Carbohydrates aren’t equal and some really do expand your waist line very well indeed.
An important fuel source for your body is glucose. Carbohydrates are broken down and absorbed as glucose.
Your body has to maintain a narrow blood glucose range, because if it’s high it’s toxic, and if it’s too low you can’t function.
Carbs that push you blood glucose up quickly are the ones that cause your waist line to bulge. This is because you can’t burn up this amount of glucose with activity so it has to go somewhere else. When your blood glucose goes up quickly your body produces insulin to bring it back down.
Insulin causes most of this glucose to be sucked into fat cells and converted into fat.
What carbs are worst for making you fat?
Refined carbs, for example white rice, sugar, white flour and everything made out of it:
- white bread
- cakes and biscuits
- pastry
- crossiants
- many breakfast cereals
These products have had all the good stuff stripped away in the refining process.
Refined carbs are absorbed into your body very fast because there is no real substance to these foods so the glucose is released quickly.
What carbs are better?
Natural unrefined food is different. Fruit and vegetables, whole grains – whole grain rice, whole grain breads, lentils, beans.
These foods, because they are whole, are absorbed slowly into your system. As a result the insulin response is slow and gentle. Because the glucose is released over a number of hours you actually burn a lot of it up and very little, if any, ends up as fat (providing you are not overeating).
If you have a breakfast of white toast or corn flakes, you’re going to feel hungry pretty quickly and have a craving for similar refined food. Chances are you will be eating again fairly soon. If you ate exactly the same amount of calories, but instead had whole grain porridge or rye toast, your blood glucose will remain pretty stable, you will function better, it will take longer to get hungry.
If you are intending to lose some weight, ditching refined food and eating whole foods is a great start.
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Have an Uber Healthy week
Dr Julie
PS Congratulations to Andy for winning June’s free place on Uber Slim, my online weight loss program.
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A lot of people say potatoes are fattening. Is there any truth in that?
Look out for my next blog!