest drinking green tea first thing in the morning, to turn up your metabolism. Skip the sugary matcha drinks that add sweeteners and creamers, since those dull the impact.

Choose a green tea with caffeine since the studies show that for weight loss, catechins and caffeine worked together to help speed up the metabolism. One important thing to note about most of these studies is they were done with green tea extract, not brewed tea. You can drink 2 to 3 cups of tea a day to get the desired effect. Green tea extract has been shown to lower cholesterol in study subjects and also help lower blood pressure among obese study participants.

Editors’ Note: Before you take any supplement, even one that sounds natural such as green tea extract, check with your doctor and be aware that caffeine is a powerful stimulant. Additionally, polyphenols are delicate plant compounds that get destroyed and deactivated in the process of making pills, powders, and other supplements.

Drinking all the green tea in the world will not work without also eating a healthy diet high in plant-based whole foods, and getting daily exercise. There is no “magic pill,” not even EGCG, so if you are hoping to be healthy for three days, instead of trying to restrict calories, eat a diet of whole foods, especially plant-based meals full of salad greens, vegetables, whole grains, fruit, and legumes.

How to Add Green Tea to a Healthy Diet for Weight Loss

If you want to get healthy, banish the bloat, and perhaps even lose a little weight, try this plan, with tips on how to eat to be your healthiest, which means eating a diet of whole foods, mostly vegetables, fruit, whole grains like quinoa, and legumes, which are full of fiber, complex carbs, and plant-based clean protein.

The idea is to skip added sugar, and processed foods like chips, as well as ditch meat and dairy (which cause inflammation) and focus on whole plant-based foods. For snacks, count on whole fruit, nuts, and seeds that are high in nutrients and fiber, and keep you full longer.

5 Tips to Lose Weight and Be Your Healthiest

With the research to support green tea for weight loss in mind, we came up with 4 tips for healthy eating, including drinking green tea while giving up the usual suspects that cause weight gain: Sugar, refined carbs, full-fat dairy, and red meat, both of which can be inflammatory and are high in saturated fat, the unhealthy kind.

If you decide to try it you can enjoy eating a healthy diet while sipping green tea instead of your usual beverage and if you stick to the plan, chances are on the fourth day you will feel lighter and have more energy to help you power through your walks, workouts and evenings of dancing or taking after-dinner walks with your best friend.

1. Eat Whole Foods, Mostly Plants, Not Too Much

The prolific author and food philosopher Michael Pollan famously said that everything he’s ever learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” That’s about as good as it gets when you try to clean up your act and do a healthy version of a “detox diet” for three days.

Eating clean does not mean not eating. The research tells us that detox diets don’t work, but the urge to detox is a healthy one. How to split the difference? Tell yourself: If I could grow it from the ground, I can eat it. Then choose the most natural, minimally processed foods you can find and eat those. And keep portions in check.

The 12 healthiest foods to eat to detox your body while still eating healthy

2. Eat vegetables and have a salad to keep blood sugar under control

Nutrient-dense vegetables and greens. When you want to lose weight, add a salad to every meal, or make a meal out of a salad. A study found that people who eat a salad, even if they also eat a full-calorie meal, have lower blood sugar after the meal than if they had left off the salad entirely.

Don’t be shy about starting a meal with a salad, or even if you are full, do add a side salad. These high-fiber, nutrient-rich greens help add healthy bacteria to your gut microbiome and neutralize whatever else you are eating, so your insulin does not spike, your body does not get the signal to store fat, and your healthy gut keeps your body moving food through the digestive system at the right speed for burning fuel without storing it or getting hungry.

3. Eat fruit and don’t worry about fructose in whole fruit

People who eat dried fruit daily have smaller waists and lower BMI than those who don’t, according to a study. Eating 2 servings of whole fruit a day is linked to being slimmer and healthier than not eating fruit. Don’t be scared of fructose, the natural sugar in your berries or peach. It burns slowly, like a candle, giving you energy for hours. High fructose corn syrup is another story since it’s a super-condensed version of actual fructose. The sugar in a pear or apple comes naturally packaged by Mother Nature in a snack full of fiber, antioxidants, and healthy vitamins that your body needs for energy and to fuel a healthy immune system.

4. Add legumes, nuts, and seeds to every meal for plant-based protein

When you eat plant-based, everyone will ask you, where do you get your protein? The fact is, vegetables are high in protein, as are legumes, nuts, and seeds. So to follow a plant-based approach, even for just three days, make sure to get a healthy dose of protein in every meal or snack.

Most people get too much protein in a day. Women only need 45 to 50 grams of protein a day and men need 55 to 70 depending on their level of activity and their overall size and whether they are training for an event. The average American gets more protein than their body needs, and when that happens you either store it as excess calories (and may gain weight) or just don’t use it and it gets passed from the body as waste. Your body “tops off” at the recommended daily amount, so more is not better.

5. Drink 2 to 3 Cups of Green Tea a Day

Start your day with a cup of steeped green tea, and then drink a cup after each meal. It may not be the “magic pill” but green tea is so full of healthy antioxidants, it certainly can’t hurt.

Here are the 20 vegetables with the most protein per serving.

Here are 15 legumes with the most protein.

Here are 11 nuts with the most protein.

Here are 6 seeds with the most protein per serving.

Bottom Line: To be healthy, lose weight and burn fat, drink two to three cups of caffeinated green tea a day and eat a whole-food, plant-based diet full of vegetables, fruit, salad greens, and clean protein such as legumes, tofu, and quinoa. That’s a great start!

If you want to try a 2-week Clean Eating Plan, check out our free meal plan and keep going!

For more great expert advice, visit The Beet’s Health & Nutrition articles.

The 13 Best Foods to Boost Your Immune System to Fight Off COVID-19 Symptoms

Here are the best foods to eat on repeat, to boost immunity and fight inflammation. And stay off the red meat.

1. Citrus for Your Cells and Healing

Your body does not produce vitamin C, which means you need to get it daily to have enough to create healthy collagen (the building blocks for your skin and healing).The recommended daily amount to shoot for is 65 to 90 milligrams a day, which is the equivalent of one small glass of orange juice or eating a whole grapefruit. Almost all citrus fruits are high in vitamin C. With such a variety to choose from, it’s easy to get your fill.

2. Red Peppers to Pump Up Skin and Boost Immunity with Twice the Amount of Vitamin C as an Orange Has

Want even more vitamin C, add red bell peppers to your salad or pasta sauce. One medium-sized red bell pepper contains 152 milligrams of vitamin C, or enough to fulfill your RDA. Peppers are also a great source of beta carotene, a precursor of vitamin A (retinol). How much beta carotene do you need a day: You should try to get 75 to 180 micrograms a day which is the equivalent of one medium bell pepper a day. But a red pepper has more than two and a half times your RDA for vitamin C so eat them all winter long.

3. Broccoli, But Eat It Nearly Raw, to get the Most Nutrients Out of It!

Broccoli may be the most super of superfoods on the planet. It’s rich in vitamins A and C as well as E. The phytochemicals in it are great for arming and strengthening your immune system.How much lutein should you eat in a day: There is no RDA for lutein, but experts say get at least 6 milligrams.

4. Garlic, Eaten By the Clove

Garlic isn’t just a great flavor-enhancer, it’s essential for your health. Garlic’s immune-boosting properties are tied to its sulfur-containing compounds, such as allicin. Allicin is thought to improve your immune cells’ ability to fight off colds and flu, and viruses of all kinds. (Smelling more garlic on the subway? It could be smart coronavirus management.) Garlic also has anti-microbial and anti-viral properties thought to fight off infections. How much should you eat in a day: The optimal amount of garlic to eat is more than most of us can fathom: Two to three cloves a day. While that may not be doable, realistically, some people take garlic supplements to get 300-mg dried garlic in a powdered tablet.

5. Ginger is a Power Player for Immunity and Digestion

Ginger is another ingredient that has super properties when it comes to fighting off illness. It has been shown to decrease inflammation, which can help if you get swollen glands or a sore throat or any inflammatory ailment. Gingerol, the main bioactive compound in ginger, is a relative of capsaicin, and is responsible for much of its medicinal properties. It has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits.How much should you eat a day: Most recommendations land on 3–4 grams of ginger extract a day, or up to four cups of ginger tea, but no more than 1 gram a day if you are pregnant. Some studies have linked high dosages to an increased risk of miscarriage.

6. Spinach, Wilted, Not Steamed (Also Kale and Dark Leafy Greens of All Kinds)

Spinach is not only packed with vitamin C but also antioxidants and beta carotene, both of which give your immune system the healthy boost it needs to fight off invaders. Don’t overcook your spinach, since the more it’s cooked the less active the antioxidants will be. If you eat it raw or lightly steamed you’ll keep more of the nutrients intact.How much should you eat a day: Aim for 1 cup fresh spinach or 1/2 cup cooked per day, but this is the right moment to try the raw or slightly wilted approach. Order warm or wilted spinach salad when you go out, or make it yourself with olive oil, pine nuts, and vegan parm.

7. Almonds for the Win, Pop Them Like Candy

Vitamin E in almonds will help ward off colds and flu and is key to your immune system humming along. It’s a fat-soluble molecule, meaning it requires the presence of fat to be absorbed, so nuts are the perfect package for E to make it into your system.How much should you eat in a day: A half-cup serving, or 46 whole, shelled almonds, provides almost 100 percent of your RDA of vitamin E. Almonds are great for you but they don’t come with a “free” pass, since 1/4 cup is a serving and has 162 calories, so double that for your RDA and you’re eating about 325 calories. Throw them into smoothies instead.

8. Turmeric to Fight Inflammation, Put it In Your Tea or Smoothie

This highly pigmented spice is known for its anti-inflammatory qualities. How it helps immunity? It decreases exercise-induced muscle damage. Tumeric bolsters the immune system by stimulating antibody formation and people with auto-immune diseases are told by their doctors to take 500 mg of curcumin daily to reduce inflammation and stave off soreness.How much should you eat in a day: Try adding extra Tumeric to your diet during periods of stress or during flu season. Or take 500-2,000 mg of curcumin to help fight inflammation and power up your immune system.

9. Green Tea by the Gallon, Skip the Coffee and Sip this Instead

Green tea has high levels of EGCG, (epigallocatechin gallate) a hard-working antioxidant that is known to boost immune function. Green tea is steamed so the EGCG is still active when you drink it.Green tea also contains L-theanine, an anti-oxidant which appears to help in the production of T-cells in your body, the killer  L-theanine may aid in the production of germ-fighting compounds in your T-cells.How much green tea should you drink in a day: The optimal amount is three to five cups in a day, but most people won’t get to that level. Any amount is better than nothing. Swap out a usual beverage daily for green tea could improve your health.

10. Papaya, The Tropical Healer to Keep You Vacation-Healthy All Year Round

Papaya delivers over twice your recommended daily amount of vitamin C in one fruit. It also contains an enzyme called papain that has anti-inflammatory effects — and inflammation is one factor in most illnesses, so avoiding it can help your body fight off bacterial infections like sinusitis.Papayas contain potassium, vitamin B, and folate, which is a powerful cell rebuilder. Exactly how folic acid works to build immunity is linked to its role in protein synthesis, and researchers think that any mechanism in which cells proliferate can be affected (which is why it’s critical for pregnant women). People who are folate-deficient have compromised immune systems.How much folate should you eat a day: Whether you are pregnant or not, folate (vitamin B9) is a great vitamin to keep your cells healthy and strong. The recommendation is 400 micrograms a day, or get it from legumes, spinach, papayas, and avocados.

11. Kiwis, a Vitamin Powerhouse

Kiwis are full of folate, vitamin K, vitamin C, and potassium. These vitamins in combination work in the body to build healthy cells, fight infection and keep your immune system humming along. Vitamin K deficiency is rare but when people don’t have enough they suffer from weak bones and compromised immune systems. The inflammation system in the body is also dependent on vitamin K, especially your killer T cells that mobilize and fight cancer and other diseases.How much should you eat in a day: Vitamin K is one of the unsung heroes of the body. Women should get 90 micrograms a day, and men should have 120 micrograms.

12. Sunflower seeds to sprinkle on salads or eat by themselves

Sunflower seeds are especially healthy since they provide phosphorus, magnesium and vitamin B-6 as well as vitamin E. Your immune system needs vitamin E to function at full throttle. You can also get vitamin E from avocados and spinach and broccoli.How much should you eat in a day: Anywhere from 1 ounce (30 grams) per day to a healthy handful is considered healthy, but because they are high in sodium you might want to refrain from eating the entire bag. The raw seeds have 204 calories per quarter cup.

13. Miso, Soup or Paste to Add to Your Soups and Salad Dressings

The nutrients in miso — which is a soybean paste that has been fermented with salt and a koji starter — boosts immune system function by delivering healthy probiotics to the gut, making your microbiome healthier. How does Miso benefit your immune system?  It is a “sirt” food, which are foods that contain high levels of ‘sirtuins’ or proteins that regulate cells and activate metabolism. A diet high in sirts is believed to lead to weight loss, increased wellness and longevity.How much should you eat in a day? Researchers believe that consuming one bowl of miso soup per day, as is the tradition in Japan, lowers the risks of breast cancer. Other than its high sodium content there is no reason to stay away from miso with all its varied health benefits. We say cheers to that.

The post Green Tea Can Help You Lose Weight and Burn Fat, According to Studies appeared first on The Beet.

You don’t need science to tell you that losing weight or gaining muscle on a plant-based diet is possible. Just watch The Game Changers, a revolutionary documentary highlighting the many plant-based professional athletes who are excelling at their sports.

So, what’s the key to leaning down or bulking up while eating vegan or plant-based? It’s all about the numbers, namely calories. “If you want to increase muscle, you have to be in a calorie surplus, consuming more calories than you expend in a day’s time while slimming down is the opposite,” says Adam Stansbury, a fitness trainer in London who’s known as the “Plant-Powered PT.”

And while either bulking up or slimming down can be done on a plant-based diet, there’s one important difference: “Whole, plant-based foods are nutrient-dense but not calorie-dense,” says Karina Inkster, vegan fitness and nutrition coach in Powell River, British Columbia. “Comparing a vegan diet to eating lots of calorie-dense processed foods, it can be slightly more challenging to bulk up [on a vegan diet] and slightly less challenging to slim down,” Inkster explains. But you can definitely choose how your body responds to your diet by choosing the types of foods you eat. Here’s how to get it right.

Bulking Up on a Vegan or Plant-Based Diet

If you want to gain muscle, two main nutritional strategies should dominate your game plan: Being in a calorie surplus and getting the right amount of protein. “You have to stimulate the body to grow muscle,” Stansbury explains. “It’s an energy-intensive process and generally not something the body wants to do.”

Most nutrition professionals recommend that vegans get slightly more protein than their non-vegan counterparts if they want to build muscle. “This is just to ensure that you’re getting a wide variety of amino acids and enough of the essential amino acids, which your body can’t produce,” Inkster says.

How much more protein you need when building muscle depends on your size and activity level, as well as your body goals. Stansbury recommends at least 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight, up to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, if you’re a bodybuilder, Inkster recommends anywhere from 1.8 to 2.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, depending on your type of training and your intensity.

Vegan Foods to Help You Build Muscle

Just make sure you’re eating a variety of protein sources, such as beans, legumes, tofu, tempeh, seitan, and textured vegetable protein. Add in nuts, seeds, nut butter, and a scoop of plant-based protein powder in a smoothie in the morning. One word about protein powder? “It’s not absolutely necessary, but it boosts your protein without also boosting your carbs and fats,” Inkster says. So if you’re trying to bulk up, it can help your worked muscles repair faster.

Your rate of muscle gain will largely depend on your strength training experience and regimen, Inkster says. Men who are beginners can expect to gain 1.5 to 2.5 pounds of muscle per month while women who are beginners can expect to gain .65 to a pound of muscle per month. Men on the more advanced scale will gain up to .6 pounds of muscle per month while advanced female trainees will gain, at most, .25 pounds of muscle per month.

How to Lose Weight on a Plant-Based or Vegan Diet

Losing fat and getting lean on a vegan diet is exactly the same as losing fat on a non-vegan diet. “You have to make sure you’re in a calorie deficit,” Inkster says. 

Leaning down is not complicated. Your body will respond quickly to the whole foods you eat consistently. Accomplishing it is easy if you follow the philosophy of eating the rainbow and foods you could grow (if you owned a farm). “Focus on eating a variety of different colored plant foods, especially fruits and vegetables,” Stansbury says.

Also, make sure you’re eating foods that give you lots of calorie bang for your buck like big salads that fill you up for relatively few calories, Inskter says. And of course, protein is still important to help ensure you’re losing fat, not muscle. Focus on including protein-rich foods like tofu, tempeh, alternative pastas made from beans or edamame, hemp hearts, chia seeds, nutritional yeast and textured vegetable protein.

How much fat you lose will vary, but remember that it’s about losing it permanently, not necessarily quickly. “Research by Precision Nutrition shows that a reasonable rate of fat loss is one to two pounds a week for men and .8 to 1.6 pounds for women,” Inkster says.

Bottom Line: It is possible to build muscle or lose weight on a plant-based or vegan diet.

Remember that the body takes time and resists change, Stansbury says, no matter your goal. Be patient and stay consistent with your efforts to follow a plant-based diet, either to bulk up or to lean down. Your body will undoubtedly respond.

Your Guide to The Best Plant-Based Protein Powders: We Tasted 9 Bestsellers

1. Vega Protein & Greens

The base of Vega is pea protein, brown rice protein, and sacha inchi (a seed eaten like a nut) protein. One serving of Vega has only 80 calories and 15g of protein. Vega’s protein powder is a great choice for anyone who struggles to get enough greens in their diet. The proteins are combined with alfalfa powder, spinach powder, broccoli powder, and organic kale powder giving you 2 servings of veggies in one scoop. The taste of this protein was described as “artificial” whereas others thought it tasted like birthday cake. We recommend adding this into a smoothie, but luckily all you have to add is fruit since Vega has the greens covered. This low-cal powder won’t break the bank at $1.20 a scoop.

2. TB12 Vanilla Plant-Based Protein

Tom Brady’s TB12 pea protein powder consists of simple ingredients with no additives. For anyone who is allergic to soy or nuts, TB12’s pea protein-based powder is a great option. It’s hard to say no to this powder with 24 grams of protein. Don’t hide this powder in a smoothie, mix it with water and you will immediately see a thick consistency resembling a vanilla milkshake. Not only does it look like a milkshake, but it tastes like it too. TB12 recommends drinking this powder up to 20 minutes after a workout for the best recovery. You have to order this powder on the TB12 website since it isn’t available in stores or on Amazon. Less than $2 per serving!

3. PlantFusion Complete Protein

PlantFusion is a blend of peas, artichokes, algae, and superfoods. The deep yellow-gold coloring of PlantFusion’s protein powder set this brand apart from the rest. Some testers found the flavor wasn’t overwhelming, making it a great addition to a smoothie, whereas others felt the powder was sweet. For those of you who aren’t a fan of Stevia, buy the natural, no-stevia blend. This protein powder is low in fat, and carbs, making it a great choice for anyone wanting to lose weight while still getting enough protein (21g a serving). PlantFusion’s powder has a sweetness not everyone enjoyed since Stevia is an ingredient. $1.20 a scoop, makes this a deal!

4.Vivo Perform

Vivo Perform is the most superfood-packed protein powder of this bunch. Athletes will appreciate this protein powder made of pea protein, hemp protein, plant-based BCAA (branched-chain amino acids), reishi mushrooms, acai berries, lucuma fruit powder, maca powder, and turmeric extract. Vivo Perform is $59 on Amazon so go straight to their website for a cheaper price at $51 for the pouch pictured below. With 25g of protein and complete amino acid profile helps athletes to build, perform, recover, and absorb. If you want a quick protein drink after a workout, use a shaker bottle when mixing or this powder will stick to the sides of the cup. In the mood for a protein-filled breakfast? Add to your oatmeal or smoothie bowl with this recipe.

5. Elevate Plant-Based Performance Protein

Elevate is a pea and hemp protein-based powder that also is made with sweet potato powder. For anyone looking to convert from whey protein powders, Elevate is the plant-based protein for you. This powder is meant to be used in beverages such as smoothies. The thin consistency doesn’t mix well with water and becomes chalky. If you aren’t in the mood for a protein smoothie, add a scoop to your pancake batter. For a complete recipe check out Elevate’s Chocolate Chip Banana Protein Pancakes. This powder is another affordable choice at $1.60 a scoop.

6. Momentous Absolute Zero

Momentous protein powder is a combination of pea and rice protein concentrate. Testers liked the initial scent of mint and thought it was refreshing. This powder is perfect for anyone who likes sweeter drinks. Momentous powders are NSF International Certified for Sport, which means the product label is 100% accurate and there are no banned substances present in this powder. This is one of the pricier protein powders at $60 a tub but is worth it for athletes looking for a clean and effective post-workout powder. We recommend either mixing with water or adding to a smoothie for a more nutrient-dense drink. The priciest powder of the bunch at $3 per serving.

7. Garden of Life

Garden of Life is made of pea, buckwheat, amaranth sprout, and brown rice. We didn’t love the green color of the powder or the way it smelled but once we mixed it with water, it tasted surprisingly good. Garden of Life is the easiest to mix with water, plan-based milk or in a smoothie. The vanilla flavor isn’t overpowering so you can add this to any combination of smoothies and not be overwhelmed by the taste of vanilla. And it’s only $1.20 per scoop!

8. Tone It Up Plant-Based Protein Vanilla

Tone It Up protein powder is a blend of sunflower seeds and pea protein. The minute we opened the container, everyone loved the smell of this powder. Tone It Up is known to be a great addition to baked goods. The next time you make your protein muffins, add Tone It Up to the mix. We don’t suggest adding this powder with just water but instead a smoothie with fruits and veggies.

9. Nuzest Clean Lean Protein

The name of this powder says it all. Nuzest is the cleanest protein powder since it is made out of only 3 simple ingredients: Pea protein isolate, natural vanilla flavor, and thaumatin (a low-calorie sweetener). For $45, you are supposed to get 20 servings out of one container, but at a glance that didn’t seem accurate. This high protein, low carb powder is perfect to blend with plant-based milk and ice. The consistency is smooth and adds thickness to any protein shake.

The post How to Bulk Up or Lean Down on a Plant-Based Diet appeared first on The Beet.

You may worry about the number of calories in an avocado, but studies have shown that avocados may help you lose weight by keeping you fuller longer. The weight loss benefit goes well beyond satiety, according to the research, but eating avocado at lunchtime will prevent you from feeling hungry for five hours afterward, according to a nutritionist who has researched the benefits of this unique fruit (yes, avocados are in fact fruit).

Are Avocados Good for You?

Avocados have a bad reputation since they’re caloric, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Avocados are also high in fat, with 21 grams or about one-third of your daily recommended allowance. But just because the avocado contains fat, doesn’t mean it will make you fat. In fact, avocados appear to be a dieter’s best friend. Every diet that’s popular now – Keto, Atkins, Zone, and Paleo – disagrees on what to eat, but they all recommend eating avocados to promote weight loss.

Eating Avocado Every Day at Lunch Can Help You Lose Weight

Eating avocado keeps you full for six hours afterward, according to a study published in Nutrients. They compared a control meal to an avocado meal and those who ate the avocado had high measures of appetite-suppressing hormones in their blood for six hours after eating the meal. The scientists attributed this hunger suppression to the perfect combination of fat and fiber in the whole fruit.

“Avocados reduce your appetite for at least five hours after eating one,” says nutritionist Lori Meyer, an RD who has reported on the wonders of avocado. The study concludes that people who eat avocados tend to eat less throughout the day and take in fewer calories when they ate an avocado for lunch, which results in weight loss.

Meyer explains that the research proved “it’s not just the satiety value of the avocado or the monounsaturated fat, but there is a sugar [in avocados] called mannoheptulose, and this sugar helps the way your body uses the insulin [which] helps to reduce insulin resistance.” So essentially avocado is a perfect combination of fat, fiber, and a plant-based carb that signals your body to burn more fat.

This natural process prevents the body from storing more fat. Instead, the body goes into fat-burning mode, which is why we call avocados, “nature’s keto,” because you need to eat a significant amount of fat on a keto diet in order for the body to enter ketosis, where it uses fat as energy instead of storing it. The result is that you lose weight. Meyer’s advice is to eat an avocado around lunchtime so you will feel fuller until dinner and not be tempted to snack. If you are a snacker, she suggests snacking on avocados. Watch her video below.

Avocados Can Help You Lose Weight

In a review study, researchers compared avocado intake to weight and body composition changes in adults over time. The longitudinal study, examined two groups of 56-year-old participants, one group ate avocados, and the others did not. Avocado intake was self-reported on a food frequency questionnaire and results showed that the frequent avocado consumers gained less weight and stayed leaner over time compared to those who did not eat avocados regularly. The report concluded: “avocados contain nutrients and bioactive compounds that may help reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese.” And concluded with, “habitual consumption of avocados may reduce adult weight gain.” This is even more remarkable given the fact that most adults gain 1 to 2 pounds a year, or 10 to 20 pounds a decade, and in the 11-year period of the study, the avocado eaters stayed the same weight.

6 Health Benefits of Avocados

1. Avocados help boost the immune system

Avocados are rich in nutrients and antioxidants which help keep your vital organs healthy and strengthen your immune system. Avocados are a great source of vitamin E.  A study published in Military Strategies for Sustainment of Nutrition and Immune Function in the Field showed that vitamin E can help improve the immune response during aging and suggested that it can reduce the oxidative damage that may contribute to cancer. The study said vitamin E can also help alleviate symptoms of asthma as well as help your body recover after a hard exercise session.

2. Avocados contain more potassium than bananas, so add them to your smoothies

We have always been told to “eat bananas for potassium,” especially before or after a workout. But you will have better luck eating avocados for potassium because a 3.5-ounce avocado has 708 milligrams of potassium or 14 percent of your recommended daily allowance, and bananas have 422 milligrams or 10 percent of your daily recommended allowance, according to Healthline. Consuming high potassium foods help support healthy blood pressure levels and water retention “that protect against stroke and prevent osteoporosis and kidney stones.” Before heading to the gym, scoop the inside of an avocado and eat it to bolster your workout.

3. Avocados are high in fiber, which promotes weight loss and metabolic health

High fiber foods help reduce appetite, decrease the risk of high blood pressure, and serve to lower your cholesterol levels. Avocados rev your metabolism and are keto-friendly even though they are high in carbohydrates. One 3.5-ounce avocado has 7 grams of dietary fiber, so by eating one average-sized avocado, you are consuming 27 percent of your recommended daily amount of fiber (25 grams for women and 38 grams for men). It also has  12 grams of carbs (which nets out to 2 grams) and 21 grams of healthy fat. Try adding an avocado to your salads, buddha bowls, dessert mousse as a substitute for cream, and of course enjoy a bowl of guacamole.

4. Avocados contain 20 different vitamins and minerals, more than a daily supplement

The next time your doctor suggests taking more vitamins, tell her you will “eat more avocados.” Avocados are the nutrient and vitamin all-star of the produce section. In an average-sized avocado, which is roughly 100 grams, there are 20 different vitamins and minerals. Here are the most prominent.

• Vitamin K: 26 percent of the daily value (DV)
• Vitamin B9, aka Folate  20 percent of the DV
• Vitamin C: 17 percent of the DV
• Vitamin B5: 14 percent of the DV
• Vitamin B6: 13 percent of the DV
• Vitamin E: 10 percent of the DV
• Potassium: 14 percent of the DV

5. Avocados help lower your cholesterol

In a new study conducted by Penn State University, researchers explained that avocados have an additional benefit that helps lower your LDL cholesterol which is sometimes called your “bad cholesterol.” Because avocados are full of “good fat” they can help your body absorb nutrients without raising LDL levels in the body that are associated with eating animal or saturated fat. If you’re experiencing high cholesterol, incorporate avocados into your diet.

6. Avocados can help protect your eyes

Consuming avocados may help your eye health because they’re loaded with powerful antioxidants like the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, which, “filter harmful high-energy blue wavelengths of light and help protect and maintain healthy cells in the eyes,” according to the American Optometric Association. This is especially important when you spend all day staring at your computer screen.

Easy and Healthy Avocado Toast Recipe

After reading the health benefits of avocados, I’ve decided to make my favorite avocado toast recipe and share it with you.

First, mash 1 avocado in a bowl and add 5 cilantro leaves, lime zest, cayenne pepper, salt, and a touch of pepper. Then, in a separate bowl combine black beans, cubed fresh mango, and more lime.

Spread the avocado mash on toasted Ezekiel bread then add the mango salsa on top, and voilá! See below for a picture of my healthy masterpiece.

I love avocados and eat them with salads, use them as a baking substitute for eggs, mix them into my smoothie, and eat them straight out of the peel with a touch of salt.

5 Avocado Recipes From Smoothies to Salads 

• Vegan Sweet Potato Tacos With Cilantro Lime Avocado Sauce
• Chocolate Avocado Smoothie 
• Healthy Vegetable Salad with Sliced Avocado and Hummus
• Light and Creamy Avocado “Pesto” Sauce
• Healthy Summer Salad with Fresh Mango and Pomegranate Seeds

These Celebrities Eat Avocados as Part of a Healthy Diet

Dutch Supermodel Romee Strijd starts the day with a cup of warm water and lemon for immunity and she then eats avocado toast for breakfast and says she’s “avocado obsessed.” Romee posts about her love affair with avocados, first lounging in an avocado-shaped float and next eating avocado ice cream and digging into plant-based buddha bowls with sliced avocado. She captions that post, “Everything in moderation. Except [for] avocado.”

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Oprah Winfrey has an avocado orchard in her backyard (not too jealous) and shares her crop with a joyful expression on her face. She’s ready to make guacamole and add figs to oatmeal.

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Jimmy Fallon also appears obsessed. The Tonight Show host shows off his custom-made avocado-themed sneakers next to his favorite breakfast and asks: “Which one do I eat first?” Fallon also declared his love for guacamole in a post on National Guacamole Day with two large bowls of guacamole and chips and wrote, “I take #NationalGuacamoleDay very seriously.”

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Chrissy Teigen, the outspoken model, TV personality, and author loves avocados and says she tries to “squeeze them into her diet every day.” She posted a snap of herself in an avocado printed one-piece with Luna in a matching outfit back when her cookbook, Cravings: Hungry for More came out. Her husband may sing All of Me but Chrissy’s theme song would be All of the Avocados.

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Zac Efron who is a world-famous vegan known as much for his acting as his abs these days, adds avocado to his “Pre-Red Carpet Smoothie” for healthy fats, as he explains in this video.

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Sean Mendes may be showing off how he scoops half an avocado right out of the skin and eats it by the spoonful but we suspect that perhaps the 7 million likes on this post could have something to do with the fact that he forgot to put on his shirt.

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How do you eat your avocado? Head over to our FB page and let us know, and share your favorite avo recipes.

For more health-related content, follow The Beet’s Health & Nutrition articles. 

The post Is It Healthy to Eat Avocado Every Day? Here Are 6 Health Benefits appeared first on The Beet.

The journey to better fitness and health comes with one caveat: you must be consistent about your efforts, which take some discipline, and you need to be willing to put in the work. Many people are guilty of wishful thinking, as in “I wish I were fitter!” but without the follow-through of actually doing the daily things required to make it happen.

To actually see results – build muscle, lose fat and improve your cardiovascular fitness – commit to a time period every day, whether you want to do at-home moves while watching a fitness video, meet a friend for cardio such as a run, walk, bike class or swim (to be accountable to someone other than yourself) or a combination.

First, we need to say: Congratulations on deciding to get in shape, feel incredible, and inject new life into your workouts. Now, here are the best diet and fitness tips you need, based on scientific research, that will help you get the most out of whichever workout you choose.

5 Expert Diet and Fitness Tips

1. Have a Healthy Pre-Workout Snack to Fuel Your Session

People often wonder what the best pre-workout fuel is to get lean and build muscle. No matter how long you’re training or the time of day, the principles remain the same, which is that you don’t want to eat more fuel than your body needs, and you want to give yourself energy (in the form of carbs) and help repair muscles that get broken down during a workout, so add some plant-based protein.

The longer your workout, the more important it is to take in some carbs for fuel as well as some form of clean protein for muscle growth and repair. If you’re planning to eat within 1 to 2 hours of a workout, consume a smaller meal (still focusing on carbs and protein) since your body needs to work to digest food, and you’d rather spend that energy on the workout rather than on digestion.

Great examples of a pre-workout snack: One piece of peanut butter on whole wheat toast with slices of banana. Or a plant-based protein shake or half a cup of quinoa with mixed berries and a handful of nuts.

“It’s generally a good idea to consume a high-carb, moderate-protein, and fairly low-fat breakfast if you’re training within the next 2 to 3 hours,” suggests Mike Matthews, CPT, celebrity trainer and author of Muscle For Life. “This ensures you have an abundance of glycogen stored in your muscles, which is your body’s primary fuel source during exercise.”

Read More: How to Choose Healthy Carbs and Lose Weight, from Experts

2. Get your Protein Within 2 Hours of Training

The old school mentality around protein intake was that if you didn’t slam a protein shake the second you set foot outside the gym, your workout was a waste. Fortunately, that’s not how it works. This idea was based on the concept of an “anabolic window” of 30 to 60-minutes post-exercise when your muscles are hyperresponsive to protein synthesis.

Current research shows that by consuming protein within three hours of starting your workout (ideally 30 grams from whole plant-based foods sources), your body will have all the amino acids it needs to build and repair muscle.

“If you haven’t consumed protein for three or more hours before your workout, eating some after you train is sensible,” says Matthews. “Doing so increases insulin levels, which suppresses muscle breakdown and delivers nutrients to your cells, and stimulates muscle protein synthesis, the process your body uses to repair, grow, and strengthen muscle fibers.”

Read More: The Top Sources of Protein on a Plant-Based Diet

3. Focus on Anti-Inflammatory Foods

To get the most out of your workouts, it’s essential to fight inflammation and help recovery after exercise by eating a diet that consists primarily of nutritious, whole, minimally-processed foods. Whole plant-based foods are highly anti-inflammatory by nature.

Anti-inflammatory foods such as avocados, berries, cocoa, extra virgin olive oil, green tea, peppers, and turmeric are fantastic foods to eat the day after a workout. These will help promote recovery, reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and get you training again sooner. “Instead of getting wrapped up in eating a particular group of “anti-inflammatory foods,” focus on eating a healthful diet, which will beat back unhealthy levels of inflammation over time,” Matthews advises.

Pro Tip: Combine turmeric and black pepper for a supercharged anti-inflammatory effect. The compounds curcumin (found in turmeric) and piperine (black pepper) are highly anti-inflammatory and have potent antioxidative properties.

Read More: The 10 Anti-Inflammatory Foods You Should Be Eating Right Now

4. Do Static Stretching After Workouts and Dynamic Stretching to Warm Up

Before a workout, many people think all you need to do is a few stretches, five minutes on the treadmill, and you’re good to go. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Static stretching (where you hold a certain stretch for 10 to 20 seconds), while great for relaxing muscles and cooling down after a training session, can hinder performance and weaken you while working out.

Also, static stretching before training can negatively affect sprint performance in runners, according to a 2021 systematic review published in The International Journal of Exercise Science. A better approach is to warm up before a workout with dynamic stretching—active stretches that move your joints and muscles through a full range of motion — then end a workout with static stretching to reduce muscle soreness and improve flexibility.

Read More: Start Your Morning With Stretches to Boost Circulation and Focus

5. Recovery is as Important as Exercise for Injury Prevention and Long-Term Fitness

A common mistake that both new and experienced exercisers make is not allowing optimal recovery between workouts. Steps you can take before, during, after, and between training sessions to get the most out of your workouts and optimize recovery include having a carb and protein-rich snack after a workout, eating anti-inflammatory foods in abundance, getting adequate sleep, stretching, doing mobility exercises, foam rolling, and allowing for rest days.

Taking scheduled breaks from training at least once a week can help produce quicker results because your muscles experience microscopic tears during exercise. Giving your body time to recover with a rest day allows muscle tissue to rebuild and repair, thereby increasing in size and strength. In addition, rest days help reduce the risk of injury or burnout caused by too much exercise. Rest days, however, don’t mean lounging on the couch binging on Netflix all day. Instead, make sure you’re still engaging in some form of activity. An active rest day can include yoga, hiking, swimming, biking, and walking.

Read More: 10 Plant-Based Foods That Can Help You Sleep Better at Night

Workout Plans to Shape Up Fast

If you’re looking for some quick workouts to do at the gym or in the comfort of your home, check out these beginner workout plans that will help you get in shape fast and stay in shape.

• Easy 5-Minute Arm Workout
• Easy 5-Minute Core Workout
• The Best 5-Minute Home Leg Workout
• 5-Minute Full Body Exercise

Bottom Line: Be Consistent and Commit to Getting in Shape and Feeling Great.

Whether you’re new to working out or looking to breathe new life into your exercise routine, these workout and diet tips will improve your fitness and help get you in the shape you want. Eating a whole food plant-based diet is your best bet for getting healthier, enhancing performance, and feeling your best.

For more helpful info and resources, check out What I Eat In A Day as a Vegan Nutritionist and Athlete

The post 5 Diet and Fitness Tips to Get in Shape Fast, From a Nutritionist Trainer appeared first on The Beet.