American Family Diet for Weight Loss:Low Carb Diet Facts Revealed!

Good Old Carbohydrate Foods for Weight Loss

You are reading my post wherever you are because of the good old carbohydrate.The ability to read ,assimilate and understand comes from  this food source.Me, at this end writing this post can do so because the source of my energy in writing comes from carbohydrate.There is nothing we do that we don't need the energy that carbs supplies.It is an important part of our daily diet.Ignore it and you health get impaired.Take too much, and you hate what you see when you look yourself in the mirror.

There has been the craze for the latest weight loss diet fad.Atkins diet and South Beach being the more popular of them.They one had one thing in common and that is they are low carbohydrate diets.Many people had mistaken this low cabs diet to mean that anything carbohydrate is bad.They attribute excess weight,pot belly and obesity to eating carbs.

This is not true at all.

Carbohydrate is good just as I said earlier that they are the reason for our activities for daily living.Carbohydrate that are easily digested from white bread,white rice,pastries and sugared sodas and other highly processed foods do bring about weight gain.But on the other hand whole grains, beans,fruits, vegetables and other carbohydrates are great for good health.

Do you know what Carbohydrate are?

Many people take this for granted. They think they know carbohydrate and they can rant about it just like kids rants A,B and C.But most times, you found out that you know so little about what carbohydrate are.

Carbohydrate are in many varieties of foods.From bread, beans,milk,popcorn,potatoes, cookies, soft drinks,pies,spaghetti,pasta and corn to mention a few.They also comes in variety of forms and the most common are sugars,fibers and starches.

Taking  you back to chemistry,carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, which is the basic building block of every carbohydrate.A union of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.The essential chains of sugar molecules are starches and fibers.Some do have hundreds of sugars and some are straight while others are wild.

Nutritionist told us that carbohydrate is grouped into 2 main categories.Simple and complex carbohydrates.The simple carbohydrates includes sugars such as fruit sugars-fructose,corn or grape sugar-dextrose or glucose, and table sugars-sucrose.The complex one includes everything made of 3 or more linked sugars.It is thought by many that complex carbohydrate to be the healthiest to eat,while simple carbohydrate is not good for food.But it is more complicated than this assumptions.

When you take carbs, your digestive system handles the same way.It breaks them down into single sugar molecules,they are small enough to pass into the bloodstream.It then converts most digestible carbohydrate into glucose.This is known as blood sugar as this body cells used this as a universal energy source.

Knowing the link between Carbohydrates and the Glycemic Index

The 2 separate division of simple and complex carbohydrates makes sense on a chemical level.You may not really understand what happen to this different carbohydrates in your body.

For instance,the starch in white bread and French-fried potatoes are complex carbohydrate.Yet,our body convert this starch into blood sugar as fast as it processes pure glucose.Fructose that is known as fruits sugar is a simple carbohydrate,but its effect on blood sugar is minute.

This glycemic index, a new system whose objectives is to classify carbohydrates based on how quickly and how well they boost blood sugar compared to pure glucose.

Food that has a high glycemic index,like white bread,cause rapid rise in blood sugar.For foods with a low glycemic index like whole oats are food that digest slowly and thus cause lower and gentler change in blood sugar.If the food you eat has a score of 70 or higher are defined as having a high glycemic index,while those with low glycemic index has a score of 55 or lower.

Understanding Glycemic Index

These are the factors that affect food's glycemic index.

Processing-If you eat grains that have been milled and refined.That is their bran and germ has been removed, they have a higher glycemic index than whole grains.

Starch Types-Starch comes in different makeup.Some are easier to break into sugar molecules than others.For instance the starch in potatoes is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream more quickly.

Fiber content-The sugar in fiber are linked such that your body find it hard breaking it,The more fiber content of your food, the less digestible carbohydrate, and so the less sugar it can deliver.

Ripeness- Ripeness-Fruits and veggies that are ripe tend to have more sugar than the unripe ones.They are likely have a higher glycemic index.

Fat and acid content-If a food has more fat or acid,the carbohydrate converts to sugar more slowly and absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream.

Physical Form-Finely ground grain is more quickly digested and has a higher glycemic index,than more coarsely ground grain.


It has been found that diets rich in high glycemic index foods causes quick and strong increases in blood sugar levels,and they are linked to increased risk for diabetes,heart disease and over weight.A preliminary study has linked high glycemic diets to age -related mascular degeneration,ovulatory infertility and colorectal cancer.

Foods that has low glycemic index has been foudn to help control type 2 diabetes and improve weight loss.Some other studies says that glycemic index has noting to do with our weight or health.This is one of the inconsistency of science,thus telling us that the real value of glycemic index is yet to be determined.

However,eating whole grains,beans,fruits and vegetables are all foods with a low glycemic index is unarguably good for your overall health.

You should know that one of the most important factors that determines a food glycemic index is how much it has been processed.Grinding and milling takes away the fiber-rich outer bran and the vitamin,mineral rich inner germ,thus leaving mostly the starchy endosperm.However,food's glycemic index does not tell how much digestible carbohydrate it delivers.For instance watermelon. a sweet tasting fruit has a very high glycemic index.But if you take a slice of watermelon,it has only a small amount of carbohydrates per serving.This is because it is made up mostly of water.

Dietitians had developed a related way to group foods that takes into account both the amount of carbohydrates in the food and the impact of that carbohydrate on blood sugar levels.The measure is known as glycemic load.To know a food glycemic load, you multiply its glycemic index by the amount of carbohydrates it contains.Generally, if you have a glycemic load of 20,this is high,11-19 is medium, and 10 or under is low.

But note that you cannot use glycemic index to determine your dietary choices.For examples, Snickers bar has a glycemic index of 41,which is a low glycemic food index,but it is far from being a health choice of food.So you see, that you can only use glycemic index as a general guide.Try as much as possible to substitute highly processed grains, cereals and sugars with minimally processed whole grain products.

Low Carb Diet

For low carb diet plan, you should try to include fruits, vegetables and whole grains to your diet everyday.This is because they provides you with lots of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that is great for good health and which you can't get out of  a supplement bottle or pills.Eating healthy fats and proteins together with healthy carbs does our heart a lot of good.

Recommended Diet Plan for Low Carbohydrates Meal Plan

•  Start the day with whole grains. If you’re partial to hot cereals, try steel-cut oats. If you’re a cold cereal person, look for one that lists whole wheat, whole oats, or other whole grain first on the ingredient list.
• Use whole grain breads for lunch or snacks. Check the label to make sure that whole wheat or another whole grain is the first ingredient listed.
• Bag the potatoes. Instead, try brown rice or even “newer” grains like bulgur, wheat berries, millet, or hulled barley with your dinner.
• Pick up some whole wheat pasta. If the whole grain products are too chewy for you, look for those that are made with half whole-wheat flour and half white flour.
• Bring on the beans. Beans are an excellent source of slowly digested carbohydrates as well as a great source of protein.