Pineapple & Weight Loss
All about Pineapple and Weight Loss
Most people are aware that pineapples are known to provide many health benefits but it is only recently that pineapple and weight loss have started being linked to one another. Many dieters are buying all types of pills which claim to speed up the metabolism and burn fat, but there are some healthy, natural alternatives as well.
Pineapple is one of the best fruits for us, in terms of being beneficial health-wise. The major reason is an ingredient in pineapples named bromelaine. Bromelaine is known to be effective when used as an anti-inflammatory and in helping the digestive process. Many people take it in supplement form to help their ulcers and other stomach and intestinal problems.
The bromelaine in pineapple breaks down proteins in the digestive tract. Pineapple is a low calorie food which is filled with fiber and water. The fiber and water actually make you feel full which is one of the ways pineapples help in weight loss. When you feel full you eat less. Not only that, pineapple is a negative calorie food.
You are probably asking: What’s a negative calorie food? And, that is a good question. A negative calorie food, such as pineapple, uses more calories to digest it than it contains. Usually, we eat a food that contains a certain amount of calories. For instance, perhaps we eat a banana, and that banana contains 100 calories. Our body digests the banana and uses these 100 calories as energy or uses some of calories and stores the rest as fat.
Next, we eat a slice of pineapple. The pineapple contains 40 calories plus fiber and water. It takes more work for our bodies to digest the pineapple than it did the banana, so our body uses more calories. Perhaps we took in those 40 calories but it took 60 calories to digest the pineapple. That would leave us at -20 calories, making the pineapple a negative calorie food. This is one way that there’s a connection between pineapple and weight loss.
Instead of putting on fat, our body needs to use fat to burn off those extra 20 calories. That is how pineapple works to burn fat. And, if you are trying to lose weight, the more negative calorie foods you can work into your diet each day, the more calories you would use. It would have the same effect as exercise in burning calories. If you ate five foods every day that burned an extra 20 calories, that would be almost be the equivalent of losing one pound every month.
In reality, you would probably use even more calories because the fiber and the water in the pineapple would make you feel full. And because you feel full you would eat less of other foods, saving those calories as well. The greatest thing is that it is a natural weight loss and not one that dangerously speeds up your body’s metabolism, such as ephedrine or many of the new ephedrine-free alternatives.
Obviously, you are not going to lose an enormous amount of weight by eating pineapple. But you are going to burn more calories than normal and you are going to receive even more health benefits from the pineapple. The fiber in pineapple can help to keep your system regular. It contains manganese, which strengthens bones and prevents free radical damage by aiding antioxidant enzymes. You also get thiamine, copper and vitamin C. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant and it helps protect your body’s immune system.
Because pineapples are so sweet, you can have pineapple for dessert instead of a food such as cake, which has many more calories and no dietary value. Pineapple is one of the best foods you can eat, so why not take advantage of pineapple and weight loss. You may not lose 20 pounds overnight, but you will burn calories through eating a healthy diet.