Why Eating Too Many Carbs Is Bad for You

12-05pm

Today we had Professor Tim Noakes and Dr Neville Wellington in the studio for an our of discussion about the importance of eating a diet low in carbohydrates and how it relates to diabetes.

What came out very clearly this morning is that carbohydrates are broken down into sugar.

From what I gather, in layman’s terms, it’s like this:

Whatever you eat, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, chocolate, cake, fruit  it all gets broken down into sugar which is processed via the liver. When the liver’s sugar storage system is full, the liver makes fatty acids out of it, sends them back into the blood stream and they get deposited in all the places you feel ‘fat’ eg round your waist, belly, breast, hips etc. If you don’t control yourself and cut back on what you eat,  the fat problem continues to grow. Then the fat starts affecting the body’s organs such as your heart, kidneys, liver resulting in disease such as high blood pressure, diabetes and a lower immunity. That’s all bad news for those who love to eat a lot. Sorry to say, but there’s MORE bad news!

Enter insulin. Insulin is a primary hormone, created in the pancreas. It is released in high doses every time you eat something that contains high fructose corn syrup.  Foods include sweetened ‘low fat’ yoghurt, pizza, regular bread, cereal bars, salted peanuts, canned fruit – this is just to name a few. Almost all processed foods or snacks that are found in packets or boxes will contain high fructose corn syrup. As soon as you eat the stuff, your insulin level goes sky high and that shuts down your fat burning ability, so the body can use all this sugar for energy – it needs to get rid of it, so that’s priority number one. The sugar is sent to the muscles to make them operate efficiently. When they have enough, the sugar is once again turned into fatty acids and stored as fat.

If you have  ever wondered why you just can’t stop eating high carbohydrate foods. It’s probably because metabolically, your body is in a shambles.  Ben Greenfield wrote an article on the Pacific Elite Fitness website, spelling it out. In it he  adds that after the process has ensured all this sugar is now either in the cells or being stored as fat,  insulin does not immediately stop being produced.  The ongoing release of insulin results in a lower than normal blood sugar level, which has you reaching for more food “to get your blood sugar level up” and the whole process is repeated. More fat around your waist and metabolic chaos. Apart from obvious weight gain, other side effects of this metabolic roller coaster ride includes lethargy, depression, immune system issues, allergies and chronic fatigue syndrome.

I hope this makes sense to you and gives you some direction as far as your diet goes. We are all unique, so experiment with cutting carbs & sugar and see how it works for you.  So many have had so much success. If this is your first visit here, check out the LCHF section for food suggestions and eating plans.

In ending…

What do you hold so close to your heart, that you can just never speak about it or it causes great pain for you to do so. I know I have one or two deep seated issues that I don’t like to reflect upon.

2 Timothy 1:12

“I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”

There are always going to be things we keep close to our hearts – things we feel so deeply about that quite often we can’t put them into words. Sometimes emotional pain cuts so deep, we feel we are dying inside. If that is you today, trust those feelings, those confused thoughts and that unmanageable ache to God. He can take care of it for you. Leave it with Him. He knows what you have gone through. He knows the multitude of things you just don’t understand and He can give you peace in confusion. Don’t let emotional pain overwhelm you. Give it over to the Lord so He can guard it and by relieving you of that pain, He guards your heart too, allowing you to live in freedom.

God bless you today!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂