Well Being Clinic

So what actually are Carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are the bodies most desirable fuel source providing us with the energy we need and burn in every day life. They come from a wide array of foods including, fruit, rice, beans, vegetables, milk, potatoes, biscuits, pasta and apple pie. 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.

When talking of diets, you will often hear dieticians telling you to stick to only good carbohydrate foods and to avoid bad ones, but what are good carbohydrates and which are those to avoid? Good carbohydrates are those that are still in (or at least similar to) their natural state. They are foods that have not been processed or altered by man or machine.

Good carbohydrates are generally high in fiber giving you energy over longer periods of time. They also give you a sense of feeling full and not empty. Foods that are high in fiber help to lower cholesterol levels, as well as aiding the body in toxin removal. A few examples of good carbohydrate foods are: Fruits, Vegetables, Whole grain pasta, Whole grain cereal, Seeds, Beans, Nuts and some dairy products.

Bad carbohydrate foods are generally loaded with many additives, including colorings, flavorings and preservatives. The problem is that most bad carbohydrate foods are usually very tasteful and they are generally considered harmful to the body because they are not easily digested and they cause spikes in an individual’s blood glucose level. Bad carbohydrate foods include candy, baked goods with refined white flour, white pasta, and soda.

Eating too many bad carbohydrate is a recipe for gaining weight. The calories in them are quite dense but nutritionally scarce meaning you will take in a lot of calories but very little fuel. They offer very little appetite holding power because they have no fiber or protein and as a result you will soon be left with an empty tummy feeling and searching for more food. Take for example a bag of crisps, they hold around 500 calories a bag, this is 40% of a females daily intake who might be on a weight management program. The crisps contain no fuel so within the hour the body would be sending more signals to the brain that it needs more fuel meaning another intake of fuel.

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. If you would like to read more on this then I can suggest you look for a book by Dr Michael Spira - Weight Loss Now And Forever. The book looks at dieting without counting calories, instead you ensure you only eat Good Carbohydrates.

Mr Michael Spira is quoted as stating “Missing meals does not work – we are fat because we are starving – fact not fiction! A recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that 60% of those who try to lose weight do so by restricting calorie intake, and 1 in 10 skip meals to strip off pounds. This leads to the ‘yo-yo’ effect where you put it all on again. The reason? For man food was not always easy to find so we are designed to store fat for times of starvation. If you starve your body to lose weight and then eat again, your body will immediately store fat in readiness for the next time you starve again! So don’t miss breakfast! In truth people who skip breakfast are 450% more likely to be overweight! They train their bodies to store fat.

Tags: good+carbohydrates, bad+carbohydrates, diets

As we approach Christmas many of us are starting diets, we either want to lose weight now, so that we may eat more over the festive season or it is to fit into an outfit that would look just great at the works Christmas party. I am not even going to touch the subject of which diets work best as I would be here until Christmas and the year after writing about them. One thing many of us turn to when starting a diet is slimming pills and Vitamin tablets and although I am a believer in Vitamin pills and supplements it has to be said that you cannot beat the real thing, super healthy vegetables packed with nutrition and healthy ingredients.

Generally speaking vegetables are divided into two categories; ‘rough’ and ‘fine’, the fine being leafy vegetables like spinach. Rough vegetables contain twice even three times as much nutritional fibres than fine, however, despite the lower amount of fibres in fine vegetables they are still extremely healthy because they contain many other favourable substances as I will start to explain.

Green leaf vegetables are high in levels of omega-3 which helps prevent heart and vascular disease. Omega-3 is also found in fish so if you are not a big fish eater start adding a few greens to your diet. Green leaf vegetables also contain folic acid which is an important vitamin for the brain, very helpful as you get older and memory loss starts to take over. These are two more commonly known benefits of eating your greens but let me explain a lesser know reason why you should go green.

You have hopefully heard of hemoglobin, it is responsible for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, such as to the muscles, where it releases its load of oxygen. Chlorophyll contains mineral magnesium that is chemically reminiscent of hemoglobin. Chlorophyll is also vital for photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from lights and it is what makes the leafs green. Because the two are similar, a diet containing a lot of green leafs does help in preventing the cancerous effect meat can have on the lower intestines. This is why it is important to eat a lot of greens if you’re a meat lover.

Chlorophyll also helps in fighting off Alfa toxins (cancerous substances also known for causing liver cancer). Just half a cup of raw spinach can help reduce your risk of this by as much as 50% due to spinach being a great natural source of chlorophyll. Next time you are out shopping pay attention to your ‘greens’ and remember that the the greener the leafs the more chlorophyll they contain.

Scientists are hopeful that chlorophyllin supplementation will be helpful in decreasing the risk of liver cancer in high-risk populations with unavoidable dietary aflatoxin exposure.