Negative Calorie Diet
The negative calorie diet should certainly be classified under fad diets. The diet recommends eating a range of foods that are regarded as having negative calories, which means that they take more calories to digest than the number of calories that are contained in them. The term negative calorie food is not quite correct, as all foods contain calories, though the net calorie gain or loss after eating certain foods can vary.
As with most fad diets, in theory this diet sounds like a good idea. It takes a certain amount of energy for the body to digest food, including the energy required to chew and swallow, in the production of enzymes to break down the food, and the movement of the stomach and intestines. If it takes more energy in these processes than is actually contained in the food, then there is none left to be stored away as fat.
What foods that have these negative calories?
Well, some research suggests there are some food that have negative calories, but the variety available will not be adequate to supply all of your nutrient needs. Foods that have been listed as having negative calories include lettuce, celery, cabbage, cucumber, broccoli, beetroot and zucchini. There are also some fruits that fit this definition: apples, blueberries, grapefruit, mangoes, strawberries, pineapple and watermelon.
So eating the foods that are listed above may give you your adequate levels of the fruit and vegetable food groups, you will need to eat from the other food groups to stay healthy.
There is no scientific proof that following the negative calorie diet works to aid weight loss. There are no magic potions and no magic foods that will burn away the calories. By all means eat the low calories foods as listed in this article, but the food you need to eat from the other food groups all need to be well chosen, and a bit of exercise will help too.
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