There has been a lot of controversy over the last few years concentrating how much carbohydrate you should include in your carbs diet.
For years we were brainwashed into believing that it was only fat that made us fat and that we could eat as many carbs as we wanted in the absence of fat.
Many people achieved short term weight loss by using a fat-free plan and every food manufacturer began replacing the fat in their products with either more sugar or other artificial ingredients to replace the missing flavor.
Good Carbs Bad Carbs
But what the food manufacturers don’t tell you about is how they make these low-fat foods taste good by pumping them full of sugar. Sugar can cause a number of side effects to your body, but the most visible side effect is the fat that is stored right on your belly and thighs. So, if you really want to lose fat, then avoid processed grains and do NOT eat highly processed cereals in place of real food.
Over a period of about 20 years of low fat/ high carb mentality our country development higher rates of obesity and heart disease than ever before, the exact things that our new low fat/ high carb living were supposed to eradicate. So what happened?
What are good carbs?
There are two basic types of carbs, simple and complex. Simple carbs are sugar and they can be used quickly as an energy source.
Any sugar we eat that exceeds our immediate needs for energy are stored as glycogen in the liver to be used as energy when we need it and when we consume more than we can store in the liver it is converted to fat and stored elsewhere in the body.
Complex carbs require more energy to assimilate and give longer lasting energy. They are also slower to be turned into simple sugars and stored as body fat.
Eating complex carbohydrates that are rich in fiber will make you less likely to overindulge than with simple carbs. The low carbohydrate calculation uses a “net carbs” figure to determine the amount of carbohydrates that should be consumed.
This figure is determined by taking the total carbohydrate grams and subtracting the grams of fiber and non-insulin affecting sweeteners and carbs such as malitol from the total.
Numerous articles blasting the new low carb thinking fail to get these facts straight and claim that eating so few carbs will have negative health implications.
They point to studies where decreased mental capacity was observed when eating little or no carbohydrates. The problem with these studies is that none of them followed the guidelines laid out in diets such as Atkins or South Beach.
The participants were given 20 or less total carbs (not net carbs) and were forced to maintain a very low total caloric intake. When starting in the induction phase of Atkins, 20 net grams of carbs are eaten (which could be 2 or 3 times more in total carbs) and there is no calorie restriction.
A better way to limit total carbs and maintain high energy levels is to rid the diet of white flour and sugar and consume only whole grains in moderate amounts. The grains should be a complement to the diet and not the main course.
