Avoid These Foods to Lose Weight

There are many foods to avoid to lose weight. The list below is certainly not a complete list of foods to stay away from, but cutting these foods out of your diet will certainly help your weight loss efforts.

Soda: Both Diet and Regular
Soda, even diet, is not good for you. It's full of sugars which are not only destroying the body, but making you fat. The artificial sweeteners in diet soda are thought to potentially cause some health problems, including cancer. Even natural sweeteners are capable of raising your blood sugar like sugar. Sodas are empty calories because they do not provide nutrients. Simply replacing your soda intake with water is a good way to lose a considerable amount of weight within a year.

If plain water does not sound appealing, try adding a bit of lemon or cranberry juice to it. Don't replace soda with a lot of juice, because the sugars from the fruit can also produce weight gain.

Coffee
Coffee is thought to have many health benefits, including a reduced risk for diabetes and a reduced risk of cavities. However, the caffeine in coffee is thought to make the body release more of the "stress hormone" cortisol, which can lead to weight gain. If you have to have lots of sugar or cream in your coffee, you're only making it worse for you, packing on the calories. If you must have it, drink it in small amounts, black, and decaffeinated.

For those who want an alternative to coffee, try drinking green tea (with as little sweetener as possible.) Green tea is known to have fat burning properties and is a good substitute.

Fat Free Food
Many people think to lose weight, you should reduce your fat intake. While this is true to an extent, simply going fat free is not a good thing. The body requires certain good fats, unsaturated fats like those found in nuts and avocados, to function. Fat free items are generally higher in sugar, which defeats the overall purpose. Low or fat free diets have also been shown to raise the levels of bad cholesterol in the body.

Fried Food
When you eat something fried, it's been cooked in a high fat oil. It may taste good, but it is full of extra and unnecessary calories. Fried foods are available everywhere.... and even though you don't fry it yourself, the food (corn dogs, potato chips, etc.) may have been fried before you bought it. Cut these foods out of your diet to save calories. Bake, rather than fry, to get a healthier alternative.

White Flour
White flour, commonly found in many desserts and pastas, is not good for you because it is chemically bleached. Don't let the name "wheat flour" or "enriched wheat flour" fool you. During processing, the two most nutritious parts of the wheat, the bran and the germ, are removed, and the result is bleached nearly the same way you bleach your clothing. When you eat white flour, you're eating some of those bleaching agents. During the processing from wheat to white flour, many of the nutrients get pulled out of the product, including:

•most of the good unsaturated fat
•nearly all of the vitamin E
•half the calcium
•and many more

White breads and pastas are foods to avoid to lose weight because they contain many carbohydrates which turn to sugar, and thus, later to fat in the body. Instead of using white flour, use organic whole wheat grain flour.