GOOD AND BAD CARBS

Good carbs are natural, bad carbs are processed. Simple as that! I wouldn't worry about carbs...that's so Atkins..HA. I mean ideally, you could eat 5 Snicker's bars each day and be within your calories and still lose weight. Honestly, stick with whole foods as much as you can, and you'll lose the weight. I guess I've never given much thought to carbs...now you have me wondering. Maybe I should. Could someone explain it to me why I should care?

Good carbs are natural, bad carbs are processed. Simple as that! I wouldn't worry about carbs...that's so Atkins..HA. I mean ideally, you could eat 5 Snicker's bars each day and be within your calories and still lose weight. Honestly, stick with whole foods as much as you can, and you'll lose the weight. I guess I've never given much thought to carbs...now you have me wondering. Maybe I should. Could someone explain it to me why I should care?

This isn't really true. It's a little bit of an oversimplification.

A snickers bar for example, releases massive amounts of the simple sugar sucrose into the body with little fiber to slow the digestive process, this sends the excess sugar into the blood stream because there is too much to process, the overdose of sugar does 2 things, 1st it raises your LDL and blood glucose levels giving you that "sugar high" followed by a crash, and 2nd it also deposits some of that extra sugar in the form of adipose fat (insulin is released, which grabs free glucose and stores it as fat in cells). One side note, Fruit sugar is NOT considered a simple carb for our purposes, it doesn't spike the blood sugar levels.

Even though you stay within your daily calories, eating a ton of sucrose type sugars (simple sugar) will overload the metabolism and trigger fat storage. It's important to note that when food becomes body fat, it is now more difficult to convert back to fuel, which means the body isn't going to use it as efficiently.

Now, about simple vs complex carbs. All carbs are a form of sugar (essentially). What we really want is that sugar to be difficult for the body to break down, as this will stream constant energy to the body over a period of hours, complex carbs go through a long period to go from their starch and fiber content to sugar as there are many complex molecule chains to break down in the stomach and instestines. Simple sugars break down fast, releasing a firestorm of energy into the body, good if your doing a 1000 meter run, but not if you are walking around the house or driving a car.
You can Identify what type of carb you are eating by checking the nutritional info. things with whole grains, lots of fiber and no processed flours are usually complex carbohydrates. Any sugar or carb that has "processed" or "refined" in it's name is usually simple, also the word "white" next to sugar or any type of cereal product is usually a dead give away.

I know this is long, but I hope it helps.
The idea is to eat enough food at any one time to fuel your body and keep your metabolism thinking everything is A-OK, but not too much to cause insulin release, or to eat too little and cause the metabolism to panic and start slowing down the metabolism. Either of these last 2 scenarios trigger fat storage. That's why me and many others harp on eating smaller meals (and snacks) throughout the day, spreading out your energy intake. Because gorging on any one meal or any 1 type of food will usually trigger fat storage.

Banks1850, I was wondering how you feel about simple baked potatoes (no toppings)... I have tried doing a little research on this, but I can not get a clear answer on whether it's good or bad for you.

Thanks

Thank you!

Thank you!

Any time my dear. Ooh, winter haven. Old Red Sox stomping ground.

Tampa Bay Rays all the way! At least my husband would be happy I said that ;0)