The Myth of Negative-Calorie Foods

For years, diets and weight-loss books have boasted that you can lose oodles of weight by eating foods that contains fewer calories than are expended by chewing them -- like celery and cabbage. According to Cathy Nonas, director of obesity and diabetes programs at North General Hospital in Harlem, while this might technically be true, the calorie difference is so miniscule that it would not add up to actual weight loss. Instead, these diets work their "magic" by substituting high-cal indulgences with low-cal foods. In other words, by substituting a 500-calorie cookie with a 10-calorie stalk of celery, the savings quickly adds up.