Vegetables help you burn fat because they are low in calories; they fill you up and are very high in important nutrients. Your stomach has less room for other foods because it is filled with high volume, low calorie vegetables. A diet that is very high in vegetables will help control food cravings, overeating and help you weight loss efforts.
Your body wants specific nutrients and is not getting them in processed foods along with just about everything marked low carb or low fat. Your body tells you to eat, eat, and eat but doesn’t get what it needs. The nutrients it is looking for you will find in fruits and vegetables.
Celery is rich with vitamin C, B1, B2 and A. With celery’s many other ingredients, it can offer you multiple health benefits. It also contains a variety of minerals and nutrients such as dietary fiber, tryptophan, folate, molybdenum, manganese, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and iron.
Dark green leafy vegetables are calorie for calorie, perhaps the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food. Green vegetables are a rich source of vitamins, including vitamins C, K, E, and many of the B vitamins. Dark green vegetables are also a good source of minerals including calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. Greens also protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related issues through the phytonutrients they provide.
Artichokes contain an array of phytonutrients, or plant compounds that have antioxidant properties and promote health. Artichokes are a delicious way to get specific nutrients that research shows we typically lack in our diets — fiber, vitamin C, magnesium and potassium. Artichokes are a good source of potassium, magnesium, folate, copper and Vitamin C.
Broccoli is rich with Vitamin A. Broccoli’s dark green color is an indicator of its hearty beta-carotene content. Because of Broccoli’s impressive nutritional profile, it may be responsible for boosting certain enzymes that help to detoxify the body. Although somewhat bitter, broccoli leaves are completely edible and contain generous amounts of vitamin A.
Spinach nutrition is amazing. Spinach helps strengthen bones with its calcium content. The vitamin A, C, plus the fiber, folic acid, magnesium in spinach help control cancer, especially colon, lung and breast cancers. The folate in spinach also helps protect against heart disease. There is many other health benefits of spinach that make this vegetable and its dark leafy green cousins great picks.
Cauliflower contains vitamin C and folate. Folate helps the blood work more efficiently and is also essential for proper tissue growth and not getting enough can make you susceptible to many diseases down the road such as cancer and heart disease. Cauliflower is a good source of dietary fiber and contains omega-3 fatty acids. When purchasing cauliflower, make sure the tops are white. If the floret has begun to spot brown or purple, it is past its nutritional peak.
also known as phytochemicals
Phytochemicals can be defined, in the strictest sense, as chemicals produced by plants. However, the term is generally used to describe chemicals from plants that may affect health, but are not essential nutrients. While there is ample evidence to support the health benefits of diets rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts, evidence that these effects are due to specific nutrients or phytochemicals is limited. Because plant-based foods are complex mixtures of bioactive compounds, information on the potential health effects of individual phytochemicals is linked to information on the health effects of foods that contain those phytochemicals. (Linus Pauling Institute's Micronutrient Information Center)
