Did you ever have the idea that whatever health challenge occurs, there’s a food out there somewhere that will help us overcome it?

If so, you’re like most health enthusiasts who have found that their intuition about foods can cure has a solid scientific foundation.

Let’s take the issue of weight gain. You could probably make a list right now of 40+ foods to eat if you wanted to gain 5 pounds in the next week. Your list would probably contain junk food, processed food, fatty meats, fats, lots of roasted nuts – some of them candied, empty calorie alcoholic drinks. The chances are good that you wouldn’t have a lot of vegetables on that list with the exception of French fries, potatoes and corn.

Let’s take the issue of weight loss. You could probably make a list right now of 40+ foods to eat if you wanted to lose 10 pounds in the next few weeks. On that list you would most likely have good high quality proteins, whole grains packed with fiber, fruits (although not too many), especially blueberries, strawberries, pomegranates, cherries, vegetables, raw milk or dairy products, and healthy fats (like avocados, extra virgin coconut oil, flax seeds, extra virgin olive oil, raw almonds and walnuts for snacks).  Instinctively, we know to eat certain foods to gain weight and certain foods to lose weight.

The foods most important in weight loss are the carbohydrates. We’ve learned that one carb is not always equal to the next. Some carbs can foster weight gain while others foster weight loss. The determining factor is the glycemic index, which measures how much sugar is released from the carb food into the blood after eating. Foods with a high glycemic index, 70 to over 100 on the scale of 0 to 100, are foods that cause you to gain weight. Foods with a low glycemic index, rated 0-55 on the glycemic index scale, are foods that burn fat. I’ll talk about this a lot here in the future.

Tags: anti-inflammatory diet, fat burning, food choices