Can cabbage help weight loss? The simple answer is yes, if you ate cabbage and only cabbage you would lose weight. There is no doubt about it. Cabbage in all its varieties is a vegetable that requires more calories to digest than is contained within the food but there are other foods that have that same capacity and most of them are going to be green, leafy vegetables such as kale. Foods such as this are said to have a low glycemic value.
There is a downside to the weight loss that can be achieved by consuming only foods that have a low glycemic value. It’s temporary weight loss. As soon as you eat something that has more calories, your body would store them just in case. It’s a defense mechanism for survival that has been programmed into our coding.
Anyway who wants to just eat cabbage every day or even just green, leafy vegetables for that matter? Even the most devout of vegans would require more in their diet. Healthy weight loss requires that you eat a balanced diet of a variety of foods that have calories. If your body determines that you are not getting the calories that it needs to function properly, it will store what it can to the detriment of what it determines is of least priority. You may not agree with its choices.
Typical diets that have been developed using the glycemic index do not restrict the eating of meat, but do not incorporate eating meat as a part of it. The diets do however; encourage the eating of fruits and vegetables “as many as you wish”, with restrictions limited to potatoes, and foods made with white flour. Pasta is even acceptable due to its surprisingly low glycemic index value.
Food scientists who believe that the glycemic index can be useful in developing a safe and nutritional weight loss diet recommend the following:
Eat sparingly any low- or intermediate-GI foods. These are high in empty calories. Candy bars and cake are also low GI foods. Eat too much, and you’ll crowd out essential nutrients and gain weight.
Don’t avoid or even limit high-glycemic index foods. These are low-calorie and very nutritious foods, such as watermelon and baked potato. On the other hand, you should avoid spikes in eating low or high GI foods because research tends to indicate that this is what causes other health problems, such as stroke. It sounds to me like you should be eating only the mid-range foods all the time in order to avoid the spikes.
Foods that have a glycemic of 15 or less include:
Cabbage
Kale
Artichoke
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Celery
Cucumber
Eggplant
Green beans
Lettuce
Low-fat yogurt, artificially sweetened
Peanuts
Peppers, all varieties
Snow peas
Spinach
Summer squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes
For more information about losing weight on a cabbage diet, go to www.loseweightcheating.com
