Actually eating whilst dieting

Foods you should always have around:

Canned chick peas (a buck per can at S&S), olive oil or equivalent, any of the leafy greens I'll list below (and I'll explain why), tuna or any canned fish you can eat, REGULAR oatmeal (not quick!), find meats that fit your budget (deli meats are high in sodium, though) oranges, apples or grapefruits (only fruit recommendations). Fruit juice IS NOT an alternative!, maybe tomatoes or the like. Obviously fresh foods are better, but in a helter skelter world where nobody has time to breathe, canned food is a way to get healthy food in an instant. Some of the downfalls of canned foods are: higher than usual sodium levels, canning is destructive to proteins, and wow- who knows what fell into that stuff?

Okay, fruit juice isn't an alternative because a good portion of what your body does to digest it is already done. Slowing the digestion of your foods will have a positive influence on blood glucose. You're more likely to store fat in adipose tissue from carbs than anything else. Slowing the rate of digestion raises BG more slowly (BG=blood glucose), thus insulin can store it properly (as glycogen), rather than metabolizing it into fat in the liver.

That said, tough foods that haven't been cooked or otherwise processed digest more slowly. Tough foods like fiberous raw vegetables take longer to digest because they're very hard to break down. This is where the term "negative calorie foods" comes from. Gastric juices aren't the only things that break food down. Chewing and peristalsis (ripping of the food by the stomach) are mechanical processes that require calories to work. If a food has less calories than it takes to digest it, you just burned more calories than you ate.

Adding fats to any meal will slow the digestion of both macronutrients (protein and carbohydrates). Some of the most beneficial fats are monounsaturated. Without a cumbersome explanation about what fats are what, the prefix denotes the relationship of hydrogen. Saturated fats are completely surrounded by hydrogen molecules- thus "saturated" with hydrogen. These fats are a necessity, but they should comprise the lowest ratio of fats in the diet.

These foods are catabolic or negative calorie:

Celery, cabbage, romaine or iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, pickles (sodium), spinach, collards or kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and the like. Certain vegetables should be avoided! Those are:

Cooked carrots, parsnips, corn, peas, sugar snap peas, etc.

Potassium is an important electrolyte, also having an antagonistic relationship with sodium. The two have to be balanced for our muscles. To avoid cramping (especially while exercising or at night), and to prevent water retention, we need plenty of potassium. 3,000-4500 mg per day.

Some good examples of potassium rich foods are" dairy products, celery, citrus fruits and tomatoes. Many meats, fish, and poultry are high in potassium, too.

Meats, fish and poultry that fit well into this plan are: Lean beef and beef heart, pork-especially tenderloin, I always make sure I eat whole eggs every so often. The whole eggs contains sulfur and helps keep our joints healthy.

I will continue to expound on these ideas in the capsules that follow. Only so much information can be assimilated in one sitting. "The best way to teach someone nothing is to show them everything".

While still under construction at the time I've added this link, this hub should be helpful, too.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Diet-foods-and-simple-tasty-ways-to-prepare-them-Quick-diet-meals-and-snacks