Use Sparingly: Fats, oils, and sweets
2 - 3 Servings: Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese Group
2 - 3 Servings: Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs, and Nuts Group
2 - 4 Servings: Fruit Group
3 - 5 Servings: Vegetable Group
6 - 11 Servings: Bread, Cereal, Rice, Pasta

The Food Pyramid published by the USDA makes it easy to envision just how much of each food type you should eat. Each section of the pyramid represents a food group; the size of the group corresponds to the number of recommended servings.

1. The base of the pyramid represents the grain group. These are carbohydrate-rich foods like bread, cereal, rice, and pasta. You should eat six to 11 servings per day of these foods.

2. The next tier of the pyramid includes vegetables and fruit. You should eat three to five servings per day of vegetables and two to four servings per day of fruit. These are good sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

3. The next level is protein, like dairy products, meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts. You should eat two to three servings per day of foods from the milk group and two to three servings per day of foods from the meat, egg, bean, and nut group.

4. The top level of the pyramid is fats, oils, and sweets; these should be used sparingly.

The pyramid calls for eating a variety of foods to get all of the nutrients you need, and, at the same time, the right amount of calories to maintain a healthy weight. If youre watching your weight, eat the minimum number of recommended servings. If you need to gain weight, eat the maximum number of servings. And, keep in mind as to what constitutes a serving. Most serving sizes are smaller than you think. Be sure to read the food labels carefully to determine the accurate portion size.

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Negative calorie foods are foods, which use more calories to digest than the calories food actually contains! Calories from these foods are much harder for the body to use. In other words, the body has to work hard in order to extract calories from these foods. Even though a food may contain equal amount of calories, much less of these calories can possibly turn into fat in negative calorie foods as fewer calories are actually available to the body. This gives these foods a tremendous natural fat-burning advantage.

Consider the facts:

1. A piece of dessert consisting of 400 Calories (actually 400 kilocalories) may only require 150 Calorie (actually 150 kilocalories) to digest by our body, resulting in a net gain of 250 calories which is added to our body fat!

2. On the other hand, a 5 calorie raw piece of celery will require much more calories to chew and digest, so resulting in a net loss of calories from our body fat!! It implies that the more you eat, the more you lose weight!!!

Therefore, these foods are said to be good for achieving weight loss naturally without starving.

How it works?

All foods have a nutrient (carbohydrate, fat, and protein), caloric (calories) and vitamin & mineral content. Vitamins stimulate living tissues to produce enzymes that breakdown the caloric nutrients of that food.

The foods with negative calorie contain sufficient vitamins & minerals that produce enzymes in quantities sufficient to break down not only its own calories, but additional calories from body in digestion as well. This is called "negative calorie effect".

List of Foods Possessing Negative Calorie Effect

These foods will have maximum benefits when eaten without any empty calorie foods (junk foods). There are several foods such as vegetables and fruits that have negative calorie effect. Some of the foods that can be eaten in generous quantities are: Asparagus, Beets, Carrot, Zucchini, Papaya, Strawberry, Raspberry, etc. Look at the list below.

List of Negative calorie Foods

Negative Calorie Vegetables
Asparagus Beet Root Broccoli Cabbage Carrot Cauliflower Celery	Chicory Hot Chili Cucumber Garden cress Garlic Green Beans	Lettuce Onion Radish Spinach Turnip Zucchini
Negative Calorie Fruits
Apple Blueberries Cantaloupe Cranberry Grapefruit	Honeydew Lemon/Lime Mango Orange Papaya Peach	Pineapple Raspberry Strawberry Tomato Tangerine Turnip Watermelon

Article By: Padma Mehta and Prakash Mehta (www.fatfreekitchen.com)

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