Festive feasts, bountiful buffets and cookie exchanges abound this time of year. To avoid gaining those extra holiday pounds, beyond exercise and drinking water, it helps to make better food choices at the grocery store.

Some foods naturally boost the body’s metabolism including lean proteins such as turkey, chicken and lean beef and pork. A high-protein diet takes more energy for your body to digest, thus burning calories in the process. Eating seafood, especially those rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as salmon, barramundi and tuna, can lower levels of a hormone called leptin which is associated with decreasing metabolism.

There’s also evidence that spicy foods also play a part in speeding metabolism thanks to chile pepper’s capsaicin which is linked to increasing body temperature and raising one’s heart rate to help burn calories while also suppressing appetite. For similar reasons, enjoying a cup of coffee each day may produce the same results, though adding sugar and cream will certainly reduce coffee’s benefits. Eating high-fiber foods such as whole-grain brown rice and oatmeal act similarly to protein in that it takes the body more energy to digest these foods. Finally, dark green leafy vegetables often contain excellent amounts of B vitamins which help produce the necessary enzymes required for better metabolism.