Carbohydrates: What You must know

This scares me to death, every day you walk down the street it
is becoming more and more apparent that the average person is
becoming larger and this trend has escalated over recent years.
Why are they getting fatter? Here are some reasons…

· Less incidental activity · Automated and computerized
lifestyle · Longer working hours and less leisure · Increased
consumption of processed foods · Our food servings are larger
than ever

Being overweight, or obese, has now moved from a social nuisance
and domestic embarrassment to an official disease. The American
Heart Association has announced obesity is a major risk for
heart disease.

Obesity itself has become a major and dangerous epidemic. More
than 70% of US adults are overweight and that figure is rapidly
increasing.

What do most people do to rid their body of unwanted fat? They
diet! Dieting is now a trillion dollar industry and just about
every month a new diet is announced. If you do have weight
problems how do you find a diet that is safe, effective and
sustainable?

What you do is try to find a diet that includes a variety of
foods that you can live with comfortably. You have to take a
long-term view and include plenty of exercise. A good diet is
one that supplies all of the essential vitamins and minerals,
and is not high in fat or protein.

Research on people, who have successfully lost a lot of weight
and kept it off long term, shows that the vast majority
succeeded by consuming a low fat diet high in fibre coupled with
strength training and cardiovascular activity.

Be wary of diets that

· Ban a specific food group · Promise a quick fix · Replace a
balanced meal with a drink or a snack bar · Make recommendations
based on single studies · Make recommendations to help sell a
single product

Excess weight does not appear overnight and nor will it
disappear overnight! In fact the faster you lose weight, the
more likely you are to pile the pounds back on. Seek out a
program that will help you maintain long-term body fat losses by
providing attainable solutions such as a program that promotes
lifestyle changes, healthy eating and regular exercise.

Regular exercise is important (i.e. strength training) as it
burns fat, boosts your

metabolism and also increases your energy levels. Dietary
changes can lead to initial weight loss, but this is only for
the short term. Exercise is essential for maintaining weight
loss for the long term.

Now let’s take a closer look at what food is made up of and then
you will have a good idea of what to look for in your daily
eating plan. Firstly we need a wide range of nutrients to
perform various functions for a healthy life.

These nutrients include carbohydrates, proteins and fat and are
all present in the food we eat on a daily basis.

The foods containing these nutrients are cereals, legumes, nuts,
vegetables, fruits, milk products and flesh foods (fish, meat
and poultry).

We need all these nutrients to live and thrive and since we
receive them through the food we eat, our food must be well
balanced and in the proper proportions. Food is a fuel; the body
requires this fuel for energy, which is measured in fats,
carbohydrate and protein.

Each of these nutrients provides different amounts of energy and
these are measured in calories.

Nutrient Calories per Gram

Carbohydrate 4 Protein 4 Fat 9

Let’s look at carbohydrates first, carbohydrates supply energy
for our body, they provide fibre for the prevention of disease
and taste and texture to food. They are found in cereals,
potatoes, fruits and vegetables.

They come in two basic forms, simple and complex. Simple carbs
are easily identified by their taste and are sweet. Complex
carbs, such as potatoes are pleasant to the taste buds, but are
not sweet.

They are then divided into two groups, high fibre and low fibre.

High-fibre foods are the healthiest choices for nutrition and
the intake of these foods is associated with a lower incidence
of cancer and diabetes. Carbohydrates supply the sort of
calories easily burned during cardiovascular exercise.

They are often wrongly feared and considered fattening, but the
most important factor in weight control is balancing the energy
(calories) consumed. Please remember:

Energy In is more than Energy Out = Weight gain Energy In is
equal to Energy Out = Weight maintenance Energy In is less than
Energy Out = Weight loss

Different foods affect the ability to exercise at different
levels. High levels of exercise (cardio and strength training)
require carbohydrate as a fuel source; at lower levels it is
fat.

A lack of carbohydrate in the diet will lead to fatigue, the
inability to exercise effectively, and excess fat consumption.
When our food is digested, carbohydrates are broken down into
simple sugars.

These sugars are absorbed by the body and used by the muscles or
stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver. As our glycogen
storage capacity is limited, carbohydrate needs to be
continually topped up by the foods we eat.

But the body has an unlimited storage capacity for fat!

The average person is extremely vulnerable to fad diets and
extreme dieting behaviours. The low carbohydrate diet is one of
the latest eating plans to hit the streets. This current diet
craze is very popular but there are safer and more effective
methods based on scientific research, to reduce body fat levels.

Low carbohydrate dieting is simply wrong.

Why is this? Just as a car runs better on a certain fuel, so
does the human body. Unfortunately the latest low-carbohydrate
fad diets are not the fuel mix the human body was designed to
run on.

Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram, whereas fats contain
9 calories per gram. For weight loss, the priority is to
decrease total calorie intake. Reducing the amount of fat in the
diet will make the biggest difference in reducing total daily
calorie intake and hence weight loss.

Carbohydrate intake is not fattening, excess calorie intake is
fattening.

If you aren’t having enough carbohydrates in your diet you will
experience:

· Fatigue due to low blood sugar levels inadequate intake of
vitamins and minerals · Low fibre intake, which may affect bowel
movements · ‘Bad’ breath due to the breakdown products of fats
(called ketones)

The bottom line for carbohydrates and weight loss is to:

· Try to balance carbohydrate intake with activity levels ·
Maintain energy levels by eating carbohydrate rich foods on a
regular basis · Carbohydrate rich foods are normally low in fat
and nutrient-rich

A real weight loss program includes all the food groups,
strength training, and low-level aerobics, a slight decrease in
your daily calorie levels and a program that can be followed for
life.

In conclusion try to achieve a balanced diet, eating a balanced
variety of foods will help you to feel great every day, ensure
better long-term health and improve weight control.

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