As you may recall from before, carbohydrates are what give energy to your body. They give energy to your body in two forms, one of them in the form of glucose and the other in the form of sugar. Now, there are two types of carbohydrates, simple and complex. Where can you find these two types of sugars? Well, simple carbohydrates can be found in candy, fruits and baked goods. On the other hand, complex carbohydrates can be found in vegetables, who grains, beans, and nuts.
Now, today's Americans are consuming carbohydrates in great excess. Carbohydrates can be found in most foods and beverages available in the market. There is one big problem however. The problem is that our bodies do not need carbohydrates. Yes, you heard right, our bodies do not need carbohydrates to survive and by this we mean that it is not necessary to consume carbohydrates for survival. So if you weren't able to eat carbohydrates and as long as you had enough proteins, fats, and minerals, everything would be ok. Yes you wouldn't die of starvation.
In order to change the way we are currently going, it is important to limit the amount of grans, beans, and sugar, fructose that we are currently consuming. That is why it is crucial to learn what is our level of insulin and then to use the results to take the necessary steps to bringing the insulin level under control.
It is important to limit sweeteners whenever possible, including honey, syrup, and molasses. Furthermore, it is important to eliminate rice, potatos, and corn if drastic measures have to be taken to bring your health up the level where it should be.
Indeed, taking care of your body requires serious changes in your eating havings. Some of these changes are hard to make, such as limit sugar consumption and grain consumption. Yet these changes are essential.
In the previous post we covered fats in more detailed. We learned that there are fats that are no good for you, but that there is also fats that, even though they have been highly criticized by the media and nutrition specialists, are actually pretty good for you too. One example are saturated fats, which help with slower food absorption and to transport very important vitamins throughout your body.
Now, in addition to learning how to differentiate between monosaturated fats, saturated fats, and transaturated fats, it is also important to learn about omega 3 and omega 6 fats. So, let's start with omega 3 fats. Omega 3 fats help, first of all, improve cells' response to insulin. Also, these fats help to repair damaged cells.
Yet there is a tremendous difference between omega 3 fats and omega 6 fats. Research shows that while omega 3 fats are actually good for you, omega 6 fats can actually contribute to inflammation, insulin resistance, altering mood, and impairing cell repair. Thus, not taking control of which fats you are consuming can really contribute to higher risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimers, arthritis, and other illnesses.
Indeed, the ratio between omega 3's and omega 6's in today's world is out of whack. The ideal ratio is actually 1:1 but this is not all of common today. In fact, in America, the ratio is 15:1 to 50:1. It is essential that in order to prevent heart disease, depression, cancer, arthritis, diabetes and hyperactivity among other diseases.
Now, what are some sources where you can get omega 3 fats from? Well, omega 3 can be found in flaxseed. Yet omega 3 has two very important fatty acids that only be found in fish and krill oil. These two fatty acids are DHA and EPA. One negative about fish oil is that most of the fish consume today is poisoned with mercury. Thus, it is usually not a good idea to consume krill oil to obtain all the necessary ingredients that are part of omega 3's.
Today, there is much controversy amount the topic of nutritional fats. Yes, it is a common belief that fats equal negative consequences, heart problems, clogged arteries, and many other health problems. Yet, fats also have played and play a very important role in our health. Indeed, fat plays a very important role even in how are brain works and functions. In fact, 60% of our brain is fat.
Now, in this article we will learn more about the different types of fats and how they contribute to our health. The first type of fats that we will consider are saturated fats. These types of fats can be found in cream, whole milk, and animal products. Coconuts are also another source of saturated fats.
Today is believed widely that saturated fats are detrimental to your health. Yet, saturated fats have a many benefits. For one, they help slow down absorption. This means that it helps you go longer without feeling hungry. Also, fats help to transport fat soluble vitamins and it is also necessary for mineral absorption and other processes that are very important to one's health.
Now, there are different types of saturated fats but in general it is safe to say that these types of saturated fats do not increase your cholesterol. Instead, they raise your good cholesterol, in general, more than they raise the bad cholesterol. What are some sources of saturated fats? These sources include avocados, butter, raw dairy, coconuts and coconut oil, raw nuts, and grass fed meats.
Now that we have learned that saturated fats are not as dangerous as people would like to believe, lets learn more about transaturated fats and monosaturated fats. Trans fats are fats from vegetable oil hardens and can raise bad cholesterol. Furthermore, these type of fats also lower the good type of cholesterol Thus, trans fats are responsible in many cases for being an important factor in the clogging of arteries, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
Finally, monosaturated fats are generally quite good for your health. In fact, research shows that eating foods that are high in monosaturated fats helps to improve blood cholesterol levels and can help to decrease the rist of heart disease.
Today, low intensive exercise for a long period of time is very popular. Yet, research is now suggesting that something much more efficient is high intensity exercises. While there are benefits to conventional aerobic exercise, the secret to training more efficiently rests in these high intensity exercises, which activate the muscles to grow. High intensity exercise, in addition, enlarges the glucose storage reservoir in the muscles.
Another reason that aerobic exercises do not have the effect that they could has to do with the diets that are common now days. Today, it is common that sugars and processed foods are one of the main component of the foods we eat. Today, most people are eating too many carbohydrates. Yet, the body's need for sugar is not high. So, the extra sugar is turned into fat. Yes, the truth of the matter is that people get fat from eating carbohydrates that turn into fat instead of getting fat from eating fat.
Remember that before we explained that high intensity exercise enlarges glucose storage reservoirs in the muscle? This is particularly good because when the storage is full, then what happens is that the body doesn't find anywhere to put it, so sugar is converted into fat. Yes, when we dump an excess of carbohydrates, especially dietary sugars, into our bodies, the result is that the body doesn't know how to metabolize them and as a result we become fat.
Now, that is where we are doing wrong to keep us healthy. While exercise is very important, the most important factor to keeping us healthy has to do with the diet we eat. The diet accounts for 80% of our health while exercise accounts for only 20%. This means that we have to pay extra special attention to our diet, which should not be centered on grains, sugars, and fructose.
Now, to exercise right, the key is to aggressively work out the muscle to fatigue. This has the benefit of improving the metabolic capability of the muscle and it will also cause it to grow. Some movements that are key are pull down, chess press, compound row, overhead press, and leg press. Also, it is key to left as slow and gradually as possible. Then, it is also important to repeat until exhaustion.
Today, obesity, diabetes, and heart diseases are daily occurrences. One of the main reasons behind this is the easy access to cheap but unhealthy fast foods. Fast food today is high in grains, high in sugars, and high in meat from animals that have been raised in a setting that resembles more a factory than a farm. The food that we are consuming is full of dangerous chemicals and is really not that healthy.
Of course, one big attractive point of such food is that it is really inexpensive. Indeed, it is possible to buy a burger for $1.00 and a soft drink for about that same price.
Another factor that contributes to the health problems that we are facing is the widespread consumption of sugary drinks. Today, most Americans are drinking much more soda and sugary drinks. This, in turn, is contributing to the heart diseases, diabetes,, and obesity. Fast food will give you extra calories that can harm your body, a variety of foreign chemicals that can lead to disease, and the probabilities that you will pay the price for cheap food with very expensive health bills.
Now, what is there to do? Sometimes it seems as if all the options available have to do with fast food restaurants. But not all is lost. There are things you can do to eat healthy and on a budget. First, it is important to find a person who will be the designed person to cook. Of course, there can be more than one individual but the idea is to always have someone who will be at the kitchen and who will be responsible for the preparation of meals.
Equally important is the idea of planning your meals. This means planning ahead of time what you will be cooking each week so that you can then take the time to find all the necessary ingredients. It can be real disconcerting and discouraging to not be able to cook a meal one day. This often results in one going back to fast food restaurants to get meals. Yet planning is not an impossible thing to do.
