Weight Loss Diet Foods vs Natural Foods
Welcome once more to the Top 100 Weight Loss Tips. This post is now article number 21 in the series that provides great tips to help you in your battle lose weight.
This post takes the bull by the horns and calls out the diet foods and asks if they are any better at helping you to lose weight than good, old fashioned natural foods.
Diet vs Natural
Part of the monumental surge in the weight loss industry hinges around the use of certain diets, or prepared diet food delivery diets such as those produced by Nutrisystem, Bistro MD or eDiets for instance. On the surface, these may look more like they're going to help you to shed those unwanted extra pounds, but you have to remember they are advertised and marketed that way.
In other words, if you think that special diet foods are all they're cracked up to be, think again. They will help you to lose weight for sure, but there are more healthy, natural alternatives if you're prepared to do a little extra work for yourself.
The alternative is to eat natural, fresh foods that have not been tampered with by weight loss food manufacturers that love to process everything they get their hands on. They like to pump it full of additives, artificial flavors, sweeteners, aromas and colors, bulking agents, salt and sugar.
They do that so it looks, smells and tastes great while looking like its a lot of food for the money.
Well, you need to look past all the marketing hype and advertising wizardry that gets you not only to buy the stuff but to believe its the real deal. Things are not always what they seem to be. In fact the only way you can be totally 100% certain of what the food you eat contains is to prepare it and cook it yourself.
Don't get me wrong, the diet foods industry is not feeding you bad food. It generally provides you with nutritious, low calorie meals that can help you to lose weight. Its just not as good as the real thing, which is food in its natural, unprocessed state.
After all, when it comes to the basic weight loss process there is only one thing you need to remember above all else:
To lose weight you must consume fewer calories than you burn
Eat Less than You Burn
It's really that simple and when you get your head around this basic fact, then you'll also realize that in order for you to get rid of your spare tire, you simply need to eat less. But if you want to maintain a good level of health, which you should, then make that food natural because it will contain more nutrients and fiber than processed food ever can.
So when I talk about natural foods, I mean fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh fish and meat bought from stores that sell those items straight off the counter and not in cans, packages or freezers.
Food markets are a good place to start, or even better if you have a local farm produce store that gets all its stuff from local farms. That way, you know the food you buy has not been sitting on a truck being transported halfway across the country.
Better still is if that local farm is organic.
Organic food contains more nutrients and is almost totally devoid of harmful pesticides and other agricultural chemicals that food from regular farms contain. Best of all are the fruits and vegetable you grow yourself, because then you have total control over what goes on them.
And if you are keen on being healthy, then nothing but water and natural fertilizers will go onto your plants. Of course, we can't all grow our own stuff, so organic produce is the next best thing.
This is even better for your health and will help you maintain a healthy body that will find its own perfect weight as long as you stick to real food, avoid processed food and keep your portions small!
100 Weight Loss Tips number 20 follows in the next post!
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Posted on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 4 Comments
4 thoughts on "Weight Loss Diet Foods vs Natural Foods"
Terry says:
That's right Anton, natural food is always going to be the healthy option.
Anton says:
It is the second entry I read tonight on the topic of diet foods being no better for you than healthy, natural foods. It makes perfect sense to eat this way and it doesn't cost any more than eating prepared, prepacked food from the supermarket either. Thank you.
Terry says:
Thanks Eric,
You probably don't need me to tell you junk food is a big part of the obesity problem alright. We all like convenience and I know it can seem like a chore to make our own food. But that's a pretty effective way of avoiding the high calorie, additive filled junk all the TV ads do such a great job of making us all crave!
Eric says:
This site has some great articles. I have been obese for many years and I just cannot seem to lose weight. I also have problems with gas, I do not fly commercial anymore. Looking forward to reading more great articles but I must stop eating junk food.