Mad Carb Disease!

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just want to eat
healthier, you may be confused by the news you’re hearing about
carbohydrates. With so much attention focused on protein diets,
there’s been a consumer backlash against carbohydrates. As a
result, many people misunderstand the role that carbohydrates
play in a healthy diet.

Carbohydrates aren’t all good or all bad. Some 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 wide 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 basic building blocks of all carbohydrates are
sugar molecules.

The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much the same
way – it breaks them down (or tries to break them down) into
single sugar molecules, since only these are small 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
adequate source of carbohydrate your body may scavenge from
dietary protein and fat to supply glucose. The problem is when
you’ve depleted 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 fat to
provide blood glucose to supply energy needs. When this happens,
your basal metabolic rate drops because you have less lean
muscle tissue burning 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 close to the form that occurs in nature. The
closer the carbohydrate food is as Mother Nature intended, the
greater the density of other vital 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 very rich in minerals.

Legumes: an excellent source of protein, fiber folate,
potassium, iron and several 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 soft drinks, snacks such 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 rich in refined carbohydrates and processed
foods has been associated 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 large number of
calories in a small 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 mean by calorie
dense and nutritionally scarce.

2.They offer little appetite-holding power because they have no
fiber or protein. As a result you end up searching for food
again soon after your first serve.

3. They contribute nothing to your nutritional profile except
calories. This means you have fewer 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 out carbs completely for a very short-term gain
(usually weight loss), there are greater long-term health
benefits in learning how to distinguish good carbs over bad
carbs and incorporating healthy carbohydrates into your weight
loss program.

(c) Kim Beardsmore

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