Beneficial foods to prevent obesity
Beneficial foods to prevent obesity
For the prevention of obesity, there are certainly beneficial and recommended foods to prevent excess weight, in a natural and healthy way. We discover the most appropriate.
Every year there are increasing cases of overweight and obesity, to levels that worry many doctors and nutritionists specialized in overweight in the population.
Overweight is the consequence of an excessive accumulation of fat in the fat cells (or adipocytes) of the organism, which are located under the skin, in the so-called subcutaneous adipose panniculus. However, unlike overweight, obesity consists of an excessive amount of body fat.
In this sense, a useful way to measure both overweight and obesity is the Body Mass Index, which is based on height and weight and is used in adults, children, and adolescents.
But the reality is that it is possible to prevent overweight, as long as you follow a healthy lifestyle, based on a balanced and healthy diet, and practice physical exercise on a regular basis. And, precisely, there are beneficial foods to prevent obesity.
Recommended foods to prevent obesity
What are the best foods, especially suitable for the prevention of both overweight and obesity? Take note, we’ll discover them below.
Fresh fruits
Many nutritionists advise consuming 2 to 5 daily servings of fruit. They are low-calorie foods and fats, which also provide essential nutrients to our body, which in many cases are ideal for the prevention of excess weight.
We can highlight citrus, apples, and pears. Although, in general, most of the fresh fruits are suitable within a varied and balanced diet.
Vegetables and vegetables
As with fruits, it is advisable to consume 2 to 5 daily servings of fresh vegetables. They provide vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients with slimming, depurative and diuretic benefits. For example, they are very rich in water and also in fiber, which helps in providing satiety and reducing appetite.
Whole grains
The foods rich in whole grains help in the prevention of overweight thanks to its fiber content help to drag the fat and the different waste that our body does not need. It is advisable to consume 25 grams of fiber per day.
Vegetables
They help to provide satiety, which results in a decrease in appetite, and therefore the person will tend to eat less. Precisely for the fact of providing an interesting amount of fiber.
In addition, fiber not only helps reduce hunger and therefore the appetite (eating less). It is also useful for the prevention of constipation, and to eliminate everything that our body does not need.
And what foods should be avoided?
It is evident that not only it is enough to opt for natural and fresh foods, as well as to follow a varied and balanced diet, as a way to prevent both overweight and obesity. It is also important to avoid or reduce certain foods and food products, which stand out in particular because of their high content of fats and/or sugars.
We must put in this group foods like the ones we indicate below:
Sweets and pastries: not only sweets and pastries but also cookies, cakes, pies … They stand out for their high content of fats and sugars. In addition, if the industrial purchases the most common is that they also contain trans or saturated fats.
Soft drinks and sugary drinks: did you know that a single can of soda can exceed the amount of sugar recommended by the World Health Organization? Not long ago, precisely, the WHO advised limiting the amount of sugar to be consumed daily to the equivalent of 12 tablespoons.
Fruit juices: as we have already mentioned on several occasions, although they are considered as natural and healthy drinks, the truth is that they contain many sugars and few vitamins and fiber (even if they are homemade). In contrast, the best option is always to consume fresh fruit.
Processed, fried and battered foods: it is very important to choose healthier cooking methods, usually low in fat. On the other hand, we must replace processed and battered foods with more natural ones.
The dangerous increase in overweight and obesity
For years the World Health Organization (WHO) has been warning about the dangerous and alarming increase in overweight and obesity in most developed countries, especially among children and adolescents, which means that the concern is still higher.
In practically all cases, this increase is due to lifestyles and habits that are currently followed, based on the consumption of foods and food products rich in fats and sugars, and coupled with the practice or null practice of physical exercise (that is, a rather sedentary lifestyle is followed).
Already last year, as we read in El País, WHO warned that 42 million children under five were overweight, warning that precisely childhood obesity almost doubled in poor countries.
A short time before, in May 2015, he warned of a major obesity crisis in Europe around the year 2030 (La Nación), placing Spain among the countries in which the increase in overweight problems is expected to be more significant.