The quote below came from the Negative Calorie Foods Site:
"All foods have some calories. No food is actually "negative calorie"
food. BUT the overall effect of certain foods in our body is that of
"negative calories". Negative calorie foods are foods, which use more
calories to digest than the calories the foods actually contain!
Calories from these foods are much harder for the body to breakdown and
process. In other words, the body has to work harder in order to extract
calories from these foods. This gives these foods a tremendous natural
fat-burning advantage.
A piece of dessert consisting of 400 calories may require only 150
calories to be digested by our body, resulting in a net gain of 250
calories which is added to our body fat! According to this theory, for
example, if you eat 100 calories of a food that requires 150 calories to
digest, then you've burnt an additional 50 calories simply by eating
that food."
Get instant access to the entire list of Negative Calorie Foods, The
Grapefruit Diet and the Popular Cabbage Soup diet in the Negative
Calorie Food List Report.
Negative calorie diet
Reprinted with permission from the
NFPT Personal Trainer Magazine
Is this possible? Can a food actually have not only no calories, but
even negative calories? And, if it is possible what effect would
ingesting negative calories really have? Could you literally eat your
way to fat loss...the more you eat the more you lose?
And, on the down side would the ingestion of “negative calories”
potentially offset your “positive calorie” energy reserves, canceling
out the effectiveness of your bodybuilding training? Because, as we all
know we need calories to manufacture energy both for exercise and for
recovering from exercise.
When this subject was first brought to our attention, we immediately
dismissed it as not only ludicrous, but impossible as well. We have
since done some homework, and determined that in a twisted sort of way,
there may actually be some truth to this innovative perspective on the
composition of some foods.
Negative calorie food concept
We already know what you’re thinking, “If there’s really anything to
this ‘negative calorie’ food concept, I could get a list of these foods
and use them to help me lose weight next spring, or to cut-up for my
next show!?” Well, we who are on the NFPT Review newsletter staff are
not going to burst your bubble, because in a sense... SURPRISE, you may
be right!
All right, we give up, there really is no such thing as negative calorie
food. That is to say, not until these particular foods have been
ingested. What happens after that however, may come dangerously close to
what could ultimately be interpreted as truly a fat loss response on the
part of resulting internal metabolic processes.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, consider this. All foods have a
caloric (calories), nutrient (carbohydrate, fat, protein), and vitamin &
mineral (enzyme producing) content.
For the purpose of this article, we will concern ourselves with the
calorie & enzyme producing components of foods. While it is true,
enzymes are not found in foods, it has been simplified by researchers,
that vitamins can be considered biochemicals found in foods that, among
their many other functions, stimulate living tissues to produce enzymes
that ideally are sufficient to breakdown that particular food’s caloric
nutrients. Therefore, for our purposes the relative result of vitamin
ingestion is the production of enzymes.
As a side note, this lay definition of vitamins paves the way for a more
clear understanding of empty calories (junk food) as well. Foods falling
into this “empty calorie” category would be foods with too little enzyme
producing vitamin & mineral content, while containing a surplus of
calories.
The ingestion of empty calorie foods requires the body to produce its
own enzymes (usually in the lining of the intestinal tract) to be able
to convert these “empty calories” into usable energy. Obviously, these
enzyme producing functions in the body should be reserved for the
performance of other internal, and more vital metabolic reactions.
It is a given these days, that it is difficult to find foods that
contain a sufficient amount of vitamins & minerals to alone break down
their own “host” caloric nutrients (purely natural food). This situation
can be attributed to nutrient robbing pesticide application, processing,
the use of preservatives, and various commonly used poor cooking
practices.
Surprisingly, in the case of the negative calorie foods in question not
only do they contain sufficient vitamins & minerals to break down the
host calories there is actually a surplus of these enzyme producing
biochemicals. This simply means that once ingested these “negative
calories” foods provide for enzyme production in quantities sufficient
to break down not only its own host calories, but possibly additional
calories present in digestion as well.
Is this discovery truly a tremendous breakthrough? Not really. Unless of
course research is performed confirming that these surplus enzymes
produced in digestion are in some way transported into the bloodstream.
As likely as this enzyme transport would seem, until now there has been
no real evidence to support this conclusion.
Negative calorie research
Reference #1:
According to a recent study performed by Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D., of the
University of California, at San Francisco, a vegetarian diet consisting
mostly of fruits and vegetables, was adhered to by research subjects as
an experimental study on the reversal of heart disease. As a result each
of the research subjects (all suffering from heart disease), lost an
average of 20 pounds without cutting calories or limiting serving sizes.
In light of the fact that these subjects were 40 years and older (with
relatively slowed metabolisms) and the research performed involved no
prescribed exercise program, this constitutes a dramatic weight loss
that could only be attributed to the consumption of various fruits &
vegetables.
Reference #2:
In an article in the January, ’94 Issue of Self Magazine, contributed by
Dr. Neal Barnard M.D., author of “Food For Life” (Harmony Books), he
basically supports the concept of “negative calories” foods (keep in
mind there were no research studies referenced in this article to
support his claims).
Let’s speculate for a moment, shall we? With the above information in
mind, while obviously not conclusive, let us assume the transport of
these “surplus digestive enzymes” into the blood is a given and pick it
up from there. The fact is, enzymes are responsible for the acceleration
of ALL chemical reactions in the body. The acceleration of chemical
reactions in the body then equates to a faster metabolism (this effect
is implied by the earlier referenced studies performed by Dr. Dean
Ornish, M.D.).
If CONCLUSIVE this discovery would truly be a tremendous breakthrough.
The greater value then, in identifying and ingesting these negative
calorie foods is not in their ability to break down other existing
calories in digestion at all.
The true potential benefits lie in the increased enzymes produced being
absorbed through the mucosa in the small intestine thus entering into
the bloodstream where they can positively effect the rate of metabolism.
In building upon the above conjectures, to optimize this metabolic
acceleration, these researched & identified negative calories should
preferably be ingested in the absence of additional enzyme robbing
“empty calories” (junk food). This would insure that an optimum amount
of enzymes are produced for absorption into the bloodstream and not
wasted during digestive processes on assimilating calories from foods
with poor vitamin and nutrient content.
The article above came from the NFPT Personal Trainer Magazine Over 12
Years of Personal Trainer Certification, Credibility & Support. The Most
Trusted Name in Personal Fitness Trainer Certification Internationally.