Friday, October 30, 2009

Too Many Carbohydrates Can Make You Fat - Fat Carries Health Risks! By C J Childs

Protein and fat have little impact on your blood sugar levels, carbohydrates on the other hand are another story altogether.
Carbohydrates are found in foods such as bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, and fruits.
Carbohydrates such as sugar and starch are broken down into glucose (glucose is a form of sugar that your body uses for energy) during digestion and quickly absorbed into the bloodstream. This means the more carbohydrates you eat the higher and quicker your blood sugar rises - raising your insulin levels higher too.
When your blood sugar levels rise your insulin levels rise. The main task of insulin - a hormone in your body - is to move glucose from your bloodstream into your muscles.
Glycogen is the name given to carbohydrates that enter your muscles as sugar and are stored there. There is a limit to how much glycogen your body can store. Once the glycogen store is full, your body starts to use incoming carbohydrates you eat as fuel - instead of the stored fat it should be using - otherwise the glycogen will overflow into the bloodstream.
There are two serious problems with glycogen overflowing into the bloodstream:
  1. If the glycogen store is full for long periods the constant overflow into the bloodstream can result in chronically high blood sugar levels. This in turn can lead to damage to the small blood vessels of your eyes and kidneys and ultimately even brain and heart.
  2. If this glycogen store is full then the overflow of sugar is switched from being sent to the muscles, to being sent to the liver instead, the liver then converts it to a type of fat known as triglycerides. Elevated triglycerides can lead to heart disease and diabetes
Once sugars become triglycerides they can be stored in the body as fat. Unlike the glycogen which has a limit to how much can be stored in your body, there is no limit for how much fat can be stored!
Being overweight can lead to many health related issues. One of them, Diabetes type 2, is on the increase - this seems related to the rise in the percentage of people that are now overweight. If diabetes is detected early enough then sometimes no treatment will be necessary other than weight loss and perhaps a change of diet. Weight loss does not always mean a diet. Simple changes to the way you eat can help you lose weight.
Crash dieting, which severely restricts the daily calories, is never recommended as this can lead to a deficiency in vitamins and nutrients your body needs - by reducing the calorie intake by 300 - 500 calories per day you can still lose a few pounds each week with very little effort.
So carbohydrates can make you fat, however they are also very useful and should not be completely removed from your normal diet.
The typical percentage of your daily intake that should come from carbohydrates is 45 - 65% for a standard 'eat everything in moderation' diet, this figure would be reduced if you wanted a low-carbohydrate diet.
If you are going to reduce the percentage of daily carbohydrates you eat, why not replace them with some foods that help burn fat and promote good health?
Too many carbohydrates (carbs) can be bad for you. However it is possible to still eat foods you like and lose weight, including carbs. We aim to show you how this is possible.
Visit the website at http://getslimlookgreat.com/ to find out more.