Weight Loss: 3 Amazing Nutrients That Help

Lasting, healthy weight loss is a concern for many. The trick here is to not eat less or more, but eat right. Weight loss does not mean starvation. When we starve ourselves and follow crash diets, we restrict the availability of energy. We require this energy to maintain all our body functions, have an efficient immune system and have an active metabolism.

Research all over the world has now highlighted that if we supply our body with the correct nutrients, then it acts by itself to reduce the excess fat, build healthy tissues and strengthen our bones.

The 3 Weight Loss Nutrients

1. Proteins: These are the basic building blocks of muscles. Losing excess fat and building on healthy muscle tissue is the solution for lasting weight loss. But for this your each and every meal should have excellent quality protein. You can achieve this by including dals (like toor, moong, masur, udid, harbhara) single ones or mixture in your diet. To enhance protein quality even further, you can use sprouts (moong, matki, chavli etc.) as well as mushrooms, milk, eggs in your diet.
2. B Vitamins: B vitamins are most essential for fat burning. They have to be obtained from the diet every day as they cannot be stored in the body. The best sources of B vitamins are whole grains. The outermost coating of whole grains ie the husk has all the B vitamins. But because of our habit of consuming polished, overly processed grains we lose out on the B vitamins and blame grains for increasing weight. Millets (like proso, kodo, foxtail, little millet etc.) are excellent sources of such B vitamins.
3. High Fiber: Fiber in grains swells up inside the body by absorbing water and helps us feel full for a longer time. Brown rice, khapali wheat, all vegetables are all high fiber foods. They help us feel full and prevent over eating.

However, most of our food choices unknowingly contribute to our weight. All store brought foods like sauces, jams, snacks, even the ‘so called’ healthy snacks contain additives like palm oil, excessive salt, preservatives which in the long run block fat burning and contribute to weight.

Hence, the best way to follow a weight friendly diet is consuming foods which are grown without chemicals, processed without chemicals and stomach friendly. Our traditional Indian grains like millets, bansi wheat, khapli wheat, brown rice have been consumed by ancestors for hundreds of years and fulfil all the 3 criterions of nutrients required for a healthy weight. These are hence familiar to our digestive system, full of nutrition and weight friendly!