Wednesday, October 22, 2008

How to Design a Healthy Diet, Carb Related Facts

By Ricardo d Argence

Carbohydrates are the body's main source of energy. Once your body's intake of carbs is depleted, you are left feeling lethargic and drowsy. There are two kinds of carbohydrates. The first are sugars, or simple carbohydrates. The second are starches, or complex carbohydrates. The difference between the two is the length of time it takes your body to digest them.

Starches take longer to digest than sugars which digest fast. Simple carbs are foods such as pizza, chocolate, cake, and other processed food with sugar additives. Certain highly nutritious fruits such as apples, bananas, grapes, and raisins fall in the category of simple carbohydrates too. Complex carbs are found in breads, cereals, nuts, pasta, and vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, and corn. Starches release energy a lot slower because they stay in the body for long periods of time.

Without energy the body doesn't want to exercise, and this is why low-carb diets usually do not work. Dieters may become depressed and tired frequently. Typically the results from a low-carb diet plan are not long-lasting, since the dieter will be frustrated within a short period. Why? People usually eat healthier to get more energy, not less.

Exercise is vitally important to weight loss and overall good health. Building muscle boosts your metabolism and burns more calories. The more lean muscle you have, the more fat you will burn, even if you are simply resting.

When you decide to try a too-good-to-be-true fad diet, you usually only end up losing water weight and lean muscle that you really want to keep. Carbohydrate sparing slows you metabolism and preserves the body's current fat stores against the possibility of future nutrition storage.

Consuming smaller, healthy sized meals in the course of the day maintains your metabolic rate and provides the energy required to be active. Studies demonstrate that if individuals combine a healthy diet with physical activity they reduce their weight as well as fat by a greater amount than those who only restrict their diet.

The bottom line is this: if you are looking for a quick fix and want to lose just a couple of pounds fast, then cutting out carbs might help you do that. However, the long-term effects will probably cause you to gain the weight back at a later time. Combining healthy eating habits and exercise will produce much more effective results long-term.

When you decide not to eat certain foods, your body craves it more and more. Good health will follow if you watch what you eat and increase your activity level. - 15683

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