Some researchers calculated that (based on tests conducted on animals) every calorie we avoid means about 30 seconds extra life.

The „French paradox” is a very good example for this matter. Only 7% of French people are obese (as compared to more than 22% of all Americans) although they do not eat only salads all day. French people, like every one else, like to smoke, drink wine, eat food products high in calories (buttered croissants, goose livers, pastries, etc.). The only difference is that they eat less of everything as they are used to serving smaller portions.

Researchers found that an average food portion in Paris has about 270 g, while in Philadelphia an average food portion has about 350g, an American hot dog is about 60% larger that a French one, a soft drink is 52% larger in US as compared to France, etc.

Related to the upper mentioned conclusion, Paul Rozin, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, stated that „people tend to consume what is put in front of them, and generally consume more when offered more food”.

As sometimes we may find it difficult to reduce and sustain the intake of calories, we thought that presenting some tricks that might help us reduce the quantity of food we eat and prevail in the battle with calories would be helpful.

1. Eat less, but more often. Is better to eat smaller portions than few large ones because in this way food is properly digested and nutrients are better used. When we eat much, the body cannot effectively “process” all the food.

2. Drink water before you eat. This will make you feel full and will decrease your appetite.

3. Eat in smaller plates. The main advantage of a smaller plate is that it gives the impression of a normal serving although it holds less food. When going to a restaurant switch the dinner plate with a salad one, which is smaller.

4. Brush your teeth. Some people might refuse to have a quick snack or even a meal when their teeth have just been brushed and feel clean.

5. Include more vegetables in your meal. Eating more vegetables can make us fell satiated even if few calories are assimilated. So, look in your meal for ingredients that can be substituted with vegetables.

6. Count calories intake. First of all, it will help you keep track of how many calories have you assimilated during the day and how you can allocate the remaining ones for future meals. Secondly, it might motivate you to reduce the number of calories assimilated daily. You can also practice this when going out for groceries in order to purchase “lighter food products”.

7. No more sugar. Sugar is a very important source of calories, causing an increase in appetite. In 100 g of sugar there are approximately 400 calories. Try to replace as much as possible products containing sugar with sugar-free similar products (e.g. replace soft drinks with sugar-free juices, still water, etc.).

8. Eat slower. The body must have time to process and fully estimate the quantity of food that is eaten. When we eat fast, we sometimes might not realize that we are satiated.

9. Say NO to chips, snacks, breads, etc. Besides the fact that such products are well know for their “weight attraction” due to their ingredients, such products can make us want to eat and drinks more (especially salted ones).

10. Chew gum. Chewing sugar-free gum can give us the impression that we are eating. So, when hunger strikes, try first some gum.

11. Avoid foods cooked in oil. Although sometimes fried means tasty, we should bear in mind that oil has a lot of fats and calories (there are more than 100 calories in a spoon of oil). Try to eat as much as possible baked, barbecued foods.

12. Avoid snacks. You will eat less if you have a normal meal as compared to having several snacks before or after meals. So, try to impose a fix schedule in terms of meals.

13. Go for more taste and less quantity. Try to keep as long as you can the taste of something you want to eat in your mouth. For example, if you freeze chocolate, it will melt more slowly in your mouth and you will fell like you have eaten more.

1. THE MOST COMMON objective is loss of excess body fat;
2. Medical objectives;
3. Increase body fat and / or muscle weight gain.

There are many other objectives, but let’s try to focus on these three:

1. Loss of excess body fat

These diets restrict the intake of specific food, or food in general.
The METABOLIC DIFFERENCES and LIFE STYLE are two main factors that influence the effectiveness of dieting.

Sometimes, short-term dieting is not even effective. When reducing the food supply, the body reacts in an opposite way (by forming excess fat as a starvation response), once normal eating is resumed. Short crash dieting leads to less body fat on the short-term and to excess body fat shortly after the diet is ended. Therefore, it has a negative effect on the long-term.

2. Medical diets

These types of diets are focused on including or excluding certain nutrients (increasing or decreasing the consumption of food that contains them). The most important types of medical oriented diets are:

1. Diets designed to manage blood sugar level – Diabetes;
2. Gluten-free diets – Celiac disease;
3. Ketogenic diets – Epileptics;
4. Milk free diets – Lactose-intolerant;
5. Low-sodium diets – Kidney diseases;
6. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables and low in fat and sodium – Hypertensive.

3. Increase body fat and/or muscle weight gain

These types of diets are mainly used by athletes to:

1. Increase their strength;
2. Increase their resistance;
3. For their look;
4. For weight classes.

These types of diets must be carefully supervised and controlled in order to have a positive effect. The health condition can be severally damaged if the diet is not used properly.

Water plays an important part in our lives. 70% of our planet is covered with water, resembling with the human body that consist of 80% water. So, it seems that we should control our water intake in order to maintain the “volume” of water in our bodies.

Some might say that we could drink 2 bottles of water a day and have the intake covered. If you think that this is the proper solution, think again!

You don’t have to flood your body with water, you only have to consume food that is rich in water. So, the best sources of water for the human body are fruits and vegetables.

Fruits have the highest water content of any other food. Additionally, they contain all the vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, amino acids and fatty acids needed by the human body.

The results of a survey outlined that those who eat fruits at every meal tend to want to eat less food at the next meal, resulting in a very safe and healthy weight loss diet. The main factor influencing our appetite might be the sugar content (glucose) in fruits.

Some researchers also found that fruits contain a substance that can reduce the risks of heart attacks and heart diseases. The substances prevent the blood from becoming to thick and plugging up the arteries.

Water helps our bodies to integrate nutritious elements contained by food. A faster integration of nutritional elements means a faster digestion. By digesting food quicker our bodies can use their energy for other purposes that digestion (our bodies save energy).

For example, grilled meat is digested in approximately 8 hours, while a fruit salad digested in 30 minutes or less.

Additionally, fruits do not even digest in the stomach. Most of them (except dried fruits, dates and bananas) are pre-digested in 20-30 minutes. As they pass through the stomach, they break down and release their nutrients in the intestines.

2. Glucose

The extraction of energy from fruits is a relatively difficult process. Everything we eat or drink has to be digested in order to obtain energy for our bodies. There are 2 different ways of extracting energy from food:
- BURNING WITH OXYGEN, for sugar and fat (fruits, etc.)
- BURNING WITHOUT OXYGEN, for proteins (meat, dairy, etc.)

This process is one of the most effective ones for the human body. The energy of fruits is concentrated in the form of sugars (glucose). The human body uses oxygen in order to transform glucose into energy. After transforming glucose into energy, the waste products remaining after this reaction are water and carbon-dioxide. Water is used by the human body, while carbon-dioxide is eliminated through the lungs by breathing.

When referring to extracting energy, this process is 3 times more effective as compared to a combustion engine. By transforming glucose in energy, the body extracts about 50% of the contained energy, while a combustion engine uses only 10-20% of the energy (the rest is lost through heat).

As regards the other burning process, without oxygen, the energy is extracted from proteins. Products like meat, milk, dairy, etc. contain energy in the form of proteins and fat. The process of transforming proteins into energy is more difficult and time-consuming. Additionally, the body uses more energy to transform proteins as compared to glucose.

The waste products of this burning process is ammonia which is connected to carbon-dioxide and forms the less toxic ureum which is excreted by kidneys.

Our bodies always burn a mix of glucose and fat. The ratio of the fat and the glucose in the burning process depends of the intensity of the activity carried out by a person.

Low intensity activities tend to burn more fat than glucose, while high intensity or duration activities tend to burn more glucose.

Let’s take for example two of the most common exercises: walking and running.

Walking for 30 minutes will force your body to burn about 110 kcal of fat and about 60 kcal of glucose.
A major difference occurs if we change the intensity of the exercise. So, running for 30 minutes will force your body to consume about 120 kcal of fat (10 kcal more as compared to walking – not a major difference) and about 250 kcal of glucose (4 times more as compared to walking – a major difference).

Additionally, some believe that more muscles means less fat. With a higher muscle to fat ratio you must burn extra energy, some of it resulting from stored fat.

Here are some interesting examples that might help you when deciding on a fruit (in terms of provided energy):

1. Dates: 300 kcal and 20% water
2. Olives: 142 kcal and 75% water
3. Avocados: 126 kcal and 81%
4. Bananas: 88 kcal and 76%
5. Pomegranates: 81 kcal and 82% water
6. Figs: 80 kcal and 80% water
7. Persimmons: 76 kcal and 81% water
8. Lychees: 76 kcal and 82% water
9. Guavas: 72 kcal and 81% water
10. Kumquats: 68 kcal and 82% water

Here is a brief description of main 3 fruits in terms of provided energy:

1. Dates

The Date Palm is native to the desert oases of northern Africa. The Date Palm tree has a very old history, evidence of its cultivation suggesting it could be found in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Arabia. Today, the palm is often cultivated for its fruit.

Dates are believed to have many traditional medicinal uses. They can be used as a detersive (due to its high content of tiannin) and as an astringent. Also, dates can help against sore throat, fever, colds and other problems. Also, some believe that dates can help against alcohol intoxication.

Dates can be eaten in four stages from unripe to sun-dried. It is very helpful to eat dates unripe because they provide a large amount of vitamin C. Dates contain a small quantity of water, so by drying them you won’t concentrate them very much, although the fruit will lose vitamin C.

Nevertheless, 100g of dried dates provides you with about 300 Kcal and almost none of them come from fat.

2. Olives

The olive fruit is very popular among countries near Mediterranean Sea. References of olive are made in old literature like Iliad and Odyssey, were olive oil is viewed as a luxury, accessible only to the wealthy. Today, olives still play an important part in the economy and culture of these countries.

Olives have many uses in cuisine: in cocktails (as an adjunct to martini), bread, sausages, etc. Olives are rich in vitamin E, minerals, monounsaturated fats, and anti-oxidants. 100 grams of canned olives contain about 142 kcal, approximately 100 of them coming from fat.

3. Avocados

The avocado tree originates from Mexico and Central America. The word “avocado” comes from the Spanish “aguacate”, which comes from the Aztec “ahuacatl”, meaning “testicle”. The fruit was named this way because of its shape.

The avocado leaves contain a toxic fatty acid derivate named persin. This causes some animals to be harmed or killed if they eat them. The fruit is also poisonous to birds; however, there are no negative effects on humans, besides those who are allergic to it.

Avocado provides nearly 20 vitamins including vitamin E, vitamin C, folate, fiber, iron, potassium, lutein and beta-carotene. 100 grams of avocado can provide about 126 calories, of which 110 kcal are from fat.

1. Desired state of health;
2. Morality;
3. Religion;
4. Effectiveness.

It seems that in the last few years more and more people are concerned with their health, when speaking of diets.

The imbalance of consumed products results in either starvation or excessive reserves of adipose tissue (body fat) .

Vitamins and minerals are very important (poor intake can cause dramatic effects on someone’s health):

• More than 3 million children are blind because of poor intake of vitamin A;
• Lack of vitamin C can cause scurvy;
• Lack of dietary proteins can cause childhood disorders like Kwashiorkor and Marasmus;
• The intake of vitamin D can affect the absorption of other substances like calcium and phosphorus (other two very important elements);
• It is believed that more than 30% of world’s population either has or is at risk of developing iodine deficiency;
• Heart diseases and diabet are often caused by obesity.