← Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

BITESIZE | How to Burn Fat, Heal Your Metabolism and Live Longer | Dr William Li #507

Jan 3, 2025 23m 53s 25 insights
You probably already know that your diet can hugely influence how well you feel, but how much power do your food choices really have over your health? Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today’s clip is from episode 376 of the podcast with world-renowned medical doctor and author of international bestseller ‘Eat to Beat Disease’, Dr William Li. His latest book, Eat To Beat Your Diet: Burn Fat, Heal Your Metabolism and Live Longer. takes a ground-breaking look at the latest science around how we can harness the power of food to activate our innate fat-burning systems and transform our health. In this clip, he describes some of the common foods that are marketed as healthy yet are anything but. the important role that our gut bacteria play in our metabolism, and Dr Li shares some of his favourite foods which have fat-burning potential. Thanks to our sponsor https://www.drinkag1.com/livemore Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com Show notes and the full podcast are available at drchatterjee.com/376
Actionable Insights

1. Harness Food for Fat Loss

Actively utilize your metabolism and specific foods to shrink dangerous visceral fat, as certain foods can stop fat cells from expanding, convert bad fat cells to good ones, redirect fat stem cells, and activate brown fat to burn harmful white fat.

2. Utilize Specific Foods for Fat Loss

Incorporate foods containing bioactives that can activate healthy fat, reshape fat cells, create beneficial fat, and get rid of visceral fat, such as catechins in tea, ellagic acid in strawberries and chestnuts, sulforaphanes in brassicas, and turmeric.

3. Consume Lycopene-Rich Foods

Eat tomatoes, watermelon, guava, or papaya, as their lycopene content is absorbed into body fat (especially belly, thigh, and butt fat) to fight harmful fat and activate brown fat.

4. Eat Avocados

Consume avocados for their dietary fiber and avocatin B, a substance that helps fight white fat and activate brown fat.

5. Incorporate Brassica Vegetables

Add leafy greens like broccoli, broccolini, gai-lan, bok choy, and baby bok choy to your diet, preparing them by sautéing with garlic and extra virgin olive oil, blanching, or stir-frying.

6. Include Canned Beans and Legumes

Incorporate canned beans, lentils, and other legumes into your diet to help shrink your waistline by fighting visceral fat.

7. Eat Various Mushrooms

Consume a variety of mushrooms, such as maitake, white button, porcini, and morels, prepared grilled, roasted, or simply.

8. Cook with Chili Peppers

Use chili peppers in your cooking to leverage their fat-fighting potential.

9. Use High Polyphenol Olive Oil

Choose extra virgin olive oil, specifically looking for types high in polyphenols, for its health benefits.

10. Eat Barley, Buckwheat, Soba Noodles

Include barley, buckwheat, and soba noodles in your diet as part of a healthy eating pattern.

11. Avoid Diet Sodas

Do not consume diet sodas with artificial sweeteners, as they damage gut health and metabolism, potentially leading to weight gain despite their ‘diet’ label.

12. Protect Gut Microbiome from Sweeteners

Avoid artificial and non-nutritive sweeteners, as they disrupt the gut microbiome, leading to inefficient metabolism and potential body fat growth.

13. Prioritize Whole Fruit Over Juice

Eat whole fruits instead of drinking fruit juice to avoid easily overloading on fruit sugars and to benefit from the fiber; always check ingredient labels on store-bought juices for added sweeteners.

14. Beware Ultra-Processed Plant Foods

Be cautious of ultra-processed plant-based foods, such as certain plant-based burgers, as their processing makes them unhealthy and can compromise metabolism, despite sounding healthy.

15. Avoid Artificially Flavored Drinks

Refrain from consuming artificially flavored and sweetened coffees and teas, as these additives can turn otherwise healthy beverages into unhealthy ones.

16. Embrace Traditional Eating Patterns

Leverage the wisdom of centuries by eating traditional foods that your grandparents would recognize, as newer food inventions are rarely better for health.

17. Practice Mindful Eating & Moderation

Be aware of foods that may not be beneficial, and practice mindful eating by restricting, limiting, or consuming them only modestly, focusing on the volume and quality of what you eat.

18. Adopt Precautionary Diet Approach

When scientific evidence is still emerging about certain foods or additives, adopt a precautionary principle by limiting or avoiding them until more is known.

19. Check Ingredient Labels

Scrutinize ingredient labels and question ingredients you don’t recognize or can’t pronounce, considering their potential adverse effects on gut health and metabolism.

20. Scrutinize Food Marketing

Be skeptical of marketing messages for supposedly healthy foods and learn to identify genuinely healthy options, excluding everything that doesn’t meet the criteria.

21. Monitor Belt Size for Visceral Fat

Pay attention to your belt size; if your pants become tight and you need to loosen your belt, it’s a simple indicator that you might be gaining dangerous visceral fat.

22. Limit Alcohol Consumption

Avoid overconsumption of alcohol, as it can negatively interfere with your gut microbiome.

23. Choose Sustainable Diet Habits

Aim for a healthy diet that is sustainable, enjoyable, and can become second nature, rather than relying on extreme fad interventions or diets.

24. Align Enjoyment with Healthy Eating

Cultivate a love for food that aligns with activating your metabolism and fighting body fat, making healthy eating an enjoyable path towards your health goals.

25. Take Small, Consistent Steps

Understand that even small, consistent steps in dietary changes can lead to significant positive differences in health and metabolism.