Alternative Title: Real Ways to Boost Your Metabolism
Second Alternative Title: 10 Foods to Boost Your Metabolism
I recently stumbled across something that struck me like a lightening bolt. I mean, we all have heard that not eating enough will lull our body into starvation mode - but it's never been explained beyond that - I do understand what it means, but reflected in exactly how that breaks down into the actual process in our body - I'm kind of shocked.
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There are top two factors that cause a metabolism to slow:
The biggest one is just simply not eating enough food and calories to support your body. So when the body makes the decision to slow the metabolism, it's really all about one thing, and one thing only, and that is survival.
It has nothing to do with your body trying to conspire against you and your desire to fit in your skinny jeans. It's really just all trying to keep you going for longer on less, because that's what you're giving your body for some of those who have a slowed metabolism. It's the body sacrificing long term health for short term survival. Because of what you're feeding it, you're really telling the body that food is scarce. And so the body gets really smart and starts slowing metabolism and holding on to food as a protective mechanism.
When there aren't enough calories coming in, the body saves energy by reducing your body temperature; turning down digestive juices, making digestion weaker; reducing the pulse rate, slowing thyroid function; and these are all built in survival responses by the body to help you go
longer on less food. And this really isn't a bad thing; it's actually a really good thing, because these protective mechanisms are going to keep you alive in a real emergency. But we just really need to learn to work with our body and not against it.
Second is definitely not eating enough carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are really the most important macronutrient when it comes to metabolism. And when I'm talking about macronutrients I'm talking about protein, carbohydrates and fat. So all of those macronutrients are extremely important and none should ever be limited in any intentional fashion. So really when you think of carbs, you need to think of them driving metabolism.
And one of the reasons that adequate carbs in the diet is so important is because the conversion of inactive energy to active energy, which is T4 to T3 for the technical people, that thyroid hormone conversion is dependent on enough glucose, which is sugar, and stored glycogen in the liver. So you need sugar to really set the stage for that powerful metabolic conversion to happen.
Source: Butter Nutrition Metabolism Summit
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Right?
They go on to suggest the top 10 foods to eat to help boost your metabolism:
1. Coconut Oils
Coconut oil is anti-inflammatory, it's anti-fungal, it's stimulating to the metabolism, it's incredibly
easy to digest, and it's full of antioxidants. It can serve as a great replacement to get those
vegetable oils out of your diet which are also called polyunsaturated fats. And so those vegetable oils actually have a really detrimental effect on metabolism and can block hormone and energy production.
There are two different kinds that you really want to have on hand - the first one is the refined coconut oil, and that's going to pretty flavorless - use this one in cooking because it's stable at high temperatures and it's great for sauteing and baking when you don't want any coconut flavor.
The second is virgin coconut oil, and I like to use that for things that I want to taste like coconut. So baking, making popcorn, I like to use it in skincare. But ideally you want to try and swap out the vegetable oils that you've been using.
2. Ripe Fruits
The reason that ripe fruits are so important is because they're especially therapeutic. And that's because when a fruit is fully ripe, the nutrients are at their peak, and the sugars are broken down,
fully broken down. It's often disaccharide, which is a double sugar into single sugars. So in essence, ripe fruits are incredibly easy on the digestive system, as well as rich in nutrients, antioxidants, really making it your metabolism's friend.
3. Pure Orange Juice
Orange juice is amazing for the metabolism and energy production. But by no means am I talking about just any old orange juice. I am talking about pure unadulterated orange juice without additives, fillers and absolutely not from concentrate. So I really like a brand called Uncle Matt's, although fresh squeezed, organic or the best quality that you can find locally where you live, that's going to
be your best option. So if you can find the pure stuff, it's chock full of magnesium, potassium, a boatload of Vitamin C that supports detoxification in the liver and supports the immune system, and of course it also contains folate, thiamine and Vitamin A. So pure orange juice is a great metabolic stimulating food.
4. Gelatin.
There are three main different ways that you can get your gelatin on. There is bone broth which is the best way to get it. But then there's also powdered gelatin and another form called collagen hydrolysate. Gelatin has this very unique and non-inflammatory amino acid profile. And amino acids are the building blocks of protein. And so the amino acids in gelatin are actually very medicinal for
the liver. And these particular amino acids are really lacking in our standard American diet, due to our heavy consumption of muscle meats.
So over time, this real imbalance in eating lots of muscle meats in relation to other proteins such as gelatin, fish, eggs and dairy, it can tend to produce more inflammation in your body. So glycine which is found in gelatin is actually needed in abundance by the liver to help your liver take out the trash in our pretty toxic world.
There's three different ways that you can get gelatin in your diet. There's bone broth, gelatin, and collagen. And so bone broth you would obviously use when you're making a soup or some people just have a mug of it every day. There's also powdered gelatin form which is great if you want to make Jello or any sort of dessert that you want to set up. And then third there's a form called collagen which is a little more processed form. But the nice thing about it is you can use it like a protein powder and it's not going to gel. It will actually dissolve in any fluid.
5. Eggs.
This is probably one of my favorites. I am an absolute huge egg eater. And so, eggs if you think about it are really nature's multivitamins containing everything that's needed to create life. I mean, each egg contains about six grams of really high quality protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and an assortment of B vitamins as well as hormone building cholesterol. So a great way to go about this is to just make sure you get a few eggs per day and if you can get in a few extra yolks it's really just a great way to start to support your metabolism.
6. Pastured / Organic Meat and Wild Seafood
Organic proteins or wild seafood are going to be less likely to contain hormone additives and toxins, which is always a good thing. And so getting enough protein is absolutely instrumental to the metabolism and a healthy liver function as well as detoxification. Wild shellfish is one of the most therapeutic because not only when you eat shellfish you're eating the whole entire animal. You know,
you're eating the whole shrimp or you're eating the whole oyster. So it's really therapeutic and particularly rich in minerals that nourish the liver, like iron, copper and selenium.
7. Root Vegetables and Squashes
Particularly raw carrots - roots and tubers are not only incredibly nutrient dense but they're also very
easy to digest. And so raw carrots in particular have a mild germicide that can be used as a digestive helper and actually help facilitate the detoxification of excess estrogen and endotoxin in the colon. So they can be a really good choice if someone tends to have digestive issues as well. Beets can help thin the bile which is essentially the river of toxins that flow from the liver into your digestive system. You want that bile moving very smoothly to get those toxins out of the body.
8. Organ Meats
If you can stomach organ meat such as liver, a few servings per week goes a really long way for the metabolism. So if you are up for the challenge, three to six ounces of liver per week is a great target. But you know if you don't love it, like me, I really don't like liver, there are other ways that you can get it. So my favorite is either buying or making a dried liver supplement. I like to make my own but there's also a few different brands that you can buy. Or you can just cut up liver into very small pieces and freeze it and try and take a few frozen tabs with your favorite beverage and you can take them like a supplement.
9. Calcium
Calcium that comes from grass-fed dairy products or a dairy free source if you're sensitive. And so calcium is a huge stimulator to the metabolic rate. And so that means that additive free dairy products like whole milk, cottage cheese, ice cream and other cheeses can be a great choice, since dairy is packed with high quality protein, fats and calcium. Dairy really has so many nutrients and all of the
macronutrients in one place.
10. Pastured Butter
And so contrary to mainstream media advice that butter is bad for our health, it's actually quite the opposite, as it's rich in fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K2, saturated fat, lauric acid, as well as cholesterol which is actually an antioxidant and the primary building block for our sex hormones which I think is pretty important. So you want to look for butter from grass fed cows or look for the word "pastured" on the label. You also want to make sure to check for any natural additives that can sometimes be in your butter which I commonly see "natural flavors," but that just doesn't belong.
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They also go on to discuss vitamin and mineral deficiencies and so much more! Be sure to check out the link above to check out this wealth of knowledge!!!
Watch out Metabolism - Here I come!