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 the three day eating plan.
I also have put up my guidelines for LCHF and sourced loads of information which gives you the basics of LCHF
Have fun!
Helga