Carbohydrates

So let’s start with carbohydrates as most people have heard this term.  However this might need some clarification.

When talking about diet with my clients I often see a strange look come over their faces when I mention low GI ( glycemic index) carbohydrate intake. I ask what food group they think vegetables, salad and fruit are and most haven’t a clue where they fit in. These are the low GI carbohydrates and they are extremely good for you. They provide vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and fibre. They are truly daily essentials to a healthy diet.

Many people relate to carbohydrates that are high GI types such as starchy potato, bread, pasta, biscuits, grain/cereal type foods. It is important to understand that both types of carbohydrates can only turn into one thing in our bodies and that is sugar! However as we have mentioned low GI carbs are vital to our health and have a minimal effect on blood sugar elevation.

Heart disease, obesity and aging itself are directly affected, if not caused by the intake of excess sugar, whether its source is the best whole grain bread or a dish of your favourite ice cream.

Carbohydrates are well known for being our prime energy food, yet burning sugar for energy is similar to heating your house in the winter with newspaper. It provides quick heat, which dies out rapidly. Our goal is to show you how to eat so that your energy does not come from these “fast burn out” carbohydrates but from a slow burning, much more effective source.

Don’t worry about getting enough carbohydrates. They are everywhere, so avoiding them completely is impossible and as we mentioned we encourage your daily intake of vegetables, salad and fruit. Eliminating all sugar and starchy foods and eating healthy fat is the quickest, easiest way to become a fat burner and thus, a healthier person.

Your focus becomes avoiding sugar/starch, that is, those foods which, when broken down to a cellular level (which is what your cells do) become nothing but basic sugar and convert to body fat. This means you’ll be cutting back on a lot of foods that are basically fillers with very little nutritional value such as pasta, rice, breads, potatoes (baked or fried), crackers etc. However, there is good news for your taste buds. You’ll be surprised to learn what foods are healthy for you and how satisfying those foods can be.

The high GI carbohydrate and insulin connection

Let’s discuss again those carbohydrates that turn to sugar. When your body receives sugar from your diet, its response is to produce a hormone called insulin. Most people believe that the purpose of insulin is to simply lower blood sugar. This is a dangerous misconception! Although insulin does have the effect of lowering blood sugar, its purpose is to promote the storage of energy, which it does by turning blood sugar into fat!

So, when you eat high GI carbohydrates (the starchy ones) your body turns them into sugar and produces insulin. The insulin tells your body to turn it into fat. The equation looks like this:
Carbohydrate (starchy) > Sugar > Insulin > Fat Storage

A perfect example of this is illustrated in the meat industry. When you “fatten up” animals for slaughter you feed them grains. When coconut oil was first fed to pigs in the hope of fattening them up, it was discovered this healthy oil made them lean. This recommended “low fat and high carbohydrate” diet has caused an increase in obesity in America, Canada and Australia by a minimum of  30% in the last ten years.

When we eat a high GI carbohydrate diet we not only store fat in our midsections, but we store it in our veins and arteries as well. The yo-yo effect of carbohydrates on our metabolisms also primes us up for hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) and food cravings, keeping people on a nonstop blood sugar (and therefore, insulin) roller coaster.

(c) Maxine Wright:  Advanced Dip Naturopathy – Medical Herbalist – Nutritionalist – Iridologist – Hemaview Tech - Health Coach – Weight Loss counsellor – Massage Therapist – Beauty Therapist – Speaker.  Step Into Health Wellness Centre - facebook - twitter.