When you think of carbs there are many different layers and angles of what is good and what is not. I will start at the very bottom or foundation of why it can be good or bad. You should have a very clear understanding of how to make the best decision after you read this article.
Learn how to view your food in many different levels. How the food is processed or derived from its original form will make a big difference. The other part would be how your body responds to food. You have to break down each side to see the full view. To start peeling the layers, we’ll talk about the original form of food and how it may affect you. Then we’ll talk about how the preserving or processing changes everything. It will also greatly depend on what outcome you want.
All natural foods can be good for the body. When I say natural, I mean from the ground to your plate. Given your body’s metabolism or how it breaks down food plays a role of it storing or not. You can get complex here but keep it simple. The simple way is to find out your need factor of energy. There is a scale that determines your need factor along the lines of the following:
- Manual labor plus lifting weights “highest”
- Lifting weights and or manual labor
- Medium activity, cardio, light weight lifting
- Setting at a desk plus working out
- Just going to your computer or work
Learn what it takes at a minimum to keep yourself in a positive mood and energized. Without testing your blood sugar levels, you have no idea where you measure up. Kind of a default number is 40 grams per serving. You may need more or less, but it’s a starting point. Since we are all little different, you will have to get your own data about your own body.. You first want to focus on keeping yourself from feeling down because you are too low on carbs. Very rarely can someone use a 100 carbs per meal. That’s probably putting you in a situation to have high blood sugars, which are the concerns of a diabetic. This will also be a major factor on weight gain or weight loss. It’s a circle. Eat certain carbs and the body will do 3 things: stabilize, lose, or gain. If you’re looking to drop body fat, you’re looking to find that perfect spot that is sustainable, but not too much.
Keep yourself in a decent mood but get results. You will also have to consider your actual eating history. What have been your eating habits in the last 30 days or more? Your body will try to adapt to whatever you’re eating. Once you find a place that is optimal, keep in mind that it may not always be this way. This means that what works this time, may not work next time. It’s very important to take the time to track your foods, moods, and thought patterns; 2 to 3 weeks is typically long enough. Connecting the dots or putting together your own puzzle is the important part.
You can take any carb and make it bad through processing and chemicals. Once the food has been modified it will no longer break down in your system the same way. Even adding salt and packaging it can change the dynamics. Add vitamins and it can change the profile to the body, not make it better. As soon as you take it out of its element, it all changes. We have had non-processed foods for thousands of years. In the last 100 years it has changed. It has even changed drastically in the last 20 years. Look deeper than just processed verse unprocessed. It’s hard to eat out at any restaurant and not think about where they got their food. The part that shocks me is that a lot of companies claim to have certain foods that aren’t really what they say. Now the foods and mostly produce are being modified at the seed. That’s before you plant your seeds to grow. You just have to know that if you don’t know what’s in your food and you don’t have the data to back up others eating it, you may want to stay away until you get more results.
We just don’t know what some foods will do. This is not to alarm you, but to make you aware of what you’re eating. You eat something. It goes in your stomach. Then it starts with the breakdown of the food. The food is partially broken down and the body does not recognize your food. It processes it though and finally gets to the blood stream. Now the body is confused on what to do with the food. It came from the stomach way too fast. That in itself will cause weight gain. Not to mention the buildup of other chemicals that may not store in fat cells the same way other foods store. Looking at instant versus eating slow cooked or regular cooked.
Know your labels. If something can be cooked in half the time or even less, then it’s not the same food. No matter if it looks exactly the same. When eating something, every particle has to go somewhere in the body. It doesn’t just vaporize into thin air. Once all the unknown chemicals start to build up the body starts to become something different. What that is, we are just starting to see the initial start of it. When possible go with what you know without a doubt to be real food. I wouldn’t say it is impossible.
Keep in mind the company you keep can play a major role. You both want to make each other happy or at least not uncomfortable. A lot of the big decisions made daily are based on the foods or around the foods you have. Just be up front and firm on what you want. Sometimes not knowing about your nutrition can do just as much bad as it can do good. No one can escape the foods they eat.
