Everything Carbohydrates

In talking to a lot of people about health, nutrition and the relationship between exercise and proper nutrition, I have discovered that there are pretty serious misconceptions with the concepts behind carbohydrates and what they are, in terms of function for your body. I understand the saying: everything is okay in moderation, but you know what, that statement is becoming a scape goat for culture. I am sorry, but pizza is not good for you in moderation, as purchased from most pizza places, just because it has cheese on it. Or, ice cream because it has milk in it, or a big mac cause it has what they call beef, and cheese on it. These are things I have been told as an excuse for reasons to cheat a diet, or crack as you drive by a pizza place with hunger inside. I understand also, that there are some nutrients that may be beneficial to you, but they are covered by endless fats, sugars and unwanted carbs that are a major leading cause of the obesity epidemic we are currently experiencing in this country.

How to tell what a good carb is in comparison to a bad one:

Carbohydrates remain the common mystery for a lot of people struggling with weight loss, or weight control. The more natural and unrefined the carb-containing food is, the healthier the healthier for you it is going to be. For instance, let us compare two very common styles of bread: The first example we will
look at will be 100% whole wheat bread. Second, will be white bread (the

bread of the past) A true whole wheat bread contains very few ingredients as follows:

Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Wheat Gluten, Honey, Oat Fiber, Contains 2% or Less of the Following: Soybean Oil, Molasses, Brown Sugar, Yeast, Salt, Cultured Wheat Flour, Soy Lecithin, Vinegar.

White bread is a little bit of a different, more extensive list as you can read below:

INGREDIENTS: Enriched Wheat Flour [Flour, Barley Malt, Ferrous Sulfate (Iron), B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate {B1}, Riboflavin {B2}, Folic Acid)], Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup or Sugar, Yeast. Contains 2% of: Calcium Sulfate (Ingredient in Excess of Amount Present in Regular White Bread), Wheat Gluten, Soybean Oil, Salt, Dough Conditioners (May Contain: Mono and Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Datem, Sorbic Acid and/or Calcium Dioxide), Vinegar, Soy Flour, Tricalcium Phosphate (Ingredient in Excess of Amount Present in Regular Enriched White Bread), Yeast Nutrients (May Contain: Ammonium Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Ammonium Sulfate, Ammonium Sulfate, Ammonium Chloride and/or Diammonium Phosphate), Cornstarch, Wheat Starch, Enzymes, Calcium Propionate (to Retain Freshness), Whey, Soy Lecithin.

To understand enriched wheat flour in comparison to whole wheat flour is complicated, so here it is realistically:
First, break down wheat bread as a grain of wheat. which in turn has three seperate components: the germ (the outside portion), the bran (or embryo), and the starchy substance (endosperm). The germ and the bran contain 16 vitamins and minerals that are known, while the starch has no real nutritional value. In a true slow digestionl whole wheat flour, all three of these components are ground up to make flour. This whole wheat flour

retains the16 minerals and 11 vitamins of the original wheat.
Enriched Wheat Flour, on the other side of the spectrum, first undergoes a (refining) process of removing the bran and germ (the start of the problem) and is then ground into flour. During this process, 11 vitamins and minerals are lost. Five of these are added back post process (the way they dress up the name "enriched"). One ingredient everyone should avoid is high fructose corn syrup.

Whole wheat bread is a slow digestion carb which is ideal for everyday consumption; it produces relatively slow increases in blood glucose and modest insulin release.

This should be your first choice as a fuel

source for energy, growth and bodybuilding diets.

Fast digestion carbs such as white bread, hold little to no nutritional benefit any more, nor did they. As a result of consuming fast digestion carbs, refined sugar is quickly digested.
Carbohydrates to Run From in Your Diet - The problem children- Unhealthy carbohydrates are the refined sugar carbs, found in foods like: cookies, sweets, cakes, carbonated soft drinks, ice-cream and syrups. The most refined of all sugars is table or icing sugar. Health wise, we don't need to eat any of these refined carbohydrate foods. Choose better carbohydrates in your diet to beat that feeling of hunger, lose weight and stay healthy. try these suggestions for simple carbohydrate substitutions:

Substitute whole wheat bread for regular white bread
Substitute rice cakes for cereal/granola bar
Substitute wholegrain/whole wheat dinner breads for French bread
Substitute whole wheat pasta for regular white pasta
Substitute brown rice for regular white rice(which does not include chinese restaurant rice because its brown..Sorry)
Try adding oats or wheat germ to your cereal
For a sweeter sensation try putting blueberrys, strawberrys or raspberrys in your cereal,
Try a hearty salad packed with greens, spinach, avacado or fruits (could make having no dressing easier) instead of a stew
Keep good sized portions of green beans, lentils and extra vegetables with your main meal to help balance your nutrients.

Think of it this way: the longer the factory process involved in producing a carbohydrate based food, the faster it digests. White bread, bagels, white rice, mashed potatoes, cereals muffins and fruit juices require one or more processing steps in their production. This creates a carbohydrate that hits the bloodstream quicker than the slow-digesting (Whole Wheat) carbohydrate. This produces an insulin spike that is undesirable in most people with an exercise program or the desire to drop weight. The only time this spike is suitable is in a mass gain, or muscle gain program, at which time within the first 20 to 30 minutes after a workout, fast digestion carbs are desirable to replenish those broken fibers and replenish your muscles so as not to face protein breakdown.

Also, the lower the glycemic index (GI) value, the better the carb is for your blood glucose levels. Natural advice for you would be to keep with less refined foods, and focus on slower digestion carbs. Whole grain carbs that have a low, or intermediate GI rating are ideal.

Carbohydrates in relation to understanding the Glycemic Index (GI):

The Glycemic index (GI) is a recent phenomenon in the nutrition world. It is based on carbohydrates and their direct effect on our blood glucose levels which, can also be referred to as: blood sugar. Carbs that are converted to glucose very fast, have a high GI value i.e. (white bread, bagels etc.). Carbs that metabolize slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the blood stream have a low GI value, i.e. (whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta).

Foods made up of positive carbohydrates:

Fruit & Vegetables are normally low in calories and packed with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytochemicals. This supplies you with a healthy addition to any diet, especially if you are trying to drop weight. For optimum nutrition, eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day.
Carbohydrates in Fruit and Vegetables- Many (excluding sometimes fruits such as watermelon or cantelope) carbs in fruit and vegetables are classed as sugars, but these are all unrefined sugars and are quite different from the carb sugars, lacking nutrition found in manufactured, processed food. Fresh fruit and vegetables contain vital phyto-chemicals and other micro-nutrients that help protect us against serious diseases like heart disease and cancer.
Whole Grains covers the group of foods people fear will put weight on them. These include, pasta, rice and noodles carbs known as starch. These supply your body with its main source of energy.

All these foods begin on a farm as a grain, in different forms such as wheat, rye, corn, rice or barley. Grains are very healthy, and help with overeating when eaten in the correct portion size For optimum diet choice and health benefit, choose unrefined whole grain styles of these foods over refined versions.

Unrefined carbohydrates are medium-calorie, and because they contain the whole grain, including the bran and the germ, they're higher in fiber and keep you feeling full for a longer time span which is good if your goal is to lose weight.

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Examples are foods such as: brown rice, wholegrain bread, oats, and whole wheat pasta. Potatoes are another high-starch carbohydrate. Potatoes have higher Gi levels. Sweet potatoes are the best choice for you of all types of potato. Potatoes are a fat-free healthy food that provides useful amounts of vitamin C, potassium and fiber. Their high GI value can be reduced eating them with other low-GI foods as part of the same meal.

The potato acts also as a very good post workout carbohydrate for that recovery period to flush your muscles and repair torn fibers.

As you now know, the human body is fuelled by energy through glucose. In other words, all foods must be converted into glucose before they can be used as fuel.
Carbohydrates are more easily converted into glucose than protein or fat, and are considered to be the body's source of energy, and the brain's essential source of energy.

Simple carbs are more easily converted into glucose because their molecular structure breaks down faster in the stomach and small intestine. So, in turn these carbs raise glucose levels in the bloodstream at times less than 30 minutes.

Complex Carbohydrate like starches, take longer to be converted into glucose because their molecular structure is much more complicated, and usually requires quite a bit more time to metabolize into glucose. This could be up to a two hour process. Fiber is undigested and affects digestion of other carbs. Extremely complex carbs that include dietary fiber also have a very complicated molecular structure, and also are resistant to most digestive enzymes produced by the human body. As a result, they cannot be broken down into glucose or other nutrients at all. This has a serious effect on the speed
of digestion of other carbs with them.

For example, where certain starches are acceptable by indigestible fibrous wrapping, the enzymes do not

stand nearly as good a chance with the starch working as fast as normal. Also, the presence of soluble fiber in the stomach and intestine typically creates a thick mass of digesting-food in which carbs and enzymes take longer to mix. Asking what all this mess really means? Carb digestion slows down.

To get a better idea just how fast your blood-glucose levels rise after you eat different carbohydrate filled foods, use the glycemic index. This separates certain foods into high, intermediate or low GI foods which is according to how fast their carbohydrate is converted into glucose, which turns to how quickly the particular food raises our blood-glucose levels. You will realize just how important glycemic value is as far as determining insulin levels and sensitivity for you. The glucose enters the bloodstream and proceeds to contribute to a rise in blood-glucose.

Blood glucose must be kept within Limits. High blood glucose triggers Insulin. If blood-sugar levels rise, the brain tells your pancreas to release insulin. This causes the insulin to disperse glucose and our blood sugar levels fall. Without insulin to regulate a rise in blood-glucose, the amount of sugar in our bloodstream can become toxic, triggering the condition known as hyperglycemia. Eating Too Many High GI Carbs causes a spike in sugar. This hunger to insulin balancing act seems to be working well, given we don't eat too many high glycemic index (GI) carbs that are rapidly converted into glucose. When this happens a large amount of glucose enters the bloodstream and the system responds by releasing a huge quantity of insulin.

(Kind of tells your body you have over-eaten)

Again, our blood glucose falls too low. So, within a short time (about 2-3 hours) the brain tells us to feel hungry and we indulge once again, even if it is unnecessary. This rapid rise and fall in blood glucose, caused by excess production of insulin, is not good for our health or our eating habits. This is why six to eight smaller, controlled, healthy meals a day is the correct way to maintain your eating habits. Once control is achieved, you will continue your day with little to no actual starvation or desire to have to over- eat, while maintaining proper diet nutrients, and you will have the energy to get through the day.

Carbohydrates are essential to give us energy. In choosing carbohydrates that are good sources of starches, choose wholegrain, whole wheat, and brown or high fiber varieties whenever possible. These types of carbs still contain the whole grain, including the bran and the germ, so they're higher in fiber and will keep you feeling fuller for longer, which is great if you're trying to lose weight and are sick of feeling hungry. One direction to take when choosing the proper carbohydrates for eating success is to include wholegrain rice, whole meal bread, porridge oats, and whole wheat pasta. The fiber in fruit and vegetables can help reduce blood cholesterol levels as well as help with constipation.

Concepts involving carbs can be tricky, or misunderstood, please E-mail me with questions you may have concerning your diet or foods you may have in question at: cravethefitness@gmail.com