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Healthy Diet Plans >>  Diet and Weight Loss >>  Dont Count Your Carbs

Weight Reduction with Carbohydrates

Eating healthy is the key to good health. Healthy food maintained as a life long term diet commitment, goes a far way in ensuring optimum well being for life. Carbohydrates comprise the basic category of foods as it is a basic composition in all fruits, vegetables, wholegrain and starches of a diet. It is important to understand that not all carbohydrate foods are bad for health. By counting the calories in carbohydrates and limiting the quantity of complex carbohydrate foods, one is bound to restrict eating nutritious food which contains necessary nutrients and essential vitamins and minerals for the body.

It is important to note that eating healthy and eating the right kinds of food has a most significant value than counting calories or carbohydrates in a diet. Most natural foods containing carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables and wholegrain also contain fiber, which is essential for the digestion of food and the elimination of waste matter. Such foods are heart healthy foods that are simply abundant in health and nutrition. Empty carbohydrates such as white flour and sugar are indeed more damaging to health than complex carbohydrate foods. For example the amount of calories in two types of foods maybe similar, however the amount of fiber in one particular food made of wholegrain has far more nutritional value than the other food that consist of processed and refined grains.

It is important to check food labels to indicate the amount of fiber in a food product. And foods containing fiber and not digestible but help in satisfying the hunger and also in easing the elimination process.  Food products not containing fiber has a direct impact on blood sugar levels and hence understanding different types of carbohydrate can help you in making smart food choices to stay healthy. Healthy eating is more important than counting calories or carbohydrates. By counting carbohydrates you may tend to deprive your body of its ability to stay healthy. It is important that dieters understand and learn basic nutrition values and incorporating them in such a manner that the food choices one is June is can greatly improved health and cat out the risk of lifestyle illnesses. Expand your horizon of healthy carbohydrate choices and include a variety of nutritional natural carbohydrate options such as fruits and vegetables in your daily diet. Such carbohydrates can be had safely because of the amount of fiber and essential vitamins in them. One way to ensure that you stay fit is is to strike the right chord between the calorie intake and calorie expenditure.  Fruits vegetables grains and legumes eaten in plenty benefit the body in more ways than one.  These foods that are rich in complex carbohydrates are also low in fat and free from cholesterol. Fresh produce that are abundant in complex carbohydrates is a safe bet, and foods in these categories should not be restricted due to the amount of calories in them.

Carbscam

To mislead public, advertisers use terms like Net-carb or non-impact carbohydrates. They claim that net-carb is obtained by subtracting number of carbs present in a particular food from the carbs from artificial sweeteners and fiber. They claim that fiber and sugar alcohol are not counted as carbs because they pass through the intestinal tract without being absorbed and they do not increase the appetite.

However, sugar alcohol is a sweetening agent that adds texture and taste to the food. It is in-fact a carbohydrate and converts to glucose in the blood stream. Fat is released through fat cells even if there is a slight increase in blood insulin level. There is no evidence that low net-carbs help people to lose weight.

Counting carbs (whether real carbs or net-carbs) is not an accurate measure of weight loss or weight gain. The total number of calories consumed daily is rightful method.

So when you shop for foods, it is better to forget counting carbs or worrying about net-carbs. Choose healthy foods that are low in calories and fat, and contain moderate amounts of complex carbohydrates (fiber). Do not waste time scanning net-carbs on food labels.

Submitted on January 16, 2014