10 answers to common questions

While I like the of making this a sticky/tab/homepage thing, I think it would be even MORE useful simply to have a search engine for the forums. Then you could easily search for questions that have already been asked, or recipes with chicken, or stuff like that...

there is a search engine. At the top of the forums, one of the options is Search. Though it's not all that intuitive. It works ok.

Tis my pleasure. I enjoy helping when I can. It's a journey guys, just never stop trying to learn and you'll do ok, that's my philosophy, and it seems to be working pretty well.

it was pointed out that It would behoove me to state the difference between good carbs and bad carbs.

so without getting too deep into it I'll offer up a quick explaination.

technically speaking a bad carb is a "simple carb" which means that it is in a semi digested (processed) state already. Usually the process by which a carb is converted (as other than simple sugars, most carbs are complex in nature) from complex to simple also strips the carbohydrate of much of it's micro nutrients (such as vitamins, minerals, fiber), so one thing to look for when trying to figure out if a carb is a good or bad carb is whether the terms "enriched" or "bleached" are in the ingredients list, if they are, it's likely you're looking at (at least partially) simple carbs.

Also, the milling process can convert complex carbs to simple, I.E. turning wheat from a complex carb (in it's native grain form) into a fine powder. Companies do this for a multitude of reasons, from ease of transport and storage, to the ability to create more end products with it. They will attempt to "fool" the consumer (although it's not a very well kept secret) by adding nutrients back into the powder (I.E. the term enriched) by adding vitamins and minerals. But don't be fooled, those micro nutrients are not in the same form they are when originally in the grains, and thus the body does not absorb them the same way (or usually as effectively) therefore you don't receive the same benefits.

So why are semi-processed carbs so bad? Well think of the stomach and intestines as a complex milling machine and separator. When food goes to the stomach, the stomach acids begin to chemically break down the food, and this process continues in the intestines. Without getting too deep, simple carbs are already partially broken down, or to be more accurate, they are closer to the form they need to be in order for our body to use them. While in situations where we NEED energy quickly (as in right after a long, intense cardio workout) that's good in SMALL quantities, but at all other times of the day, all this will do is spike blood sugar and trigger insulin response and fat storage. When you have complex carbs, it takes far longer to break down the carbs into usable energy, thus giving your body time to use the energy being provided.

For instance, a piece of white bread is completely broken down and converted to sugar within about 30 minutes of being eaten, and since there's already some sugar in the body being used for fuel, and a regular piece of white bread contains about 70 calories of almost pure carbohydrates (for a .9 oz piece of bread), you're talking about 70 calories coursing through your body within 30 minutes, or 140 calories in 1 hour. Now if you are a guy like me, your awake resting metabolic rate is probably around 135 calories per hour, that means that piece of bread alone, would satisfy my energy needs for 1/2 an hour (not counting all the sugar already in my blood), the body can't use that much, so what does it do with the extra sugar? It turns it to fat, granted, not a lot of fat for 1 piece of bread (something on the order of a few grams I would imagine), but multiply that over days, weeks, months, and years of eating simple carbs, and you have the pattern for obesity.

Take 1 serving of steel cut oatmeal as a contrary argument. It's about 127 calories, and about twice the carbs of 1 piece of bread, but that oatmeal (assuming you don't top it with milk and sugar!) takes about 90 minutes to digest, THREE times as long, so even though it's almost twice the calories, you're actually looking at about 30 calories less over similar time spans, almost 1/2 as much sugar entering the blood. Again, a small difference for 1 meal, but add this up over the long term (months and years) and you're talking about many pounds of difference in adipose (body) fat.

FYI, almost all veggies that have carbohydrates (most do have some carbs, many have a relatively high amount of carbs) are complex carbs. While there are sugars in many veggies, they are many times locked up in fiber, which slows the digestion process (bacteria in the intestines can only lock onto carbs after the surrounding indigestible fiber has been released from them, which takes time) This is similar for fruit although most fruit has less fiber than most veggies, and fruit juice has almost NO fiber, which means the sugars are digested MUCH faster than solid fruit and/or veggies.

I know this is a long explanation but hope it helps someone.

-Banks

What brand of steel cut oatmeal are you getting for 127 calories? Mine is 150, hehe. By the way ... yum! I put a little banana and blueberries in it.

I dunno, I buy the cheapest.

which ever brand is on sale. LOL!