Best Carb Foods to Help You Lose Weight
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
In order to help you choose the best carb foods for your diet it is necessary to remind ourselves of the basics. Often, carbohydrates are referred to as either simple carbs or as complex carbs. A diet is high in simple carbs such as sugary foods will result in unstable energy levels as well as cravings, mood swings and tiredness.
Complex carbs, however, are digested more slowly than simple carbs thereby releasing energy much more steadily. Examples of complex carbs include bread, pasta, rice and vegetables. While it may be necessary to reduce your overall carbohydrate intake, having less simple carbs in your diet is much more important, because of their effect on your energy levels.
Out of all the best carb foods, you should aim to eat lots of fibrous carbs such as green vegetables. Not only do they contain few calories, many vegetables are referred to as negative calorie foods. In other words, your body actually uses more calories to digest them than they actually contain, so your body literally burns calories when you eat these foods.
When choosing the best carb foods to help you drop the fat, you should also ask yourself whether the food is natural or highly processed/refined. Simple carbs such as fructose which is what is in fruits, or complex carbs such as potatoes and fibrous vegetables are examples of the former. Sucrose, your average table sugar, and other refined sugars such as glucose and dextrose, as well as highly processed starchy carbs such as white bread and white rice, would come under the latter category.
One of the worst food choices is refined carbs and they can often do more harm then good. These foods are digested very quickly, and all the healthy nutrients have been extracted away from them during the refining process. In fact, they act much like simple carbs in that they can leave you feeling tired and moody, something many of us have experienced after a typical American lunch. Couple that with a Coke or Pepsi, which is very high in sugar, and these side effects are even more obvious.
You can also refer to the GI (glycemic index) values for another tool to help you choose the best carb foods to help you lose weight and have more energy throughout the day. The glycemic index shows the impact foods have on your blood sugar. If the GI value is low, such as with lentils, it will not have a great effect on your blood sugar and you will have a relatively steady release of energy.
If you were to eat a food with a high GI value, however, such as white rice, this will result in an immediate rush of energy followed by a noticeable drop. Apart from the this sugar crash affecting you mentally, in addition to the hunger pangs, these foods limit your bodys fat burning capacity and sets it up for storing food as fat. Eating a low GI food with it, however, can balance the meals average GI value.
It is also important to remember that refined sugars especially are very bad for your health, unless there is a need for them, which may be the case with athletes. On top of this, the GI values are very high, and we already have too much carbs and sugar in our diet as it is. Whats more, when you add unhealthy fats to the equation, this can result in immediate fat gain. Fried foods, pastries and ice cream are examples of such foods. High-sugar beverages such as sodas, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks are also very common in the West but are terrible for our diets. I always advise staying far away from foods which are high in refined sugars, and especially if coupled with unhealthy fats.
To summarize, the best carb foods will have little or no refined sugars and very little fat content. It is very unfortunate, however, to see that most low fat and fat-free foods being sold are high in sugar, misleading innocent individuals who think they are making the right choice. However, now you know exactly what questions to ask when choosing the best carb foods.
Complex carbs, however, are digested more slowly than simple carbs thereby releasing energy much more steadily. Examples of complex carbs include bread, pasta, rice and vegetables. While it may be necessary to reduce your overall carbohydrate intake, having less simple carbs in your diet is much more important, because of their effect on your energy levels.
Out of all the best carb foods, you should aim to eat lots of fibrous carbs such as green vegetables. Not only do they contain few calories, many vegetables are referred to as negative calorie foods. In other words, your body actually uses more calories to digest them than they actually contain, so your body literally burns calories when you eat these foods.
When choosing the best carb foods to help you drop the fat, you should also ask yourself whether the food is natural or highly processed/refined. Simple carbs such as fructose which is what is in fruits, or complex carbs such as potatoes and fibrous vegetables are examples of the former. Sucrose, your average table sugar, and other refined sugars such as glucose and dextrose, as well as highly processed starchy carbs such as white bread and white rice, would come under the latter category.
One of the worst food choices is refined carbs and they can often do more harm then good. These foods are digested very quickly, and all the healthy nutrients have been extracted away from them during the refining process. In fact, they act much like simple carbs in that they can leave you feeling tired and moody, something many of us have experienced after a typical American lunch. Couple that with a Coke or Pepsi, which is very high in sugar, and these side effects are even more obvious.
You can also refer to the GI (glycemic index) values for another tool to help you choose the best carb foods to help you lose weight and have more energy throughout the day. The glycemic index shows the impact foods have on your blood sugar. If the GI value is low, such as with lentils, it will not have a great effect on your blood sugar and you will have a relatively steady release of energy.
If you were to eat a food with a high GI value, however, such as white rice, this will result in an immediate rush of energy followed by a noticeable drop. Apart from the this sugar crash affecting you mentally, in addition to the hunger pangs, these foods limit your bodys fat burning capacity and sets it up for storing food as fat. Eating a low GI food with it, however, can balance the meals average GI value.
It is also important to remember that refined sugars especially are very bad for your health, unless there is a need for them, which may be the case with athletes. On top of this, the GI values are very high, and we already have too much carbs and sugar in our diet as it is. Whats more, when you add unhealthy fats to the equation, this can result in immediate fat gain. Fried foods, pastries and ice cream are examples of such foods. High-sugar beverages such as sodas, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks are also very common in the West but are terrible for our diets. I always advise staying far away from foods which are high in refined sugars, and especially if coupled with unhealthy fats.
To summarize, the best carb foods will have little or no refined sugars and very little fat content. It is very unfortunate, however, to see that most low fat and fat-free foods being sold are high in sugar, misleading innocent individuals who think they are making the right choice. However, now you know exactly what questions to ask when choosing the best carb foods.