Good carbs, bad carbs, no carbs…

The world of carbohydrates is so confusing! There’s good carbs, bad carbs, complex carbs, simple carbs….Agh.  Lets see if we can clear this up by figuring out just what they are, what they do and where they come from.

What are they and what is their purpose? Carbohydrates are a simple union of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.  There that clears that up. Just kidding.  Actually the definition of carbohydrate is just that.  That does nothing for me so lets discover the purpose.  Carbohydrates are broke down to two groups simple and complex.  Simple carbohydrates are found in things like refined sugar, candy, fruit and milk.  Complex carbohydrates are found in grain products such as breads, crackers, pasta and rice.  Both groups have some not so great choices and better choices.  Fruit and milk are obviously better choices than candy and unrefined grains, such as wheat flour, are better choices than refined grains such as white flour and white rice.  The refining or processing removes nutrients and fibers so if they are unrefined they still contain these vitamins and minerals.  Unrefined grains are rich in fiber, which helps your digestive system work well.

When you eat carbs your body breaks them down to simple sugars, which are absorbed in the bloodstream.  So why not just eat them as simple sugars?  As the sugar levels rise in the body the pancreas releases a hormone, insulin.  Insulin is needed to move the sugar from the blood to the cells where the sugars can be used as energy.  With simple sugars this process goes fast, with complex carbs this is a slower process.   When this process occurs fast you are more likely to feel hungry again sooner, when it goes slow you feel full longer.

So why the low carb/no carb diets?  Cutting carbs restricts so many of the foods that are normally accompanied by fat that dieters often end up cutting their total calorie intake.  The body draining glycogen stores for energy causes the initial rapid weight loss.  Each glycogen gram used releases 3 grams of water with the result being almost immediate weight loss due to increased urination.  After about 2 weeks increased urination ends and so does the rapid weight loss phase.

Fats

This weeks topic in “I know it is bad for me but just how bad is it” is fat.  The minute we think about a “diet” or eating healthy we think eliminate fat or fat-free.  Let’s look a little deeper into fat.

You can hear fat talked about with different names such as saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat, lipids, trans fat, etc. There are 4 main categories of fats; I will break it down for you in hopefully more common terms.

Saturated Fats – These are the biggest dietary cause of high bad cholesterol or LDL levels.  This is the fat you want to avoid or limit to 10% of your calories.  These fats are found in animal products such as butter, cheese, whole milk, ice cream, cream and fatty meats.  Some vegetable oils such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils also contain saturated fats. Most other oils contain unsaturated fats and are healthy. Saturated fats are considered “bad fats”

Unsaturated fats – When used in place of saturated fats, these fats actually help to lower blood cholesterol.  However they still have a lot of calories so you still have to limit consumption.  Most liquid vegetable oils are unsaturated.  The exceptions were listed above. There are two types of unsaturated fats: Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated. Some examples of mono include olive and canola oils, poly examples include fish, safflower, sunflower, corn and soybean oils.  Unsaturated fats are considered “good fats”.

Trans fatty acids – These fats form when vegetable oil hardens in a process called hydrogenation and can raise LDL or bad cholesterol levels.  They can also lower HDL or good cholesterol levels.  Trans fatty acids are often found in processed foods, fried foods, commercial baked goods and margarines.  Good news is this fat has gotten such a bad rap that it is being eliminated in processing.  This is where you see a lot of products labeled “No trans fat”.  Not to be confused with fat free but it is at least taking out the worst of it.

Hydrogenated and Partially hydrogenated fats - This refers to the process listed above in Trans fatty acids.  This includes products such as butter and margarine. Foods made with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils should be avoided because they contain high levels of trans fatty acids, which are linked heart disease.  You will find this in the list of ingredients the above three are listed in the nutrition label although it is not always separated.

That gives you a little bit of background on types of fats.  Fats actually have a function in your diet.  Fat is one of the three nutrients, along with protein and carbohydrates, which supply the body with calories and is essential for proper functioning of the body. Essential fatty acids are not made by the body therefore must be obtained from food.  There are supplements such as fish oil that can be added to help you with getting enough good fatty acids.  However anytime you use a supplement you should use it as just that to supplement your diet not to take place of it.  So just what does the fatty acids do for us?  They help in controlling inflammation, blood clotting, and brain development.  But that is not all…they also help maintain healthy skin and hair and move vitamins A, D, E and K through the blood stream.

So cutting fat is a little more involved than just switching to fat free.  This does not mean you want to look for higher fats because they are essential.  The typical American diet has plenty of fat the trick is to minimize and move towards the good fats.  This is something to keep in mind…If the fat is in liquid form when it is cool it is better for you than if it hardens when cool (saturated).  Butter and animal fats harden when cooled use them sparingly, olive oil or vegetable oil stay at a liquid state so they are better for you.  This doesn’t mean you can use them freely they still have calories and plenty of them so you still need to cut them to a responsible amount.  Another thing to think of reduced fat or fat free is not always best, it depends on what it is and this will take some time to figure out.  One which comes to my mind is peanut butter, reduced fat peanut butter is stripped of the good fats you are better off using a natural blend.  How is that for a little food for thought?  Watch your food labels it is very interesting.

Soda...

This week I am going to kick off a series "I know its not good for me but just how bad is it?"

Let's start with soda, we all know it is not good for us and we still drink it.  I myself find it sometimes easier to avoid things more often if I understand more about what it is doing to me.  I don't tend to drink a lot of soda anymore but I do get on a kick once in a while where it seems that I drink one everyday.  And I find most often it is the carbonation I crave not so much the taste of the soda.  So I did some research on the effects of soda and then some suggestions on what to replace it with.  Bad news first, some of these I knew but some of it I didn't.

1.  A well-known effect is increased risk of diabetes and obesity.  This is what we hear most about.  Each soda increases your risk by 1.6 times.  That is quite a bit for a single can of soda.

2.  Soda has high counts of phosphorus and little to no calcium.  Not a shock but here comes the part that was new to me...If you get high levels of phosphorus and low levels of calcium in your blood, your body will resort to taking calcium from your bones. This is a major factor contributing to osteoporosis.  And children who drink soda have a higher risk of breaking bones.

3. The sugar in one can of soda damages the white blood cells ability to ingest and kill gonococcal bacteria.  What is that you may ask. (I did)It is the bacteria that cause gonorrhea. Further information on gonorrhea....well that is a whole new topic we won't go into that.

4. Soda has the same ph level as vinegar! If vinegar and soda were both put on metal they would both cause it to rust.  You have probably heard "to clean battery cables use Coke" it really works imagine what it does to our insides.

5.  Large amounts of aspartame can lead to brain tumors.  Now I did not do much research into this as to what levels are considered large and such but if you have concerns about this I would suggest digging a little deeper.

6. The acid in soda dissolves tooth enamel.  You would often think that it would be the sugar but it is the acid.  So which soda is the worst?  You would think it would be Coke after the battery cable cleaning but it is...MOUNTAIN DEW! Followed by Arizona Iced Tea, Sprite and Ginger ale. These were 2-4 times as corrosive as the colas.  A&W Root Beer showed no damage. Hmmm..Root beer floats any one! Okay scratch that last thought.

These findings left me thinking... So how much is a safe level to consume?  Obviously to completely eliminate would be best but I like the idea of all things in moderation.  What I found is a can a day is probably not going to kill you but your safest bet is to minimize it to occasional consumption.  So what are some healthier alternatives? Here is a list:

Green Tea, Jeltzer (mix 1 part your favorite fruit juice with 3 parts Seltzer), Stevia, Tonic & Lime with a sprig of fresh mint (I would guess you should probably leave out the Gin on a regular basis), Red Wine is fine in moderation (4oz a day for Women, 2 drinks for men), Low sodium vegetable juice, soy milk, tea infuser or coffee without cream and sugar.  The jeltzer thing caught my eye because as I stated before I tend to crave the carbonation more than anything and when that is the case vegetable juice just is not going to cut it. Should have wrote this before I went grocery shopping. So think twice next time you pop a top on another soda.  See what you can come up with for alternatives it just might give you the boost you needed.