Nutritionists recommend replacing coffee with chicory. However, experts agree that in order to accelerate metabolism and, accordingly, lose weight, it is necessary to consume from 2 to 20 cups a day.
In medicine, chicory root is most appreciated for its high content of the high-molecular polysaccharide inulin. It is inulin that helps to improve metabolism and digestion. All these properties of the complex play a positive role in the prevention and treatment of diabetes, as well as in the fight against excess weight.
It must be clearly understood that there is no miracle and, without changing anything in your diet and physical activity, it is impossible to solve the problem of excess weight solely at the expense of chicory (or any other product).
The calorie content of chicory is very low: 72 kcal per 100 grams of dry product, that is, 3 kcal per teaspoon.
At the same time, thanks to useful substances — inulin, pectin and intibin — chicory improves metabolism, helps the assimilation of fast carbohydrates, has a diuretic effect.
Chicory differs from two other popular hot drinks, tea and coffee, in that it lacks caffeine, which means it can be given to children and drunk at night. Together, all these advantages of chicory contribute to weight loss.
Chicory has a beneficial effect on overall health:
A miracle drink, isn't it? That's just to take advantage of its advantages, you need to know for sure that this is not a fake. The substance responsible for most of the beneficial properties of chicory is called inulin. It is its percentage in the product that is an important indicator of what kind of drink is in front of you.
If you believe the expertise of NP "Roskontrol", it is not at all easy to find real chicory on the shelves. The experts of Roskontrol sent samples of nine brands of soluble chicory to the laboratory: only two of them contained the required amount of inulin, the rest of the norm was underestimated at times.
For a noticeable positive effect, an adult needs to receive about 2.5 grams of inulin per day.
This is about two cups of a drink made from a powder with an inulin content of 30%. The exact figure depends on the number of spoons of powder that you add during cooking.
Accordingly, if you use chicory, which contains less than 5% inulin, then you will have to drink 15-20 cups to cover the daily allowance, which is hardly possible. Of course, there will be no harm from chicory with a low inulin content, and if you just like the taste of this drink, you can continue to use it.
Another question is: do you want to benefit from it? If yes, then try to choose those versions of the drink, inulin in which is not less than 20-30%.
