Freshly baked bread, piping hot muffins, fresh pies with all the trimmings and eggs, what do you need to know about healthy food? Plenty, as it turns out, because many of these everyday foods are high in nutrition and low in fat. As with all things, though, there are limits to how nutritionally sound a particular diet can be. And since Americans have been consistently overweight since the late 1970s, any diet that might be called “healthy” by the masses had to meet a criteria of sufficient fiber, protein and low-fat ingredients. Thousands of products have been formulated to slot into this market.
The bad news is that many of these foods are high in sugar, fat or salt, which deliver a host of unneeded calories, triglycerides and sodium. also displays an incredible amount of sugar compared to fiber, protein and fat would have been enough to cause weight loss switch many times. Dietitians and nutritionist have been educating people about these types of food and how best to cook and serve them. But until recently, there has not been sufficient research to support these claims.
A number of good reasons have been proposed primarily focusing on the amount of sugar in foods compared to fiber, protein and fat. High sugar levels are associated with increased caloric output, which can impact positively on weight-control efforts. Fiber, however, lowers “bad” cholesterol levels primarily in the chlorinated and synthetic unreasonable comparison. narient levels, which deliver essential vitamins and minerals needed for proper bodily functions, decrease with the consumption of high-fat foods, conceivably increasing the chance of an explosion of essential vitamins and minerals.
The higher micronutrients and minerals consumed alongside a diet high in fat, produce more metabolised energy, which in turn can impact positively on weight-control efforts. In turn, an increased metabolism lowers both cholesterol and diabetesladen indexes. Diabetics benefit from a low glycemic index food list; low GI diets have been hyped as the best for diabetics, though past studies have shown that this is not the case.
A recent study comparing glucose levels and injecting healthy carbohydrates into the pancreas of 52 healthy people has been released in the past few months andfast food companies are jumping on the band wagon. The study tested 20 volunteers chosen from the general population of San Francisco who were all either diabetic or not. All of these people were similar though in their overall health, obesity and fitness levels.
The study began by having them each ingesting oranges, bananas, carrots, and glucose. Next, their blood sugar levels were compared to a control group who received a group of 13 carbohydrates over a period of three weeks.
What the researchers found was that the insulin levels of the participants who received the carbohydrates were higher than those who received carbohydrates but unlike the group who received 13 carbohydrates, there was a decrease in the participants who had been receiving the insulin.
Also interesting to note is that the weight loss group who consumed 13 carbohydrates for 3 weeks lost overweight as opposed to the group who had been on a low-carb diet. The group who had been on a low-carb diet, on average, lost 4.4 kg whereas the group who had received carbohydrates had only 2.7 kg loss.
A large body of research supports the efficacy of carbohydrate consumption, especially low-carbohydrate diets, on insulin levels and reduced borrowing of insulin by the body. This is because starchy foods, including bread, vegetables, rice, and potatoes, supply the body not only with energy, but also with glucose, the two hormones regulating glucose levels.
Most researchers concur that a diet deficient in carbohydrate, referred to as a low carbohydrate diet, will lead to weight-loss and lower cholesterol levels, which is expected to improve the overall health of an individual.
However, a recent study published in the October 2013 edition of the British Journal of Nutrition researched the intake patterns and discovered that not only is consuming carbohydrates not a guarantee of leading an healthy lifestyle, but in fact, carbohydrates have a direct relationship to increasing calories and increasing weight.
Research by Dr. Christopher E. New, an expert researcher and professor at the University of California, Davis, revealed that over a period of weeks, those who consumed carbohydrates ate more calories than those who did not. The extent of the difference was that the carbohydrates-eaters gained about six kilograms while the control groups only lost about four kilograms.
However, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, refined carbohydrates are required if we want to lose weight. It is important to understand that many foods that are rich in carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta, brown rice, and potatoes, are also rich in calories, which make it extremely important to control portion size. The Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that diets rich in carbohydrates were linked to higher calories, which can increase weight.
About The Author
Helena Eater
How much does the quality of food really matter? If you eat food that tastes good, your life will be better. If you eat food that tastes bad, your life will be worse. The difference between good and evil is partly subjective: what tastes good to me might taste bad to you. The difference is also partly objective: what restaurants I think serve good food might serve lousy food to you. But if we stick to objective measures — measures such as how much weight people gain or lose — we can cut through some of the subjectivity.
