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5 Important Reasons Why You Should Avoid This One Type Of Food At All Costs!
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If you read a great deal of diet and health articles you have probably noticed that many people are all a twitter about high protein, low carb diets.
One thing that they don’t always mention is that not all carbohydrates are created equal. There are plenty of natural foods that are high in carbs but are very nutritious and good for you.
What we are going to discuss in this article is the difference between refined carbs and natural carbs.
Almost every single nutrition expert will tell you that people should limit or avoid refined carbs for improved health. Unfortunately, this type of carbohydrate is inexpensive and is found in huge quantities in almost every corner of the world.
Let’s take a look at what refined carbs are and why you should be avoiding them at all costs.
1. What Exactly Is a Refined Carb?
Refined carbs, sometimes called simple carbs or processed carbs, can be broken down into two different types.
- Refined grains – This type of carb comes from grains, such as wheat, that has been refined to the point that all the fiber and nutrition have been removed. White flour is the largest type of refined grain sold worldwide.
- Sugar – This type of carb comes from processed and refined sugar such as table sugar, agave syrup, and high fructose corn syrup, for example.
The problem with these types of carbohydrates is that they are digested very quickly by your body. This gives them a high glycemic index, which means that these types of carbs are treated exactly like sugar and lead to rapid spikes in your blood sugar, therefore rapid spikes in insulin, after you consume them.
Study after study has shown that eating foods that are high on the glycemic index leads to overeating, obesity, and diabetes, as well as many other types of disease.
Unfortunately, these types of carbs are very inexpensive and make up the main source of calories in most parts of the world. The main sources of these types of carbs come from white bread, pasta, rice, sodas, sweets, doughnuts, breakfast cereal, and other sugary snacks such as cookies.
These unhealthy carbs are also a major part of almost every type of processed food that you can imagine.
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2. Refined Carbs Increase the Risk of Health Problems
Heart disease is the number one killer throughout the world, not just in America. Diabetes is also a very common disease around the world, with an estimated 300 million people being affected by it. Persons who have diabetes also have a higher risk of developing heart disease.
Numerous studies have shown that eating a diet high in refined carbohydrates is linked to high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and the development of type-2 diabetes.
These dangerous types of carbs also increase triglyceride levels in the body, which is a huge risk factor for developing both diabetes and heart disease.
One study out of China found that adults who consumed more than 85 percent of their total carb intake from refined carbs were three times more likely to develop heart disease.
3. Refined Carbs are Nutrition Poor
Whole, natural grains are very high in fiber, containing bran (the hard outside layer), germ (the nutrient rich core), and the endosperm (the middle layer which contains mostly carbs).
It is the bran and the germ that are the most nutritious parts of any whole grain. These important parts are what contain the healthy fiber, iron, magnesium, B vitamins, manganese, and selenium.
Unfortunately, when grains are processed, the bran and germ are removed or destroyed. This means you are left with nothing but the endosperm, which contains no vitamins, minerals, or fiber. In fact, if you pay attention to most bread labels, they will state that their flour is “reinforced” or “enriched” with certain vitamins or minerals. They need to do this because otherwise there would be absolutely no nutritional value.
Don’t believe that these synthetic additives make bread or other refined carbs healthy, however. Your body does not accept synthetic vitamins and minerals the same way that it does natural compounds. Your body is smart enough to know the difference!
Diet’s high in these types of nutritionally vacant foods are also low in fiber, which greatly increases your risk of developing colorectal cancer.
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4. Refined Carbs Lead to Overeating
Eating a diet high in these refined carbs is one of the driving factors behind today’s obesity epidemic. Since these types of carbs are low in fiber and are easily digested, these foods can cause serious swings in blood sugar. This often leads to overeating as your body attempts to stabilize those blood sugar levels.
This is because refined carbs do induce a feeling of fullness and satiety, but it is short lived. After eating a meal or snack high in refined carbs, you will feel happy and satisfied for about an hour, more or less. Then your blood sugar drops, so your body tells you that it is hungry again so it can increase the sugar level in the blood. This bouncing back and forth leads to reward behavior, where your body sends out certain signals so that you will reward it with more sugar or other type of refined carb.
Long term studies have shown that a diet high in these types of carbs leads to a significant increase in belly fat, the most dangerous type.
5. Not All Carbs are Bad However
After reading these things about carbs, you might be ready to swear them off forever, but hold on a minute! Not all carbs are created equal! Some foods that are rich in carbs are very healthy for you. These include whole foods the way that Mother Nature intended them to be. Some of the best high carb foods are fruits, beans, lentils, potatoes, carrots, all vegetables, corn (non-GMO of course) and whole grains such as oats and barley.
READ ALSO: 12 Foods That Should NEVER Be On Your Plate
Unless your doctor has prescribed a specific low-carb diet, you should never be afraid to eat whole carbohydrate foods from Mother Earth.
References:
American Beverage Association
Feb 2, 2016 at 8:41 am
When it comes to achieving or maintaining a healthy weight, all calories count and physical activity is a key component of a healthy lifestyle. Interestingly, as sugar-sweetened beverage intake has declined over that past several decades, other
sources of calories have increased dramatically. In fact, fats, oils and starches comprise a whopping 84 percent of the added calories Americans are taking in, whereas all sugar-sweetened beverages combined comprise just 6% of the calories in the average American diet. The important message here, we believe, is that education can continue to help propel positive health behavior change – a shift that applies to overall diet, not one category of products.