Have a look at some of these three great examples of powerfully known superfoods. They are, for the most part, able to boost the metabolism and kick start the ideal bodily condition that can not only induce fat burning but help with disease-fighting anti-inflammatory conditions.
One thing is for sure, these superfoods are a great addition to any basic exercise plan and can help you blast away fat while an added benefit of keeping you feeling fuller for longer.
Superfoods share a common theme. They are both powerful and natural; in another case, they can lower bad LDL cholesterol that raises inflammation and leads to dangerous diseases, while they are often high in HDL, the good form of cholesterol.
Superfoods can even help the body fight against digestive issues, inflammation, cancer, help your digestion and are heart-healthy.
There are many benefits of using honey for weight loss. It’s chocked full of nutrients, minerals, and amino acids that can aid weight loss by helping to boost metabolism. Not only does it taste great, but it’s also all-natural, and our bodies can process it efficiently.
Honey is a great all-natural substitute for sugar. This difference is mostly seen in the empty calories present in refined sugar. In addition, honey is a high-quality source of antioxidants, and not only that but a variety of antioxidants make honey especially powerful.
Experts have concluded that honey can reduce blood pressure by a small but measured amount in some cases. In addition, heart health could be improved by substituting honey for the empty-calorie version of regular sugar. Sugar raises the bad version of cholesterol LDL, and honey instead raises the good HDL version. Honey is shown to lower blood triglycerides. This helps prevent the onset of diseases like diabetes by decreasing insulin resistance and heart disease in cases where it is used instead of sugar.
All in all, the whole thing is a pretty sugary affair: honey consists of 80 percent sugar, mainly glucose and fructose, and a few other types of sugar. That’s why it’s not exactly low in calories and – like household sugar – should only be consumed in moderate amounts.
In addition, honey also contains numerous essential minerals and trace elements such as potassium, sodium, iron, and magnesium. In addition, there are small amounts of vitamins, proteins, and enzymes. The latter has a particularly health-promoting effect – but more on that later! Finally, honey contains tiny amounts of amino acids, such as proline. This amino acid is added directly by the bees and provides information about the ripeness of the honey.
Honey as food: healthy or unhealthy?
In the health food sector, the various types of honey are often used to substitute for household sugar. But how healthy is honey really, and does it make sense to use honey instead of sugar? The answer is – yes, it depends.
As I said, honey, itself consists of 80% sugar. So spooning a whole jar of it can’t exactly be considered a healthy snack. And foods sweetened with honey also promote tooth decay in your teeth.
But: The different types of sugar in honey are processed in the body in different ways, so not all the sugar gets into the bloodstream at once. This means that your blood sugar level does not rise as much after eating honey as it does when you eat ordinary table sugar, which in turn is easier on your metabolism.
In addition, you take with the bee food still valuable vitamins, minerals, and trace elements to you, while the household sugar consists only of “empty” calories.
Honey as a remedy for cough and sore throat. Unfortunately, it is a well-known problem in the winter months: The throat hurts, and one has to fight still with an annoying cough. That’s when you need a cup of a hot tea or hot milk with honey! There is something to this home remedy because honey can help against cough.
It contains substances that stop inflammation: its acidity and certain enzymes reduce the growth of microorganisms. In addition, when honey is diluted with water, small amounts of hydrogen peroxide are produced, which has a strong germicidal effect. Thus cough pathogens have no chance! The sugar in honey also promotes saliva formation and soothes your mucous membranes.
If you have a cough or sore throat, you can take one teaspoon of honey daily. Either swallow it directly or dissolve it in some tea or milk. However, make sure that the hot drink is not over 40 °C. Otherwise, you will destroy the beneficial enzymes in the honey. A little less tasty but just as effective is a cough syrup made from onions and honey.
Once natural ointment to go: Honey for skin diseases & wound healing. Rubbing honey around your mouth? Not a bad idea if you have inflamed corners of the mouth. Because even Hippocrates knew: honey on open wounds can accelerate healing. For more significant injuries, so-called medicinal honey was developed based on honey. This is used in the medical field to stimulate wound healing.
Lemon is another inflammation-fighting superfood that can help you lose weight and will also aid in detoxifying your body. In addition, lemon contains many nutrients and vitamins like vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, potassium, zinc, and many more. Lemon can help protect against cancer, prevent the onset of diabetes, lower blood pressure, and even aid in digestion. This is all thanks to its high composition of antioxidants, including flavonoids.
The potassium content makes lemon powerful for heart health due to its ability to lower blood pressure and even help reduce stress. In addition, just infusing warm water with lemon juice can make a great tasting drink that will boost the metabolism leading to sustained weight loss. The key is to replace your usual coffee or pop with lemon water instead. This will help you have a calorie deficit and to lose weight faster. Alternatively, on a warm day, lemon honey-infused cold water can be a refreshingly healthy way to enjoy quenching your thirst!
Lemons and water are such a good fuel package because each component in itself is incredibly beneficial to your body. Water replenishes your moisture stores, provides you with essential minerals, and stimulates digestion and other important bodily functions. Lemon contains calcium, potassium, pectin, traces of iron and vitamin A, and above all, a lot of vitamin C, of which you can never have enough. Vitamin C has an anti-inflammatory effect, strengthens the immune system, and improves iron absorption.
Therefore, drinking a glass of lemon water every day is a good idea to prevent colds. Plus, a dash of lemon in your water adds more variety to your beverage choices, which automatically makes you drink more.
Lemon water in the morning detoxifies and strengthens the nerves. Lemon water is also healthy because it has a diuretic effect and strengthens the gastrointestinal tract. The acids in lemon aid digestion and stimulate the production of bile. Thus, harmful substances and toxins are transported out of the body more quickly. Keyword: Detox. By the way, lemon water also helps to lose weight because of vitamin C, which promotes the formation of the fat-burning hormone nor-epinephrine in the body.
If you now want to object that so much acid can’t be good for an empty stomach – don’t worry: lemon tastes sour and contains acid but is metabolized alkaline. If you drink a glass of water with half a squeezed lemon, you even deacidify your body from the inside because you add additional alkaline minerals such as potassium and magnesium, which are enormously essential for the nervous system, heart, and muscles.
Why lemon water makes you beautiful. Why do many people swear by lemon water for beauty reasons? Water with lemon gives the body an extra dose of vitamin C and thus antioxidants that bind the free radicals that damage our cells, thus delaying skin aging. Thus, water with lemon juice gives you more beautiful skin and, therefore, a good mood—those who feel healthy and cleansed also radiate more positive energy.
Joint pain from dancing? They’ll be a thing of the past if you drink a glass of warm lemon water every morning. After all, it supplies the body with a high amount of citrate, helping to dissolve uric acid deposits that can settle on joints and cause pain. Lemon water is also an excellent refreshing drink after a sweaty workout because it helps regulate salt balance.
What is the best way to drink lemon water? You can easily mix your lemon water in the morning. You need about three to four lemons to squeeze one liter of water. For a particularly positive effect on metabolism, it is best to use lukewarm water. Suppose the water temperature corresponds to your body temperature. In that case, the water reaches the stomach more quickly, and the body does not have to expend energy to bring it to stomach temperature.
Drink your morning lemon water before your first cup of tea or coffee. That way, you’ll start the day off right with a healthy energy boost and may not need caffeine at all. After that, you can drink the rest of the carafe as needed throughout the day or take it with you in a water bottle. But be careful: Even though the water with lemon is generally healthy, the citric acid can attack tooth enamel. For the sake of your dental health, it is, therefore, advisable to consider lemon water only as a supplement and to resort more often to mineral water rich in minerals to quench your thirst.
Cinnamon is yet another excellent example of a superfood that is literally chocked full of antioxidants that can do many beneficial things for your body’s health. Cinnamon promotes an anti-inflammatory condition within the body that can help protect heart health, fight the onset of diabetes, lower the risk factor for some cancers, and fight age-related cognitive degeneration.
Scientific studies have long since confirmed the antimicrobial effect of cinnamon, so no one needs to wonder why cinnamon used to be successfully used for all the problems mentioned – whether for bacterial infections of the digestive system or as a foot powder for fungal infections. Speaking of foot powder, cinnamon – sprinkled in shoes or on feet – takes away any smell of sweat.
Cinnamon regulates blood sugar levels. However, the best known and most fascinating property of cinnamon is its blood sugar-lowering effect. The discovery of this particular effect of cinnamon is said to have happened as follows: Once, scientists wanted to test the influence of different foods on blood sugar levels. Among them was an apple strudel with lots of cinnamon.
Of course, the researchers were sure that the sweet strudel would considerably raise blood sugar levels. But blood sugar levels did not rise as dramatically as they did after a cinnamon-free strudel. Immediately, another study was conducted, focusing on cinnamon. The results of the study were published in the journal Diabetes Care as early as 2003 and were more than astonishing.
The study: Cinnamon in diabetes Sixty test candidates took part who had already undergone treatment for their type 2 diabetes for years. Although they did not yet have to inject insulin, they did have to take medication to boost their insulin secretion.
The subjects were divided into six groups. Group 1 received two 500-mg capsules of cinnamon daily (i.e., a total of 1 g of cinnamon), Group 2 took six cinnamon capsules (3 g), and Group 3 took as many as 12 cinnamon capsules (6 g). Groups 4, 5, and 6 represented the corresponding placebo groups. The capsules were taken immediately after meals. Group 1 took one capsule each after breakfast and dinner. Groups 2 and 3 took one-third of their daily dose three times after each main meal. Participants continued to eat normally and also stayed on their prescribed medications.
After 20 days of cinnamon intake, only the 6-g group showed significantly lower blood glucose levels. After 40 days, however, blood glucose levels in the other two groups had also fallen – and just as encouragingly (by 18 to 29 percent) as in the 6-g group.
That means: The blood sugar-regulating effect of the capsules is not dose-dependent and sets already with a daily dose of 1 gram capsule per day, only not after 20 days as with 6 grams, but only after 40 days. In the placebo groups, however, everything remained the same. No changes in blood glucose levels were observed.
However, cinnamon reduced the blood glucose levels of the test subjects. It conveniently lowered their LDL blood cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels at the same time – by 10 to 24 percent (cholesterol) and by 23 to 30 percent (triglycerides). The levels of the “good” HDL cholesterol, on the other hand, were ideally not lowered.
Try to combine some of these superfoods, and at any rate, try to get more of these superfoods in your diet. With all the benefits of these foods, you can not only fight diseases but also promote the right conditions your body needs for weight loss; it’s a win-win scenario.
I’ve managed to lose 17 pounds and counting just in my first month. Check out this program. Click here to watch the free presentation. This is a well-kept secret for lasting weight loss.