Foods That Speed Metabolism

There are two categories of foods that speed metabolism and I will explain why they do what they do.

Raw foods that are high in moisture content
Protein

Let's go over how these are foods that speed metabolism.

Fat, in any form is broken down by a process called hydrolysis.
Hydrolysis means breaking something apart using water. Hydro means water and Lyse - lyse - break apart.

Chemically, water is necessary to turn body fat into usable energy by the body. You can read more about how water is needed for fat metabolism on the section, Water In The Human Body.

Also, water is what releases stored energy from your cells. If your body believes there is enough energy in your cell then it stops trying to convert your food to cellular energy and it coverts it to body fat.

Many people who cannot lose weight also cannot release energy from the cells. That is why they also feel very tired all the time. The reason water is not doing what it is supposed to do in these peoples bodies is because there is a mineral deficiency. You can read about this more on the page, energy balance

Alkaline Foods are also a part of the high moisture content food category. In fact when you look at the success of the raw food diet, alkaline diet, Ornish diet, some vegan diets, the common denominator is the moisture content of the foods!

This is how raw-high-moisture foods are foods that speed metabolism.


Second Category of 
Foods That Speed Metabolism
Dietary protein is a category of foods that speed metabolism.

It is known that dietary protein increases human growth hormone and glucagon.3
Human growth hormone is probably the most powerful fat burning and anti-aging hormone.

Glucagon is another very important hormone that does the opposite of insulin. Insulin will convert blood glucose to body fat. Glucagon does the opposite. Glucagon will convert body fat to glucose.
To many, when they hear the word, protein, they think of meat. Meat is just one source of protein. I am not against eating meat. Sometimes keeping meat in the diet is the only way to help a client lose weight. But there are other sources such as nuts, vegetables, protein powders.

For some, there is a hormone imbalance that prevents them from losing weight. They simply have too much fat storing hormones and too little fat burning hormones.

When protein is combined with starches is lowers the insulin response of the starch. When consumed before resistance training, there is a surge of human growth hormone and testosterone during the first 30 - 45 minutes of the workout.
If you do eat dietary protein, though, keep it small. 20 - 25 grams or 3 - 5 oz per serving is a good upper limit of the size of the serving.

Contrary to popular myth, protein DOES cause an insulin surge. It is just less than starches.

The easiest way to gauge a serving size is to look at the size of your palm and chose a serving of dense protein food that is that size.

One of the main reasons the Atkins diet and the Zone Diet by Barry Sears works when they do is because of the reduced insulin response and the fat burning hormones released by the increase in protein.

Also for people with adrenal fatigue and excess cortisol they will need more dietary dense sources of protein because the cortisol is eating away the lean muscle and using it for body fuel. That is why their muscle tone is weak, their hips and thighs are thin and they have a harder time walking up the stairs.

So there you have it, the two groups of foods that speed metabolism.

Caveats to 
Foods that Speed Metabolism

Having said all I said, you also want to try to make all the foods you eat organic produce for fruits and vegetables. For animal products you want to see labels that say grass fed or free range. For fish you want to see labels that say Not Farm Raised or Wild Caught
Without these labels you will be consuming chemicals that have proven to cause weight gain.
When it comes to fruits and vegetables the herbicides used to kill weeds and the pesticides use to protect crop are endocrine disrputors and Xenoestrogen that cause your body to react like there is more estrogen in your body and thus create and store more body fat..
Many farm raised animals bred for the meat and poultry industry are fed estrogen hormones. Estrogen produces body fat. You can read more about environmental estrogen on the page, "Estrogen Dominance."
Fish that are farm raised or farm bred are also fed or exposed to endocrine disrputors that are Xenoestrogens.
Many of these endocrine disruptors have been proven to cause reduced thyroid output and also subclinical hypothyroidism.

Because of these factors foods that speed metabolism can be a trojan horse if you don't keep it organic. I hope this helps!