4 Foods To Help You Lose Weight, Look Younger, And Stay Healthy

To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” – Buddha

Our bodies are delicate machines that start malfunctioning when we don’t provide them with the proper fuel on a regular basis. When provided with the right “ingredients”, however, these bodies are capable of miraculous feats. Adding the following four foods to your diet can help you stay healthy, burn fat and look younger…

1. Organic Virgin Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is by far the healthiest oil in the world. It’s high in something called lauric acid, the magic fat in human breast milk that protects babies from infections, which has been shown in studies to dissolve the lipid layer surrounding bacteria and viruses, resulting in their destruction. Coconut oil was shown to significantly reduce the viral load of HIV patients in one study done in the Philippines.

Regular consumption of coconut oil can help you avoid catching the cold, flu and other viruses/bacteria. Individuals with viral sexually transmitted diseases can reduce the severity and frequency of outbreaks by adding coconut oil to their diets.

The medium chain triglyceride fats in coconut oil make it a powerful thermogenic, which means it speeds up your metabolism and promotes energy production and fat loss. Many studies show that these MCT fats can boost metabolism. In one study, using coconut oil increased energy expenditure by 120 calories per day.

Some easy ways of getting coconut oil benefits are to add it to your smoothies, spread it on toast with jelly, and cook with it. In fact, you should always cook with coconut oil or butter, as they are saturated fats.

Cooking with olive and other vegetable oils is very common, yet most individuals aren’t aware that cooking with these oils can result in free radical production and inflammation. Despite popular belief, the saturated fat in coconut is actually good for you.

Back in the 1930s, Dr. Weston Price found South Pacific Islanders whose diets were high in coconut to be healthy and trim, despite high dietary fat, and heart disease was virtually non-existent. Similarly, in 1981, researchers studying two Polynesian communities for whom coconut was the primary caloric energy source found them to have excellent cardiovascular health and fitness.

*The highest quality and best tasting coconut oil I’ve tried is Nutiva Organic Virgin Coconut Oil.

2. Probiotics

The root of the word probiotic comes from the Greek word pro, meaning “promoting” and biotic, meaning “life.” The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines probiotics as “live microorganisms, which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host.” When an individual’s amount of good microorganisms (bacteria) drop too low, their susceptibility to sickness dramatically increases.

The immune system’s function is highly influenced by the balance of bacteria. The optimal ratio for radiant health is 15% bad, 85% good. Taking probiotics can help resupply your body with these beneficial bacteria and enhance your ability to fight off disease. Furthermore, these good bacteria are essential for shaping and forming bowel movements in the large intestine.

Regular intake of probiotics can lead to larger and more regular bowel movements, which often result in a flatter stomach and better absorption of nutrition. Food sources high in probiotics are kim chi, natto and unpasteurized sauerkraut.

* My favorite probiotic supplement is Good Belly Big Shot 50. It contains 50 billion live active cultures of lactobacillus plantarum 299v (Lp299v), which has been shown in studies to be more beneficial than other strains.

 

3. Camu Berry

Camu berries contain a full spectrum of antioxidants, amino acids and bioflavonoids, as well as a number of other important vitamins and minerals, including calcium, iron, niacin, phosphorus, riboflavin, thiamin and potassium. In addition to being rich with beta-carotenes and anthocyanins, camu berries are also the richest food source of vitamin C, containing up to 60 times the amount of oranges.

This high concentration of vitamin C makes camu berry an excellent immune booster. Doctors have found that eating vitamin C fruits lowers insulin, thus instead of storing sugar and converting them to fats, it uses it as a fuel that leads to weight loss.

Vitamin C protects our skin from free radicals which we develop due to excess exposure to the sun, environmental pollution and regular smoking. Vitamin C is also essential for collagen production. Collagen rejuvenates the skin from the roots and reduces wrinkles and symptoms of aging.

*The best way to get camu berry health benefits is to use Organic Raw Camu Powder. Some people mix it with water or juice, but the taste is rather bitter, causing some individuals to resort to putting it in capsules.

4. Garlic

You didn’t actually think I was going to leave garlic out, did you? I cannot tell you how many times garlic has saved me from becoming sick. It has super-potent antiviral, antibiotic, and antifungal properties. Garlic, unlike traditional antibiotics, destroys the bad bacteria without harming the good as well. The active phytochemical that gives garlic it’s antiviral properties is allicin, which needs to be consumed raw to be most effective.

Packed with antioxidants, your immune system could benefit if you give it a constant boost of powerful garlic in daily recipes. Garlic might also help you control your weight. A study showed that mice eating a garlic-rich diet reduced their weight and fat stores.

*My favorite way to enjoy the benefits of garlic are to eat it on sprouted toast with extra-virgin olive oil.

To learn more about improving your health and reversing diseases with food, I encourage you to read Comquering Any Disease, which is the textbook for the food-healing system I teach.