LOW-CARB DIETS vs CONTROLLED-CARBOHYDRATE MEALS

The Truth about Low-Carb Diets vs Controlled-Carbohydrate Meals is created by a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition SpecialistAuthor of the best seller: you may know him...

Please read on.

One of the problems I see with "diet talk" is that nobody seems to agree what "low carb" really means... One person may think of "low carb" as an Atkins style diet with as much fatty sausages, hotdogs, and nitrate processed meats as you want and virtually no carbohydrate based foods at all.
Another person may view "low carb" as 40% of daily calories coming from carbs instead of the traditionally recommended 55% to 60%.
If you think about it, in a 40/30/30 type of diet, the majority of the calories are coming from carbs, so that obviously can't be called "low carb"...yet some people do call it that.
Because of these drastic differences in how different people view the term "low carb", sometimes my clients are confused as to what I recommend.
First of all, I don't recommend "low carb" or "high carb" per se... I don't think it's vitally important to have any sort of exact ratio. I think everyone needs to explore for themselves how they feel at different ratios of fat, protein, and carbohydrates.
After all, the most important aspect to your success is your total caloric intake vs your caloric expenditure over a given time period.Check it out Here!

But where carbohydrate intake becomes important is in how it can affect your hormones and blood sugar in your body and stimulate cravings. You could tell someone to eat 2500 calories/day of a higher fat and higher protein content combined with reduced carbs and they may actually finish the day at 2500 calories because their appetite is satisfied.
However, tell that same person to eat 2500 calories per day in a high carb fashion, and they may end up eating 3000 or more calories per day because the higher carbohydrate diet stimulated their cravings and they ended up overeating.
I know personally, if you throw a big steak in front of me and a big pile of vegetables, my appetite will be satisfied when I'm done that meal and for hours afterward. However, you throw a big plate of pasta in front of me, and I'm gonna devour the entire plate, and then head back for seconds and maybe even thirds.
This is what happens for a lot of people... once you start eating large portions of carbs like pasta or rice or cereals, it becomes hard to stop and then you're craving more carbs an hour later too!
So what I've found to work best for me, and a large % of my clients in the past is to eat in a "controlled carbs" manner... this doesn't mean atkins style... it means very reduced grains, zero refined sugars (to the best of ability of avoiding), and instead, getting almost all of your healthy carbs from vegetables, fruits, and maybe beans on occasion.
This ends up being very similar to the hunter-gatherer type of diet of meats, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruits, and veggies, which I believe is the healthiest way to eat.Check it out Here!
Sometimes it just takes thinking a little differently about the way you eat and what's considered "normal" in order to get rid of some of the useless grains and sugars in your diet.
For example, why do we need to eat a burger on a bun? Most people don't even think of doing it any other way because that's what's "normal".
One of my favorite lunch meals lately has been cooking up a grass-fed bison burger,with no bun, and then I top it with grass-fed cheese, sliced avocados, diced onions, and salsa. I have a big side of sliced fresh veggies like carrots and red peppers (with hummus sometimes), and then maybe have a little bit of fruit or berries on the side too.
What you end up with is a meal that's pretty well balanced between protein, healthy fats, and healthy carbs instead of overloaded with the refined grains from the typical hamburger bun.


Think about breakfast too...

do you really "need" the toast with your eggs, or can you do much better with loads of veggies with your eggs instead?
That's what I like to do for breakfast... whole eggs with cheese and loads of veggies, avocado (yeah, avo's are one of my favorite foods), and some green or white tea (or lately I've been really digging this mango yerba mate tea...mmm) with a little raw honey. So I get my carbs from the veggies and the little bit of raw honey instead of from the typical toast and orange juice that loads you up with extra carbs.Check it out Here!
...Just some ideas in case it helps you to think differently about where you get your carbs from.

You have all the links above.

Enjoy your reading.

Bernard C Gakwe.

AN IMPORTANT NUTRIENT THAT PREVENTS DIABETES AND FAT GAIN

This unique marine antioxidant can help prevent diabetes and fight fat gain.

Can Astaxanthin Help Prevent Weight Gain?

By Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic, PhD, RD, CSCS
Astaxanthin - although it sounds like one of those molecules in your chemistry class that haunted you while studying for final exams, it’s actually a very powerful antioxidant with several health-promoting properties.
One health benefit in particular is its ability to protect your body against diabetes.Check it out Here! It does this by fighting oxidative stress and preventing insulin resistance – two of the underlying causes of this common disease.

Oxidative De-Stressing

Oxidative stress refers to oxidative damage in a cell, tissue or organ, caused by Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), which are unstable free radical molecules containing oxygen that steal electrons from other molecules. This then makes the newly damaged molecule another free radical.
ROS are often dangerous because they’re linked to many negative effects in the body such as increased inflammation, permanent cell damage and even cell death.Antioxidants come to our rescue against ROS because they stabilize the free radical molecule and prevent it from causing any destruction.

Diabetes and Oxidative Stress

Diabetes is strongly linked to oxidative stress as either a consequence of increased ROS production, reduced antioxidant status, or both.
Oxidative stress in diabetes is brought on by consistent hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels) from a very high carbohydrate diet, reduced cell carbohydrate uptake, and/or low insulin output from the pancreas.
People who have pre-diabetes, or full diabetes, are wise to follow a diet much lower in carbohydrate than they usually eat, and increasing their physical activity. These changes will help reduce blood sugar concentrations and in turn, reduce levels of oxidative stress.
However, these changes take time and a lot of discipline (especially if you’re a carbohydrate addict). Thankfully there are ways to reduce oxidative stress until these beneficial changes have become new, good habits.
Astaxanthin Reduces ROS and Improves ImmunityCheck it out Here!
Japanese researchers found that astaxanthin could lessen oxidative stress in pancreatic beta cells (the cells in your body that produce insulin) caused by chronic high blood sugar levels. In turn, this improves the body’s ability to manage blood glucose levels by allowing the pancreatic cells to make the right amount of insulin when needed.
Astaxanthin was found to improve pancreatic beta cell function and protect these cells from glucose toxicity which leads to progressive cell breakdown and death (Uchiyama K et al, 2007). It did this by battling the damaging ROS molecules through increased antioxidant levels (via astaxanthin).
Another group of researchers also found that astaxanthin treatment improved immunoprotective properties of lymphocytes (special white blood cells that are part of a normal immune response) (Otton R, 2010).
In diabetes there is a strong correlation between oxidative stress and poor immune function. Astaxanthin helped the lymphocytes do their job more effectively and fight off foreign objects such as bacteria, viruses, and pathogen-infected cells so that persons with diabetes would not be sick as often.

Prevention of Fat Gain
Recently, a group of researchers from India (Bhuvaneswari S et al, 2010) showed that increased blood glucose and excessive insulin levels brought on by a high processed fat and high sugar diet could be deterred with astaxanthin treatment.
What this means is that astaxanthin prevents insulin resistance and improves glucose handling. As a result of this, a long term high processed fat and sugar diet was not able to cause a significant increase in body fat, fatty liver, or suppress immunity.
Although this is good news for those of us that may not always eat well every day, it definitely does not condone a constant diet rich in French fries, doughnuts, cookies, Pop Tarts or artificial Cheese Twists.Check it out Here!

Where Do You Get Astaxanthin?
This brightly red-colored antioxidant is found in the lipid compartments of several species of microalgae that feed the millions of crustaceans and fish found in our oceans. Astaxanthin is one of the major reasons salmon is tinted pink and krill are deep red. The krill eat these microalgae first and accumulate them in a greater concentration than the salmon who eat fish who eat the krill.
Your best source of astaxanthin is therefore high healthy fat, red-colored marine animals such as krill and salmon. EFA icon is one of the most concentrated sources of astaxanthan.

Stop Diabetes Now
According to our most recent statistics from 2007, 57 million people have pre-diabetes, and 23.6 million children and adults have full-blown diabetes; don’t let yourself become the next statistic.In order to help protect your body against the development of diabetes, which is a disease that affects more people in the US than need be, make sure you’re including astaxanthin in your diet and keeping sugar and processed fat low.

ReferencesUchiyama, K., Naito, Y., Hasegawa, G., Nakamura, N. et al., Astaxanthin protects b-cells against glucose toxicity in diabetic db/db mice. Redox Rep. 2002, 7, 290–293.Otton, R., Marin, D. P., Bolin, A. P., Santos, R. D. et al., Astaxanthin ameliorates the redox imbalance in lymphocytes of experimental diabetic rats. Chem. Biol. Interact. 2010, 186, 306–315.Bhuvaneswari, S., Arunkumar, E., Viswanathan, P., Anuradha, C. V., Astaxanthin restricts weight gain, promotes insulin sensitivity and curtails fatty liver disease in mice fed an obesity-promoting diet. Process Biochem. 2010, 45, 1406–1414.
Enjoy your reading.

Bernard C Gakwe