Kim Beardsmore
Whether you're trying to lose weight or just want to eat healthier, you may be trancelike by the news you're hearing active carbohydrates. With so much attention adjusted on protein diets, there's been a consumer backlash against carbohydrates. As a result, many people misunderstand the role that carbohydrates play in a well-preserved diet.
Carbohydrates aren't all good or all bad. whatsoever kinds promote health while others, when eaten often and in large quantities, may increase the risk for diabetes and coronary heart disease.
What are carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates come from a fanlike array of foods - bread, fruit, vegetables, rice, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, corn, and cherry pie. They also come in a variety of forms. The most common and abundant ones are sugars, fibers, and starches. The basal building blocks of all carbohydrates are sugar molecules.
The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much the unvarying way - it breaks them falling (or tries to break them down) into single sugar molecules, since single these are miniscule enough to absorb into the bloodstream. It also converts most digestible carbohydrates into glucose (also known as blood sugar), because cells are designed to use this as a universal energy source. This is why carbohydrates can make us feel energetic. Carbohydrates fuel our body. Your body stores glucose reserves in the muscles in the form of glycogen ready to be used when we exert ourselves.
Carbohydrates are the highest octane - the most desirable fuel source for your body's energy requirements. If you don't have an satisfactory source of carbohydrate your body may scavenge from dietary protein and greasy to supply glucose. The problem is when you've exhausted your stores of glycogen (stored glucose in muscle and lean tissue) your body turns to burning muscles or organs (lean muscle tissue) and dietary protein or greasy to provide blood glucose to supply energy needs. When this happens, your basal metabolic rate drops because you have less wizened muscle tissue painful calories and your body thinks its starving and cuts back on energy requirements.
So you should continue to eat carbohydrates discriminately selecting those which have the greatest health benefits.
The carbohydrates you consume should come from carbohydrate-rich foods that are intimate to the form that occurs in nature. The closer the carbohydrate food is as Mother Nature intended, the greater the density of other indispensable nutrients. If you are looking for health-enhancing sources of carbohydrates you should choose from:
Fruit: rich in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, potassium and often vitamin E.
Vegetables: fiber, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, often vitamin E, potassium and a wider variety of minerals than fruit.
Whole grains and grain foods: rich in fiber, protein, and some B vitamins and are precise rich in minerals.
Legumes: an superior source of protein, fiber folate, potassium, iron and single minerals.
Dairy foods: protein, vitamin D, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, and vitamin B12.
You can also source carbohydrates from processed foods such as soda pop or downy drinks, snacks much as cookies and chips, and alcohol. These generally are considered to be a poor food choice and should be consumed rarely. The carbohydrate source (sugar and flour) in these food choices has been highly refined processed. A diet fruitful in refined carbohydrates and processed foods has been related with heart disease and onset of type 2 diabetes.
Why are these sources of carbohydrates to be avoided?
1. They are calorie dense and contribute a life-sized number of calories in a miniscule amount of food. For example a 7oz bag of potato chips or corn chips have approximately 1000 calories. Most women on a weight management program will be aiming for 1200 daily calorific intake. So, this is what we nasty by calorie stupid and nutritionally scarce.
2. They offer infinitesimal appetite-holding power because they have no fiber or protein. As a result you end up searching for food again soon aft your first serve.
3. They contribute nothing to your nutritional profile except calories. This means you have few calories left for foods that your body requires for good health.
Whenever possible, replace highly processed grains, cereals, and sugars with minimally processed whole-grain products and ensure you have at least five serves of fruit and vegetables daily.
Rather than cut down carbs completely for a very short gain (usually weight loss), there are greater long-term health benefits in learning how to distinguish good carbs finished bad carbs and incorporating healthy carbohydrates into your weight loss program.
(c) Copyright Kim Beardsmore
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