Nowadays more and more people are thinking a lot about their health and look for ways to maintain their body weight. This is why they have become more conscious about the foods they eat and keep an eye on the amount of calories they intake. Well, as far as a well balanced diet is concerned you simply cannot ignore the importance of vegetables.Vegetables are amongst the most natural and healthy foods that you can possibly eat without much worrying about the calories. In fact, most of the vegetables are generally low in calories and are high in essential vitamins and minerals that human body requires to function properly.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends including more and more vegetables in your diet for weight control and maintaining your overall health. First of all vegetables are low in calories which make them the perfect item in your diet. Vegetables also contain plenty of fiber, vitamins and minerals that our body needs. Apart from weight loss and keep your body healthy, vegetables also reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases.
Out of all the vegetables, spinach and romaine lettuce are the one that contain the fewest number of calories. Both these vegetables contain just 10 calories per cup. One cup of fresh asparagus and a cup of cauliflower have 30 calories. Bell peppers and tomatoes are also low in calories with just 40 calories per cup. The calories in a cup of fresh carrots are 50, while in fresh onions it is 70 calories. Another good part about eating vegetables is that the water and fiber content in vegetables will add volume to your dishes. This means you can eat the same amount of food with fewer calories. And it is a known fact that most of the vegetables available in the market are naturally low in fat and calories are filling for your stomach.This means when you eat a vegetable salad or soup, there is no need to eat for quite some time as you will not feel hungry soon.
Also as compared to cooked vegetables, the calorie count in raw vegetables is less. Not only are raw vegetables low in calories, they are low in fat as well. Hence, you must include raw vegetables in your diet to keep your calorie intake down and fiber intake up. To make sure that your body is getting enough vegetables, you can easily make a large plate of raw vegetable salad for lunch or dinner. To make the salad better in taste you can always put some fat-free salad dressing on it. You can also eat raw vegetables like tomato or cucumber as it is or with a low-calorie dip. One or two carrots or cucumbers in between means make a good snack. .
Here is a list of popular vegetable along with the amount of calories they have:
Zucchini (100g) – 18 calories

Watercress (100g) – 22 calories

Spinach (100g) – 25 calories

Pumpkin (100g) – 13 calories

Peas (100g) – 83 calories

Parsnip (100g) – 64 calories

Okra (100g) – 31 calories

Garlic (100g) – 98 calories

Fennel (100g) – 12 calories

Eggplant (100g) – 15 calories

Alfalfa sprouts (100g) - 24 calories

Beetroot (100g) – 36 calories

Broccoli (100g) – 33 calories

Cabbage Chinese (100g) – 12 calories

Cabbage (100g) – 28 calories

Capsicum Pepper, green (100g) – 15 calories

Capsicum Pepper, red (100g) - 32 calories

Carrots, (100g) – 30 calories

Cauliflower (100g) – 28 calories

Celeriac (100g) – 18 calories

Celery (100g) - 7 calories

Corn kernels (100g) – 93 calories

Curly Kale (100g) – 35 calories

Cucumber, unpeeled (100g) - 10 calories

Chicory (100g) – 14 calories

Potatoes (100g) – 75 calories

Asparagus (100g) – 20 calories

Bamboo shoots (100g) – 30 calories

Some tips to use vegetables for weight loss: