Zeb Beatty

Nutrition 101: What are carbohydrates?

The government touts a diet high in carbohydrates, while many weight loss experts and low carb advocates swear by low carbohydrate diets. So, what exactly are carbohydrates?

The scientific definition of carbohydrates is that they are biomolecules. Biomolecules are simply molecules produced by living organisms such as plants.

The main function of carbohydrates, or plant based foods, is to transport energy to our cells in the form of starch (the scientific term for starch is glycogen.) When we eat carbohydrates, our bodies produce the hormone insulin. Insulin tells the carbohydrates we eat whether to go to our muscle cells to be used as fuel when we move, or whether to be stored as fat. If our muscles have enough carbs, or glycogen, already then the carbs we eat are stored in our fat cells. If we eat more carbohydrates than our muscles need, the excess is converted to body fat.

There are two types of foods rich in dietary starches. Foods that your mother and grandmother commonly called "starches" and knew were "fattening" are foods high in carbohydrates, low in fiber, and energy dense. Energy dense means they deliver a lot of calories in a small amount of food, versus carbohydrate based foods that deliver very little calories per serving. An example is a cup of lettuce has about 20 calories versus a cup of plain white potatoes that has 170 calories.

The energy dense carbohydrates in foods like white rice, white pasta, white breads, and sugary fruits, fruit juices, and sodas are examples of carbohydrate foods high in calories. Most commercially produced carbohydrate rich foods like breads, baked goods, cakes, cookies, donuts, snack foods like crackers and chips, even those "diet" 100 calorie snack packs, are all high in refined carbohydrates. This means if you don't burn them of through activity right away, they will be stored as body fat.

Refined calories have been processed to removed most of their fiber. Fiber is the part of plant based foods that make them filling and generally low in calories like vegetables and most fruits. Removing the fiber makes carbohydrate based foods less filling, and higher in calories than when they're in their natural state.

The second type of dietary carbohydrates you'll find in grocery stores are unrefined carbohydrates like those found in unprocessed, whole vegetables, beans, legumes, and lower sugar fruits. These carbohydrate foods are rich in fiber. They're more filling and generally lower in calories than refined carbohydrates. This means you can eat more of them without getting a lot of calories. These carbohydrate foods are less likely to be stored as body fat. But research shows carbohydrates, particularly starches, should not be the bulk of your diet as the US government advises.

Next: What are the benefits of a low carbohydrate diet?

FATLOSS 101: How carbs, sugar and grains fatten you up!
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Nutrition 101: What are the benefits of a low carbohydrate diet?

Most people view low carbohydrate diets as weight loss diet. Actually low carb diets promote health as well. Does this mean eating now carbohydrates including fruits and vegetables? No. But following the government's dietary guidelines of a diet of primarily carbohydrates is not healthy, nor is it based on solid science.

The US government's recommendation to eat a diet rich in carbohydrates is based on a 1970s panel on nutrition chaired by then Senator George McGovern. McGovern was a fan of the Pritikin diet and believed vegetarianism was healthy. His aid who wrote up the guidelines was a vegan with no nutrition degree. Although nearly all of the nutrition scientists who testified before this panel disagreed with McGovern's strict dietary guidelines, McGovern prevailed. See video below. We were told as a nation to eat less meat and animal fat, and to eat more carbohydrates. This included eating plenty of government subsidized crops like corn, wheat, beet, and cane sugars. Unfortunately, most Americans eat too many processed, high calorie carbohydrates, and not enough unrefined low calorie carbohydrates.
These two things have driven the current obesity epidemic.

Science has since prevailed on the side of a low carbohydrate diet as a healthier option over the government's recommendation of approximately 300 grams of carbohydrates a day depending on body size and caloric needs. This type of low carb diet is hard to achieve on unrefined carbs like whole fruits and vegetables. To achieve the government's recommendations for carbohydrates, you'd have to eat a generous and fattening amount of low density, refined carbohydrates.

While whole fruits and vegetables deliver vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber. To manage body weight, limiting refined, processed carbohydrates that are high in calories is key. Most healthy, moderately active adults find they need between 20 to 100 grams of carbohydrates a day (depending on body size) to lose weight. Active people seeking to maintain weight need roughly 75 to 150 grams of carbohydrates per day. (Endurance athletes need more.) Simply put, the average Joe and Jane should swap the white potatoes for sweet potatoes, switch from bread to broccoli, and replace the donuts with oatmeal and berries. And don't be afraid to eat a healthy portion of meat, eggs, nuts, cheese, or other proteins and fats with your unrefined carbs.

The McGovern Report: The official government policy of promoting a lowfat diet had nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics.



For more info: The soft science of dietary fat: low fat diets don't help you live longer by Gary Taube. from "Science" Volume 291.

Health: The Myth of the Low-fat Diet ; For Years, We've Been Advised to Eat a Low-fat Diet in Order to Help Prevent Heart Attacks And Promote Weight Loss. But, Says Jerome Burne, the Latest Research Suggests That Such a Diet May Actually Do More Harm Than Good

The Association of Misleading Studies

Dr. Michael Eades, M.D. on studies showing low carbohydrate diets superior to low fat, and the resistance of the low fat diet advocates to admit the truth is out, Ancel Keyes' Lipid Hypothesis was a lie.

The power of protein may prevent obesity and aid in weight loss

High protein diets have long been used by fitness models and bodybuilders to build beautiful bodies. A sleek and lean physique is not built with workouts alone.
Protein not only aids in building muscle, it also helps these athletes diet successfully by dampening appetite.

Recent studies point to eating more protein as an aid in eating less overall. One editorial in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition goes do far as to ask, "The satiating power of protein—a key to obesity prevention?" While preventing hunger can give dieters an edge, this may not help typical Americans who overeat for reasons other than hunger. See this article.

Fats role

Eat protein at every meal. Protein digests more slowly than carbohydrates and fats. Approximately 25%-30% of the calories in each gram of protein are burned in digestion. In comparison, carbohydrates burn only 6%-8% of their calories in digestion. Protein has also been shown in studies to keep people full longer than fats or carbohydrates.

How many carbohydrates should I eat?

Can you eat too few carbohydrates? Can you eat too many carbohydrates? Ask different people and you get different answers. What are the facts on carbohydrates? Let's look at the science versus the cultural zeitgeist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist

Low carbohydrate diets have been much maligned by the media and many people believe they're unhealthy. The misinformed will readily tell you low carb diets limit fruits and vegetables, lack fiber and vitamins, have too much fat, and that you'll only lose water weight. They warn of harmful side effects like the dangers of ketosis and weakened kidneys and bones. They'll tell you you'll lose only water weight, and you'll starve your brain. All of the above are myths. Read "What is gluconeogenesis?" and why low carb diets don't starve your brain.

So, how many carbohydrates in your diet are too many? How many carbohydrates are too little?

High carbohydrate diets in which you eat up to 60 percent of your calories from carbs per the US government diet pyramid, particularly from refined grain products and starches, didn't exist for most of human existance. We ate mostly animals, berries and other fruits when they were in season, roots, nuts, and some wild plants like herbs until agriculture was developed. The US department of agriculture developed the food pyramid to promote sales of argricultural products. These products like corn, wheat and sugar are high in carbohydrates and eating too many makes us fat.

According to research, pre-agricultural humans were taller and healthier than post agricultural humans. See references below. For an eloquent explanation, see Dr. Mary Dan Eades interview with Tom Naughton in the documentary "Fathead" in which shes says, "After agriculture developed human health devolved." The development of agriculture, meaning the growing of predominantly carbohydrate crops like corn, wheat, sugar, and soy, was a boon to our food supply. But abundance alone doesn't make a food healthy or necessary for survival. Crops like whole grains were not eaten in abundance, if at all, by humans for most of our existance.

This paleolithic dietary approach eventually evolved into our modern low carboydrate diets like Atkins, South Beach, and Protein Power. While these diets are in line with the way humans ate for centuries, the media, the government, and many in the medical world still discourage their use and promote a high carbohydrate diet. One of their last existing arguments against low carbohydrate diets is that eating low carb starves your brain. That's a persuasive arguement but doesn't hold water on closer inspection.

While it's true that the human brain runs on glucose, science has proven the human body doesn't need carbohydrates to make the glucose it needs. Yes, your body can use dietary carbohydrates to make glucose. But the actual physiological demand for glucose and the amount of carbohydrates most of us eat is way off balance. The arguement that we shouldn't limit carbohydrates to keep our brains from running out of fuel is a subterfuge. Modern low carbohydrate diets provide ample glucose even on "induction phases." Only a small minority of us ever need to rely on our body's ability to create glucose through gluconeogenesis.

So can we eat too many carbohydrates? Yes. Americans eat too much of everthing on average. But the real issue in nutrition today is that the average American eats too many carbohydrates. Too much blood sugar from eating too many carbohydrates - particularly refined carbohydrates - leads to medical conditions like metabolic syndrome, insulinemia, diabetes, inflammation linked to heart disease, obesity, and cancer.

Your body doesn't just convert the refined carbohydrates from foods like sodas and bagels into blood sugar. Nearly all carbohydrates including starchy vegetables like potatoes, whole grains, and fruits convert to blood sugar. The real problem with the American diet isn't that we're limiting carbohydrates. Simply, it's that we are eating too many carbohydrates.

People tolerate different dietary levels of carbohydrates. Generally, individuals will have to experiment with their personal carbohydrate intake to get a feel fo how much is too much. If you gain weight easily, it's a good idea too limit your intake of starchy carbs and replace them with proteins, fats, and carbohydrates from higher fiber fruits and vegetables with a lower glycemic index.

References:
How High Carbohydrate Foods Can Raise Risk For Heart Problems

ScienceDaily (June 27, 2009) — Doctors have known for decades that too much carbohydrate-laden foods like white bread and corn flakes can be detrimental to cardiac health. In a landmark study, new research from Tel Aviv University now shows exactly how these high carb foods increase the risk for heart problems.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090625133215.htm

Scientific Proof Carbohydrates Cause Disease. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/01/03/carbohydrates-age.aspx

Read Study: Neanderthals Ate Mostly Meat, June 14, 2000 http://www.spcnetwork.com/mii/2000/000628.htm

Washington - If you ever have a Neanderthal over for a backyard barbecue, forget the salad, the corn on the cob and the baked potato. All he'll want is the meat, and lots of it.

Larsen, Clark Spencer (01 November 2003). "Animal source foods and human health during evolution". Journal of Nutrition 133 (11, Suppl 2): 3893S–3897S. PMID 14672287. http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/11/3893S.

Elton, S. (2008). "Environments, adaptations and evolutionary medicine: Should we be eating a ‘stone age’ diet?". in O’Higgins, P. & Elton, S.. Medicine and Evolution: Current Applications, Future Prospects. London: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 1420051342.

Cordain, Loren (1999). "Cereal grains: humanity's double-edged sword" (PDF). World review of nutrition and dietetics 84: 19–73. doi:10.1159/000059677. PMID 10489816. http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Cereal%20article.pdf.

Living in Nevada, choosing health in a land of temptation, part three

Restaurants, fast food joints and even huge casino buffets don't make Nevadans - or anyone else - fat. Adjusting for genetics and other factors people can't control like health problems or disabilities that limit mobility - both which can affect metabolism and fat storage - lifestyle choices have the biggest affect on individual weight.

Several recent weekend trips to a Carson City McDonald's, and a few Reno McDonald's, provided the following anecdotal evidence: although these restaurants were packed to the rafters, almost no one eating there was even slightly overweight. Nobody was obese. The patrons were of all ages and lifestyles. Little kids played on the indoor playground, preteens in sports uniforms loitered in groups, young parents and grandparents indulged in Big Macs, and a few business people sipping McCafe coffees took advantage of the free WiFi.

Nobody was fat. Nobody was even chubby except one McDonald's employee.

Anecdotally, Reno cannot blame its obesity rate on fast food alone. Apologies to Morgan Spurlock, but McDonald's doesn't appear to be the sole culprit in rising obesity rates. So what about the abundance of buffets in the "Biggest Little City." Is that why Nevada has a chunky obesity rate?

Click here to continue reading.

What Makes a MuscleMen ?

Author: Yossarian Fisher

Any man who has seen the movie 300 wishes they had the same perfectly-toned body as the Spartans. In fact, it is likely that a lot of viewers were inspired by this movie to start hitting the gym as they begin their quest for that Leonidas-like physique. However, it’s not as simple as going to the gym and picking up and lifting every piece of weights one sees. This in itself is already quite challenging and it too requires a very technical understanding of the world of weightlifting. In order to get that same Spartan appeal, there are certain muscle groups that need to be targeted. This means that one will need to involve himself in a workout that involves exercises that target these specific muscle groups. Better believe that this is much easier said than done.

However, other than a specially designed weightlifting program, there are other factors that need to be considered. Below are some non-weightlifting related tips that should be helpful in achieving that seemingly unattainable Leonidas-like figure.

1. A Muscle Men Maintains a Special Diet

The truth is that a lot of muscular men are actually more particular about their diets compared to female models. This is because of the fact that in order to maintain a certain muscle mass volume, it is important to keep one’s total caloric and carbohydrate intake in check. This means that it becomes necessary to be very particular about what one eats. Real muscle men understand the importance of a balanced diet – a healthy combination of carbohydrates, proteins, and even some dietary fats. Those who are serious about putting on as much muscle mass as possible usually stay away from low-carb diets as they need as much energy as they can muster during those rigorous weight lifting sessions.

2. A Muscle Men Has Healthy Sleeping Habits

Aside from ensuring that they are able to get seven or eight hours of sleep every night, it is also a common practice among a lot of muscle men to take naps. Ideally, one should take a nap after a training session in order to allow the muscles to rebuild themselves. However, this isn’t really an option for those that may be preoccupied with work. They barely have time to pump iron and taking a quick nap afterwards doesn’t exactly fit in their hectic schedules. For these types of situations, it is even more important to ensure that one gets a solid eight or seven hours of sleep. This shouldn’t be too much of a daunting task as it could be as simple as cutting out a few hours of late-night television in exchange for a good night’s sleep.

3. A Muscle Men is Not a Gym Rat

Real muscle men also appreciate the fact that as much as the body needs weightlifting in order to bulk up, it also needs its share of rest for recuperation. The fact is that muscles are built while one is outside the gym which means that a hopeful muscle men must design his workout sessions in such a way that he is able to give his body its fair share of rest. GP

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/what-makes-a-muscle-man-1419091.html

Hot Asian MuscleMen - James Zhao Ying Jun

James Zhao Ying Jun (Chaina Musclemen) bodybuilder posing confidently

Ronny Rockel

Ronny Rockel (Germany Muscle):2010 IFBB Mr Europe, 1st

Living in Nevada, choosing health in a land of temptation, part two

Opportunities to eat out in Northern Nevada are ridiculously plentiful. A local dining guide for Reno / Lake Tahoe had 430 separate restaurants listed and these are family dining, fine dining and upscale restaurants only. They paid to be in this guide. That does not include all the fast food joints and pizza places.

Reno, although dubbed the "Biggest Little City in the World" has a sizable population of 220,500. A Google search reveals Reno sports ten McDonald's, six Burger Kings, eight Taco Bells, seven KFCs, ten Subways, ten Port of Subs, ten Quizno's and four Jimboy’s Tacos. Cheap, tasty and quick food is always a few minutes away.

Nearby Carson City has a population of 57,701 and has more than 15 fast food restaurants alone, four McDonald’s, three Taco Bells, one KFC, two Subways, two Port of Subs, one Quizno’s, two Burger Kings, and one Jimboy’s Tacos. The capital city, though much smaller than sprawling Reno, is no slouch in the fast food game.

Never mind that Reno has a flair for offering exotic cuisine on nearly every block of our main drag, Virginia street. Click here to read more.