Confused About Carbs? 5 Common Myths
Just like the Spice Girls, carbohydrates were at the height of their
popularity during the mid-1990s. When "fat-free" became the desired
state, people turned to carbs instead. Consumers soon learned that a high carb
diet wasn't so healthy either. Today, between marketers who promote packaged
carbs as "heart healthy" and fitness "experts" who espouse
that all carbs are bad, it's easy to be confused. Here are some carb myths
debunked:
Myth 1: If you want to eat a low-carb diet, just cut out bread,
pasta, cereal, rice and potatoes.
Although bread, pasta, cereal, rice and potatoes are among the best-known
carbohydrates, the truth is that many other foods have carbohydrates, including
fruits, vegetables, dairy products, nuts, seeds, beans/legumes and avocados.
These foods are natural carbohydrates and have greater nutritional value than
processed or low-fiber carbs. If you cut out starchy carbs, you are still
consuming adequate amounts of carbohydrates depending on your lifestyle,
activity level, age and medical issues.
Myth 2: Cereals are "heart-healthy."
Food manufacturers spend millions of dollars a year on cereal
advertisements
fooling us into thinking cereal is the best breakfast choice. However,
many
popular cereals, including granola, contain multiple sources of sugar
and fat. There are healthy cereals, but even eating an average bowl of
cereal is like
eating 4-6 slices of bread for breakfast in terms of carbohydrate. Many
people
will skip breakfast, saying that eating breakfast increases their hunger
pangs through out the day. This happens
because cereal causes a large increase in blood sugar, followed by a big
drop,
thereby increasing one's appetite for the whole day.
Myth 3: Your body needs bread, pasta and cereal to get enough
nutrients.
Our ancestors survived for hundreds of years without eating bread,
pasta or
cereal. All of your needs for vitamins and minerals can easily be met
without
these foods. I am by no means encouraging people to cut these items out
of you life, just to be more picky in your selection. A heart-healthy
diet can be realized with foods without a label
and multiple ingredients. If you are eating a food with a label, try to
stick
with something with less than five ingredients.
Myth 4: If you don't eat enough whole grains, you won't get enough fiber in
your diet.
Why am I talking about Fiber? Fiber is carbohydrates so complex that the body can not, or can not easily break them down (see:Fibers Role in Weight Loss).
Fiber is an important part of our diet, but there are many excellent
sources of fiber in the diet besides whole grains. You can't swing a
stick in your grocery stoe without hitting a Fiber supplement bottle,
and they are very effective.
Most health organizations recommend eating 25 grams of fiber per day.
Just
eating a few of these good-for-you foods can easily add up to that:
• Two tablespoons of ground flax seeds equals 4.5 grams.
• One cup of broccoli has a little over 5 grams.
• A one-ounce snack of almonds (about 20) has 3 grams.
• One-third of an avocado has 4 grams.
• A medium apple has 5 grams.
• One half-cup of beans contains 6 grams.
• One cup of broccoli has a little over 5 grams.
• A one-ounce snack of almonds (about 20) has 3 grams.
• One-third of an avocado has 4 grams.
• A medium apple has 5 grams.
• One half-cup of beans contains 6 grams.
Myth 5: If you want to avoid eating too many carbs look for foods
with "net carbs" on the label.
Net carbs is a term the food industry made up as a way to fool consumers
into thinking their products contain fewer carbohydrates. To arrive at a net
carb number, they take the carbohydrates coming from fiber or sugars known as
"alcohol sugars" and subtract them from the total amount of
carbohydrates.
The premise is that those carbohydrates from fiber or alcohol sugar are not
processed by the body, or have minimal effects on blood sugars. Maltitol is one
of the primary alcohol sugars found in foods, and it does increase blood
sugars. Fiber adds bulk to food, but to think it does not add any calories or
impact blood sugars is a fallacy and has not been proven by research. Net carbs
on labels are just another way food manufacturers use to market their products.
The Simple Truth:
A healthy way of eating is to consume
natural, non-man-made carbohydrates from vegetables, fruits, nuts/seeds, beans
and legumes. They have a low glycemic index (meaning they do not raise your
blood sugar) since they contain fiber, and are full of vitamins, minerals and
nutrients to enhance your health... and there's nothing mythical about that!
Thank you.
John Cardinal
Copyright Healthy Weight Loss for Life 2012
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