Carbs are Essential to Your Energy, Fitness and Health
Knowing which carbs to eat and how to incorporate them into your diet will give you the edge you are looking for in your energy.
What is this ever-so-popular subject about? Diets have been built around it and diets have totally cut it out. Why?
It is the shortened word for 'carbohydrates' and it consists of the foods that your body will break down into glucose, or sugar.
There are two things you need to know:
1. Which are the best ones for you; and
2. How to eat them - and I don't mean the way you cook - but the amounts you consume and when you eat them.
'Good' carbohydrates?
There are simple and complex carbohydrates. Simple includes the sugars that are digested and absorbed the easiest by your body and are found naturally in milk, fruit and some vegetables. These types of foods have essential vitamins and minerals that are needed in your diet.
Simple carbohydrates are also found in sodas, cakes, cookies and other processed products that use refined sugars as ingredients. These are very bad foods for your health, physique and energy!
Complex are found in starches and fibers like in potatoes, beans, corn, brown rice, oats and whole wheat products.
These types of foods help you feel fuller longer. They have to be digested before being used for energy, unlike the simple sugars that can be absorbed and used quickly.
So which are the best to consume? I always suggest that whole and raw foods are the best for you. Fresh vegetables, fruits, boiled beans, steamed brown rice and baked potatoes are great choices.
Cupcakes, sugary cereals, cakes, donuts and white bread products are the foods that will bring you down in more ways than one: bring down your energy by spiking your blood sugar then crashing and bringing down all of that hard work you put into burning off the fat.
How to eat carbohydrates
Fruits, yogurts and grains are best eaten when you are going to use your energy; earlier in the day, the better. Proteins take longer to digest and can be eaten at lunch and dinner.
You can do this two ways:
1. Eat 6 mini-meals a day with balanced proportions of carbs and protein; or
2. Eat your fruits, grains earlier in the day and vegetables and proteins later, for lunch and dinner.
