Eating Low Glycemic Carbohydrates Is Important For Losing Weight

Maintaining a steady blood sugar level is very important component of your dieting effort. While your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, some are converted into blood sugar faster than others. Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level which causes you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods. While other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly leveling out you blood sugar resulting in less hunger and less food cravings.

For this reason, the Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to classify how quickly your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar as compared to pure glucose. Glucose has a GI of 100 and all other carbohydrate based foods are ranked against it. Foods with a score of 70 or more are defined as having a high GI while those with a score of 55 or less are considered as low.

Eating lots of food with a high GI causes spikes in your blood sugar level which can lead to many health issues such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. While eating low GI foods causes your blood sugar level to stay even thus, keeping your energy level balanced and causing you to fill fuller longer between meals. The following are some additional benefits of eating low GI carbohydrates.

· Helps you to lose and manage weight your weight.
· Increases your body's sensitivity to insulin.
· Decreases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
· Reduces your risk of heart disease.
· Improves your blood cholesterol levels
· Reduces hunger and keep you fuller for longer.
· Helps you prolong physical activity.
· Helps you to re-fuel your carbohydrate stores after exercise.

The GI is very interesting because some foods that you intuitively think would have a high rating do not. For instance, fructose which is fruit sugar has a minimal effect on blood sugar while white bread and French-fried potatoes are nearly converted to blood sugar as fast as pure glucose. In other words, you can’t classify foods as having a high or low GI according to the sweetness of taste. Many factors affect a foods GI such as:

· Processing: Grains that have been milled and refined have a higher GI

· Type of starch: Starches come in many different configurations. Some are easier to break into sugar  molecules than others. For example, starch in potatoes is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream relatively quickly.

· Fiber content: The sugars in fiber are linked in a way that is hard for your body to break down. Thus, the more fiber a food has, the less digestible carbohydrate, and consequently the less sugar it can deliver into your blood stream.

· Fat and acid content: The more fat or acid a food contains, the slower its carbohydrates are converted to sugar and absorbed into your bloodstream.

· Physical form: Finely ground grain is more rapidly digested, and so has a higher GI than more coarsely ground grain.

The basic technique for eating the low GI way is simply a "this for that" approach - i.e., swapping high GI carbohydrates for low GI carbohydrates. You don't need to count numbers or do any sort of mental arithmetic to make sure you are eating a healthy, low GI diet. Follow these easy to implement suggestions.

· Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran
· Use breads with whole-grains, stone-ground flour, sour dough
· Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat
· Enjoy all other types of fruit and vegetables
· Use brown rice
· Enjoy whole-wheat pasta and noodles
· Eat plenty of salad vegetables with a vinaigrette dressing

Choose Carbohydrates That Help Stabilize Your Blood Sugar

Maintaining a steady blood sugar level is not only important for your health, it's also a critical component in your effort to lose weight. While your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, some are converted into blood sugar faster than others. Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level causing you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods. Other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly, leveling out your blood sugar and resulting in less hunger and food cravings.

For this reason, the Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to classify how quickly
your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar as opposed to pure glucose. Glucose has a GI of 100, and all other carbohydrate-based foods are ranked against it. Foods with a score of 70 or more are considered to as have a high GI, while those with a score of 55 or less are considered low.

Eating lots of food with a high GI causes spikes in your blood sugar level, which can lead to many health issues, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Eating low GI foods causes your blood sugar level to stay steady thus keeping your energy level balanced and causing you to feel fuller longer between meals. The following are some additional benefits of eating low GI carbohydrates.

• Helps you to lose and manage weight your weight.

• Increases your body's sensitivity to insulin.

• Decreases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

• Reduces your risk of heart disease.

• Improves your blood cholesterol levels

• Reduces hunger and keeps you fuller longer.

• Helps you prolong physical activity.

• Helps you to refuel your carbohydrate stores after exercise.

You can get the GI rating of hundreds of carbohydrate-based foods from the Glycemic Index Foundation, sponsored by the University of Sydney in Australia. It maintains a searchable database of more than 1600 entries at www.glycemicindex.com.

The GI is interesting because some of the foods that you think would have a high rating actually do not. For instance, fructose, or fruit sugar has a minimal effect on blood sugar, while white bread and French-fried potatoes are converted to blood sugar nearly as fast as pure glucose. In other words, you can’t classify foods as having a high or low GI based on the sweetness of taste. Many factors affect a foods GI such as:

• Processing: Grains that have been milled and refined have a higher GI

• Type of starch: Starches come in many different configurations. Some are easier to break into sugar molecules than others. For example, starch in potatoes is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream relatively quickly.

• Fiber content: The sugars in fiber are linked in a way that is hard for your body to break down. Thus, the more fiber a food has, the less digestible carbohydrate, and consequently, the less sugar it can deliver into your blood stream.

• Fat and acid content: The more fat or acid a food contains, the slower its carbohydrates are converted to sugar and absorbed into your bloodstream.

• Physical form: Finely ground grain is more rapidly digested, and so has a higher GI than more coarsely ground grain.

The basic technique for eating the low GI way is simply a "this-for-that" approach:., swapping high GI carbohydrates for low GI carbohydrates. You don't need to count numbers or do any mental arithmetic to make sure you are eating a healthy, low GI diet. Follow these easy to implement suggestions.

• Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran

• Use breads with whole-grains, stone-ground flour, or sour dough

• Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat

• Enjoy all types of fruit and vegetables

• Use brown rice

• Enjoy whole-wheat pasta and noodles

• Eat plenty of salad vegetables with a vinaigrette dressing

As you see, it’s important to include the right kind of carbohydrates as part of your daily intake. I generally get about 40 percent of my daily caloric intake from low to medium glycemic index carbohydrates. I find that this amount gives me plenty of energy for all my daily activities. You’ll find that eating low to medium GI carbohydrates levels out your energy and keeps you from those high and low points throughout the day.

Building and maintaining your muscle mass is one of the most important things you can do for your health as you age, and regular strength training (weight lifting) is the most effective way to accomplish this.  If you are over the age of 40 I recommend that you begin weight lifting 2 to 3 times each week.  You can download some of my favorite strength training programs by clicking on this link: Forever Fit and Firm.

A Basic Knowledge of Carbohydrates is Important When Trying to Lose Weight

This is the time of the year when it seems that everyone in the world is trying to lose weight.  The popularity of the high-protein, and  low-carbohydrate diets has probably led you to believe that carbohydrates are “bad” for you. Just reading the hype in the media would make you think that carbohydrates are the cause of the obesity epidemic throughout the world.  However, carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet and as with all things balance and moderation is key.

Eating a lot of easily- digested carbohydrates from white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly processed foods may contribute to your weight gain, and therefore, interfere with your efforts to lose weight. On the contrary, consuming whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, and other intact carbohydrates promotes good health. As I mentioned before, a healthy diet is about balance and moderation. A basic knowledge of what carbohydrates are and how you body uses them is essential to understanding how to balance them in your diet.

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that are excellent sources of energy (measured as calories) for your body; they are the preferred fuel for your brain and nervous system. Carbohydrates are found in an array of foods such as bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, corn, and desserts. The most common and abundant forms are classified as sugars, fibers, and starches.

The basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple union of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Starches and fibers forms of carbohydrates are essentially chains of sugar molecules, some containing hundreds.

As mentioned above, most carbohydrates come from plant sources and are in the form of sugars, starches, and fibers. Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose). Starches, also known as complex carbohydrates, include everything made of three or more linked sugars. Starches include foods such as breads, cereals, grains, pasta, rice, and flour. Fibers are technically classified as a starch because they are complex carbohydrates that your body cannot breakdown into sugar molecules. Fibers are more abundant in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.

Your body breaks down all carbohydrates, except for fibers, into single sugar molecules regardless of their source. These simple sugars are further converted into glucose, also known as blood sugar. Your body is designed to use blood sugar as a universal source of fuel for energy.

Fiber is the form of carbohydrate that your body cannot break down into simple sugar molecules. It passes through your body undigested. Fiber comes in two varieties: soluble, which dissolves in water, and insoluble, which does not. Although neither type provides energy for your body, they both promote health in many ways. Soluble fiber binds to fatty substances in your intestines and carries them out as waste, thus lowering your low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or bad cholesterol). It also helps regulate your body’s use of sugars, helping you to keep your hunger and blood sugar in check. Insoluble fiber helps push food through your intestinal tract, promoting regularity and helping to prevent constipation.

Here’s what happens when you eat a food containing carbohydrates. Your digestive system breaks down the digestible ones into sugar, which then enters your blood. As your blood sugar level rises, specials cells in your pancreas churn out insulin, a hormone that signals your cells to absorb the blood sugar for energy or for storage. As your cells soak-up the blood sugar, its level in your bloodstream begins to fall. Now, your pancreas starts making another hormone called glucagon, which signals your liver to start releasing stored blood sugar. This interplay of insulin and glucagon ensures that cells throughout your body have a steady supply of blood sugar. 

So, you see carbohydrates are a very important source of energy for your body. The key to long-term weight loss is to balance the carbohydrates, protein, and fat in your diet to promote optimal lean muscle tissue which in turn, increases your metabolism causing you to burn more calories 24 hours a day.

Checkout my downloadable strength training routines at Forever Fit and Firm.

Protein's Effect on Weight Loss

Scientific research is now revealing that people who consume higher amounts of protein (20 to 30 percent of their daily caloric intake), while cutting back on their carbohydrate intake, tend to lose weight faster and stay leaner than those people on low-fat diets.

The reason higher protein, lower carbohydrates diets are more conducive to weight loss and maintenance is interesting. First, high-protein foods slow the movement of food from the stomach to the intestines, meaning you feel full longer and don’t get hungry as often. Second, protein has a leveling effect on your blood sugar which means you are less likely to get spikes in your blood sugar that lead to cravings for carbohydrates. Third, your body uses more energy to digest protein than it does to digest fat or carbohydrates.

Getting the proper amount of protein at breakfast is especially important if you are trying to lose weight. Breakfast is the first meal of the day and what you eat determines whether you start your day in fat burning or fat storage mode.

Eating a breakfast rich in carbohydrates and low in protein (the typical American breakfast) starts your day in fat storage mode. The cereal, bread, fruit, and juice you have for breakfast are all carbohydrate-based and are converted into sugar by your body, thus causing a spike in your blood sugar. Then your body produces insulin to take that blood sugar and store it in your body mostly as body fat. Soon after your blood sugar drops and you feel famished, and you crave more carbohydrate-based foods which starts a cycle of blood sugar spikes and crashes and its insuring sugar cravings.

On the contrary, having a breakfast that contains the proper amount of high quality protein such as eggs, lean meat, and low fat dairy starts your day in a fat burning mode. Studies have shown consuming 25 to 30 grams of protein at each meal is necessary for maximal protein synthesis. This building and repair of muscle cells is very energy intensive and it burns body fat mainly as fuel for this process. Thus, having 25 to 30 grams of protein at breakfast activates muscle cell regeneration and also alleviates blood sugar spikes which lead to cravings.

Below are some good sources of protein listed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help you get the proper amount in your daily diet.

1 ounce meat, fish, poultry equals 7 grams of protein

1 large egg equals 6 grams of protein

4 ounces milk equal 4 grams of protein

4 ounces low-fat yogurt equals 6 grams of protein

4 ounces soy milk equals 5 grams of protein

3 ounces tofu, firm equals 13 grams of protein

1 ounce cheese equals 7 grams of protein

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese equals 14 grams of protein

1/2 cup cooked kidney beans equals 7 grams of protein

1/2 cup lentils equals 9 grams of protein

1 ounce nuts equals 7 grams of protein

2 tablespoons peanut butter equals 8 grams of protein

1/2 cup vegetables equals 2 grams of protein

1 slice bread equals 2 grams of protein

1/2 cup of most grains/pastas equals 2 grams of protein

Start your day with a smoothie made with Protein My Whey, the protein I use and recommend to my clients.  Protein My Whey contains 26 grams of whey isolates (the most bio-available source).  It's also: contains only 1 gram of carbohydrate, is fat free, cholesterol free, and sugar free.  Check out this amazing product by clicking on this link: Protein My Whey.

Choose Your Carbohydrates Wisely

The popularity of the low-carbohydrate diets has probably led you to believe that all carbohydrates are “bad” for you.  Just reading the hype in the media would make you think that carbohydrates are the cause of the obesity epidemic throughout the United States. 

Eating a lot of easily- digested carbohydrates from white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly processed foods may contribute to your weight gain, and therefore, interfere with your efforts to lose weight.  On the contrary, consuming whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, and other intact carbohydrates promotes good health.  A healthy diet is about balance and moderation.  A basic knowledge of what carbohydrates are and how you body uses them is essential to understanding how to balance them in your diet.

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that are excellent sources of energy (measured as calories) for your body; they are the preferred fuel for your brain and nervous system.  Carbohydrates are found in an array of foods such as bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, corn, and desserts. The most common and abundant forms are classified as sugars, fibers, and starches.

The basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple union of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.  Starches and fibers forms of carbohydrates are essentially chains of sugar molecules, some containing hundreds.

As mentioned above, most carbohydrates come from plant sources and are in the form of sugars, starches, and fibers.  Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose).  Starches, also known as complex carbohydrates, include everything made of three or more linked sugars.  Starches include foods such as breads, cereals, grains, pasta, rice, and flour.  Fibers are technically classified as a starch because they are complex carbohydrates that your body cannot breakdown into sugar molecules.  Fibers are more abundant in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.

Your body breaks down all carbohydrates, except for fibers, into single sugar molecules regardless of their source.  These simple sugars are further converted into glucose, also known as blood sugar.  Your body is designed to use blood sugar as a universal source of fuel for energy.

Fiber is the form of carbohydrate that your body cannot break down into simple sugar molecules.  It passes through your body undigested.  Fiber comes in two varieties: soluble, which dissolves in water, and insoluble, which does not.  Although neither type provides energy for your body, they both promote health in many ways.  Soluble fiber binds to fatty substances in your intestines and carries them out as waste, thus lowering your low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or bad cholesterol).  It also helps regulate your body’s use of sugars, helping you to keep your hunger and blood sugar in check.  Insoluble fiber helps push food through your intestinal tract, promoting regularity and helping to prevent constipation.

Here’s what happens when you eat a food containing carbohydrates.  Your digestive system breaks down the digestible ones into sugar, which then enters your blood.  As your blood sugar level rises, specials cells in your pancreas churn out insulin, a hormone that signals your cells to absorb the blood sugar for energy or for storage.  As your cells soak-up the blood sugar, its level in your bloodstream begins to fall.  Now, your pancreas starts making another hormone called glucagon, which signals your liver to start releasing stored blood sugar.  This interplay of insulin and glucagon ensures that cells throughout your body have a steady supply of blood sugar.

Maintaining a steady blood sugar level is a very important component of your diet.  While you’ve just seen that your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, some are converted into blood sugar faster than others.  Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level causing you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods.  Other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly, leveling out your blood sugar and resulting in less hunger and food cravings.

For this reason, the Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to classify how quickly your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar as opposed to pure glucose.  Glucose has a GI of 100, and all other carbohydrate-based foods are ranked against it.  Foods with a score of 70 or more are considered to have a high GI, while those with a score of 55 or less are considered low.

Eating lots of food with a high GI causes spikes in your blood sugar level, which can lead to many health issues, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.  Eating low GI foods causes your blood sugar level to stay steady thus keeping your energy level balanced and causing you to feel fuller longer between meals. The following are some additional benefits of eating low GI carbohydrates.

·       Helps you to lose and manage weight your weight.

·       Increases your body's sensitivity to insulin.

·       Decreases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

·       Reduces your risk of heart disease.

·       Improves your blood cholesterol levels

·       Reduces hunger and keeps you fuller longer.

·       Helps you prolong physical activity.

·       Helps you to refuel your carbohydrate stores after exercise.

You can get the GI rating of hundreds of carbohydrate-based foods from the Glycemic Index Foundation, sponsored by the University of Sydney in Australia.  It maintains a searchable database of more than 1600 entries at http://www.glycemicindex.com.

The GI is interesting because some of the foods that you think would have a high rating actually do not.  For instance, fructose, or fruit sugar has a minimal effect on blood sugar, while white bread and French-fried potatoes are converted to blood sugar nearly as fast as pure glucose.  In other words, you can’t classify foods as having a high or low GI based on the sweetness of taste.  Many factors affect a foods GI such as:

·       Processing: Grains that have been milled and refined have a higher GI

·       Type of starch:  Starches come in many different configurations.  Some are easier to break into sugar molecules than others.  For example, starch in potatoes is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream relatively quickly.

·       Fiber content: The sugars in fiber are linked in a way that is hard for your body to break down.  Thus, the more fiber a food has, the less digestible carbohydrate, and consequently, the less sugar it can deliver into your blood stream.

·       Fat and acid content:  The more fat or acid a food contains, the slower its carbohydrates are converted to sugar and absorbed into your bloodstream.

·       Physical form:  Finely ground grain is more rapidly digested, and so has a higher GI than more coarsely ground grain.

The basic technique for eating the low GI way is simply a "this-for-that" approach, swapping high GI carbohydrates for low GI carbohydrates. You don't need to count numbers or do any mental arithmetic to make sure you are eating a healthy, low GI diet.  Follow these easy to implement suggestions.

·       Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran

·       Use breads with whole-grains, stone-ground flour, or sour dough

·       Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat

·       Enjoy all types of fruit and vegetables

·       Use brown rice

·       Enjoy whole-wheat pasta and noodles

·       Eat plenty of salad vegetables with a vinaigrette dressing

The above information is from my book Forever Fit and Firm. In this book you will find many other fitness tips to help you get and stay fit.  You can purchase a copy of this book and my other publications by following this link: Forever Fit and Firm
 

Are the Carbs You're Eating Causing Your Cravings?

 Controlling the insulin level in your blood is very important in your effort to control your weight.  Most food cravings and hunger pains originate from quick rises in your blood sugar level and consequently, spikes in your insulin level.  What causes this rise and fall in your blood sugar level ?  The answer is, your body digesting the carbohydrates in your diet.

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that are excellent sources of energy (measured as calories) for your body; they are the preferred fuel for your brain and nervous system.  Most carbohydrates come from plant sources and are in the form of sugars, starches, and fibers. Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose). Starches, also known as complex carbohydrates, include everything made of three or more linked sugars. Starches include foods such as breads, cereals, grains, pasta, rice, and flour. Fibers are technically classified as a starch because they are complex carbohydrates that your body cannot breakdown into sugar molecules. Fibers are more abundant in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.


 Carbohydrates are an important part of your diet.  The problem is that most people get the majority of their carbohydrates form easily digested sources such as white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly processed foods.  These kind of foods are quickly converted into blood sugar, thus causing a rapid rise in your insulin level.  Insulin takes the blood sugar and stores it in your muscles for fuel and the remainder of it is stored as fat in your body.  This rapid rise and fall of insulin in your blood stream also causes energy highs and lows and food cravings.

Protein is Important for Your Overall Health

Protein is a necessary part of every living cell in your body.  Next to water, protein comprises up the greatest portion of your body weight.  Protein substances make up your muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, nails, hair, and many vital body fluids.  It is essential for the growth, repair, and healing of your bones, tissues, and cells.  In addition, the enzymes and hormones that catalyze and regulate your body processes are comprised of protein.  So, you see the proper amount of protein in your diet is vital for your health and well being.

The problem is most people eat too many carbohydrates in their diets and not enough protein.  This is a major contributing factor to the obesity epidemic and it's associated health problems.  New research shows that you need 25 to 30 grams of high quality protein at each meal to be most beneficial for your body.  This is especially true at breakfast.

In my 20 plus years in the health and fitness industry I have observed that most people start their day with a breakfast that is very high in carbohydrates (fruit, cereals, juices, and bread) and low in protein.  Eating this way starts your day in fat storage mode because all those carbohydrates are converted to sugar and are mostly stored as body fat.  Then you crave more foods high in sugar.

If you begin your day by eating a breakfast with 25 to 30 grams of protein balanced by no more than 25 to 30 grams of carbohydrates you activate your muscles and start your day in fat burning mode.  You will find that you are energized until your next meal without the cravings for more sugary foods.

One of the easiest ways to start your day with the proper balance of protein and carbohydrates is by drinking a protein smoothie.  I get my day started with a protein smoothie 5 to 6 days each week and I have done so for many years. 

Thus, I am pleased to announce the launch of my first customized nutritional product called Protein My Whey.  Each serving of Protein My Whey contains:

• 26 grams of protein isolate (one of the highest quality most digestible protein sources)
• 1 gram of carbohydrates
• 0 fat grams
• No Cholesterol
• No sugar
• Sweetened with Stevia
• And is lactose free

Here is one of my favorite breakfast smoothies I drink to get my day started in a fat burning and energized mode.

• 1 cup of frozen blueberries
• 1 cup of plain almond milk
• 1 packet of Protein My Whey

Mix in a blender and this smoothie yields: 246 calories, 3 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 28 grams of protein.

Check out this wonder product by clicking on this link: Protein My Whey

Eating Lower Glycemic Carbs Helps You to Lose Weight

If you are trying to lose weight, maintaining a steady blood sugar level is a very important component of your dieting effort. While your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, some are converted into blood sugar faster than others. Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level which causes you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods. While other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly leveling out you blood sugar resulting in less hunger and less food cravings.

For this reason, the Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to classify how quickly your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar as compared to pure glucose. Glucose has a GI of 100 and all other carbohydrate based foods are ranked against it. Foods with a score of 70 or more are defined as having a high GI while those with a score of 55 or less are considered as low.

Eating lots of food with a high GI causes spikes in your blood sugar level which can lead to many health issues such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. While eating low GI foods causes your blood sugar level to stay even thus, keeping your energy level balanced and causing you to fill fuller longer between meals. The following are some additional benefits of eating low GI carbohydrates.

· Helps you to lose and manage your weight.
· Increases your body's sensitivity to insulin.
· Decreases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
· Reduces your risk of heart disease.
· Improves your blood cholesterol levels
· Reduces hunger and keep you fuller for longer.
· Helps you prolong physical activity.
· Helps you to re-fuel your carbohydrate stores after exercise.

You can get the GI rating of hundreds of carbohydrate based foods from the Glycemic Index Foundation, sponsored by the University of Sydney in Australia. They maintain a searchable database of over 1600 entries at http://www.glycemicindex.com.

Dr. Donal Layman, professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois has developed the most balanced dietary plan that I have seen in my 20 years in the health and fitness industry.  It's a system called Metaboliq manufactured by a company called Qivana.  I follow this system everyday in my diet.  Please send me an email at darvis@fit-to-be.com if wish to receive more information about this amazing weight management system.

Balancing Protein in Your Diet

I have to be honest and tell you that more than 70 percent of the exercise required to stay fit and firm as you age involves a fork and knife. No amount of exercise can compensate for poor dietary habits. I believe in finding a healthy eating plan that works for you, that you can live with for the long-term.

One of the easiest ways to incorporate a healthy dietary plan into your life is through balance and moderation in the foods you eat everyday.You can eat any food you desire as long as it is in moderation and balanced it with the rest of the foods you consume. For example, I love brownies, so when I have a brownie for dessert I only have one. I also balance the carbohydrates and sugar in the brownie by not having bread with my meal.

The first step to learning balance and moderation in your diet is knowing how to classify foods into their basic source of protein, carbohydrates, and fats as well as how they are used in your body. The second step is mastering portion. Knowing how many calories you consume from each food source and what your serving sizes are will enable you to balance your meals. Eating this way can be easily incorporated into your lifestyle - it’s a plan you can stick with over time.

So let’s begin by seeing how foods are broken down into their basic components of protein, carbohydrates, and fats and how your body uses them. In this post we'll talk about Protein.

Protein

Protein is a necessary part of every living cell in your body. Next to water, protein comprises up the greatest portion of your body weight. Protein substances make up your muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, nails, hair, and many vital body fluids. It is essential for the growth, repair, and healing of your bones, tissues, and cells. In addition, the enzymes and hormones that catalyze and regulate your body processes are comprised of protein. So, you see the proper amount of protein in your diet is vital for your health and wellbeing.

Protein is composed of building-block chemicals called amino acids. There are approximately 28 commonly known amino acids that your body uses to create all the various combinations of proteins needed for survival. These 28 commonly known amino acids are further classified as essential and nonessential amino acids. Nonessential amino acids can be produced in your body, while essential amino acids cannot be produced in your body and must be obtained from the foods you eat.

The sources of protein in your diet are classified as complete or incomplete. Complete proteins contain all the essential amino acids and are mostly from animal sources such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. Incomplete proteins lack one or more essential amino acids that your body cannot make itself. Incomplete proteins usually come from plant- based sources such as fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts. You must eat incomplete sources of protein in a combination that contains all the essential amino acids in order for your body to use them.

As mentioned, you must get your essential amino acids from your diet because your body cannot make them itself. Some of the best animal sources of protein are fish, poultry, lean cuts of meat, and low-fat dairy products. Some of the best vegetable sources are beans, nuts, and whole grains.

So, now you must be thinking how much protein should be in your daily diet? According to research on this topic, people who consume higher amounts of protein while cutting back on their carbohydrate intake, tend to lose weight faster and stay leaner than those people on low-fat diets.  Research by Dr. Donald Layman, one of the foremost experts on protein synthesis reveals that consuming 30 grams of protein at each of these meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner has an effect of reducing blood sugar and causing your body to build and maintain healthy muscle.

The reason higher protein, lower carbohydrates diets are more conducive to weight loss and maintenance is interesting. First, high-protein foods slow the movement of food from the stomach to the intestines, meaning you feel full longer and don’t get hungry as often. Second, protein has a leveling effect on your blood sugar which means you are less likely to get spikes in your blood sugar that lead to cravings for more carbohydrates. Third, your body uses more energy to digest protein than it does to digest fat or carbohydrates.

Now that you know how important protein is in your diet here are some good sources of protein listed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help you with you serving sizes.

1 ounce meat, fish, poultry equals 7 grams of protein

1 large egg equals 6 grams of protein

4 ounces milk equal 4 grams of protein

4 ounces low-fat yogurt equals 6 grams of protein

4 ounces soy milk equals 5 grams of protein

3 ounces tofu, firm equals 13 grams of protein

1 ounce cheese equals 7 grams of protein

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese equals 14 grams of protein

1/2 cup cooked kidney beans equals 7 grams of protein

1/2 cup lentils equals 9 grams of protein

1 ounce nuts equals 7 grams of protein

2 tablespoons peanut butter equals 8 grams of protein

1/2 cup vegetables equals 2 grams of protein

1 slice bread equals 2 grams of protein

1/2 cup of most grains/pastas equals 2 grams of protein

I hope this helps you start to understand how to balance your meals.  In my next post I'll talk about carbohydrates.

Dr. Layman has developed the most balanced dietary plan that I have seen in my 20 years in the health and fitness industry.  It's a system called Metaboliq manufactured by a company called Qivana.  I follow this system everyday in my diet.  Please send me an email at darvis@fit-to-be.com if wish to receive more information about this amazing weight management system.

I Eat a Healthy Breakfast

I was meeting with a new client for the first time last week, and I ask the him what he typically ate for breakfast to which his reply was, "I eat a healthy breakfast which consist of bran cereal with skim milk, a piece of fruit, and a glass on orange juice."  I dare to say that if you asked most people they would probably think my client was eating a very healthy breakfast each morning.

So, I pointed out to my client that while he thought he had eaten a well rounded healthy breakfast, his meal was missing something very important, protein.  "Why is protein so important," he asked?  Then I explained that everything he had eaten that morning except for the skim milk was all carbohydrates and it would all be converted into blood sugar in his body and thus cause a rise in his insulin level to store most of what he had eaten as body fat.  I further explained importance of having protein in his breakfast to balance this insulin response, to vitalize his lean muscle mass, and cause his body to burn body fat rather than store it.

Unfortunately, most people eat a very high carbohydrate based breakfast and put their bodies in fat storage mode first thing in the morning.  Eating this way not only causes spikes in your insulin level, it also causes crashes in your energy level, and leads to craving more high carbohydrate foods.  It's what I call the vicious carb cycle.

On the other hand, a balanced breakfast of about 30 grams of protein, and 30 grams of complex carbohydrates starts your morning by stabilizing your blood sugar and vitalizing lean muscle to burn body fat.  Eating this way causes you to feel energized and satisfied until your next meal.  I recently found the perfeclyt balanced breakfast called Metaboliq created by Dr. Donald K. Layman, a world-renowned expert in obesity, diabetes, and sports nutrition.

Until I found the Metaboliq system, I made my own shake for breakfast which consisted of whey protein, fresh berries, and flax seed oil.  About 18 months ago I tried the Metaboliq shake for breakfast and I have been using them every since.  The first thing I noticed about the Metaboliq shake was the increase in my energy level. Then, after about 3 months I noticed that my waist was getting smaller and I was getting leaner without changing anything else in my diet or my workouts.

I started recommending the Metaboliq system to my clients and they have seen similar results.  So, as you have always heard; "breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

The Right Carbohydrates in Your Diet is Important to Your Health

Maintaining a steady blood sugar level is a very important component of healthy eating.  Your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, and some are converted into blood sugar faster than others. Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level which causes you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods. While other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly, leveling out you blood sugar, resulting in less hunger, and less food cravings.

For this reason, the Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to classify how quickly your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar as compared to pure glucose. Glucose has a GI of 100, and all other carbohydrate based foods are ranked against it. Foods with a score of 70 or more are defined as having a high GI while those with a score of 55 or less are considered as low.

Eating lots of food with a high GI causes spikes in your blood sugar level which can lead to many health issues such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. While eating low GI foods causes your blood sugar level to stay even thus, keeping your energy level balanced, and causing you to fill fuller longer between meals. The following are some additional benefits of eating low GI carbohydrates.

· Helps you to lose and manage weight your weight.
· Increases your body's sensitivity to insulin.
· Decreases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
· Reduces your risk of heart disease.
· Improves your blood cholesterol levels
· Reduces hunger and keep you fuller for longer.
· Helps you prolong physical activity.
· Helps you to re-fuel your carbohydrate stores after exercise.

The GI is very interesting because some foods that you intuitively think would have a high rating do not. For instance, fructose which is fruit sugar has a minimal effect on blood sugar while white bread and French-fried potatoes are nearly converted to blood sugar as fast as pure glucose. In other words, you can’t classify foods as having a high or low GI according to the sweetness of taste. Many factors affect a foods GI such as:

· Processing: Grains that have been milled and refined have a higher GI

· Type of starch: Starches come in many different configurations. Some are easier to break into sugar     molecules than others. For example, starch in potatoes is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream relatively quickly.

· Fiber content: The sugars in fiber are linked in a way that is hard for your body to break down. Thus, the more fiber a food has, the less digestible carbohydrate, and consequently the less sugar it can deliver into your blood stream.

· Fat and acid content: The more fat or acid a food contains, the slower its carbohydrates are converted to sugar and absorbed into your bloodstream.

· Physical form: Finely ground grain is more rapidly digested, and so has a higher GI than more coarsely ground grain.

So, you see incorporating carbohydrates that have a low GI in your diet is very important to your overall health.  You can get the GI rating of hundreds of carbohydrate based foods from the Glycemic Index Foundation, sponsored by the University of Sydney in Australia. They maintain a searchable database of over 1600 entries at http://www.glycemicindex.com.