One of the first rules of losing weight is to ‘control what you eat’. Thankfully, if you love Indian food, you can now burn unwanted fat and stay trim. After all, we are a society that worships slimness and looks down upon overweight and obesity.
Rather than consuming low-fat foods to lose weight, you can now indulge in these 10 Indian foods that help burn fat and make you feel and look better.
1. The Yellow Fellow Turmeric
Turmeric, known to for its anticancer, antiseptic and healthy weight loss properties, is one of the basic ingredients used in Indian cooking. Curcumin is the main active component of turmeric. It helps reduce insulin and leptin resistance levels which are responsible for fat deposits.
2. The Pungent And Strong Garlic
Garlic, which is an effective fat-burning condiment, contains the sulphur compound called allicin, which helps reduce cholesterol and unhealthy fats. It has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that also help in burning fat deposits.
3. Spicy Chillies
One of the staple ingredients in Indian cuisine is chillies. They are powered with a key element called capsaicin that helps in increasing metabolism. Capsaicin is a thermogenic element that helps the body to burn calories for up to 20 minutes after you eat chillies. Chillies help in increasing metabolic activity in the body and the heat-generating property of capsaicin helps in burning additional fat within the body.
4. Honey Tricks
Honey is one of the tastiest and best natural remedies for weight loss. It mobilises the extra fat deposits in the body, allowing them to be utilised as energy for normal bodily functions. If 10 grams or a tablespoon of honey is consumed with warm water in the morning, it will certainly help in cutting down fat within the body.
5. Flavourful Cardamom
Cardamom is yet another Indian spice that not only adds flavour but also helps in burning calories. The digestive properties helps in enhancing metabolic activity and is believed to soothe the digestive system. Hence it helps the body process other foods more efficiently and aid in weight loss.
6. Hurry Curry Leaves
Apart from providing flavour to Indian food, curry leaves, if included in our daily diet, can help us lose weight. The leaves also help in removing harmful toxins and unwanted fat deposits from the body besides reducing bad cholesterol levels. Sprinkle them over a meal or chop them finely and mix them in buttermilk to enjoy their weight loss benefits. Incorporating 8 to 10 curry leaves in your daily diet can help you lose weight drastically.
7. Cool It Off With Buttermilk
Buttermilk is the residual fluid after churning butter. It is a bit sour to taste, but is considered extremely good for burning body fat. It contains just 2.2 g fat and about 99 calories, as compared to whole milk that contains 8.9 g fat and 157 calories. Since it does not add fats and calories to the body, you can be sure to get all essential nutrients by drinking this drink. The added bonus is experiencing weight loss.
8. Bean Sprouts
Remember your mother telling you to eat your sprouts when you were young. She had a reason for it. Bean sprouts have loads of essential vitamins, minerals and fibre. They also help reduce hunger by keeping your satiated. This prevents you from overeating and snacking between meals, thereby aiding in weight reduction.
9. Cinnamon
Cinnamon is used extensively in Indian cooking. It is known to improve the function of insulin and also helps in lowering lower glucose, total cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
10. Mustard Oil
Mustard oil has very low levels of saturated fat compared to other cooking oils. It contains beneficial elements like essential fatty acids, linoleic acid, oleic acid, erucic acid, essential vitamins and antioxidants which help in reducing cholesterol levels and maintaining optimal body weight. Now you know why Indian homes love to use mustard oil to cook food!
