Carbohydrate Schmarbohydrate: Balance Your Blood Sugar to Lose Weight

If you have been struggling with weight control for most of your life, you've probably been told that there is something about your body (genetic or functional) that interferes with the way you process food.

What if that wasn't entirely true? What if there was something that you could change about your diet that would improve the way you process food so that the weight would drop off?

There is. We can reign the overindulgence of simple and refined carbohydrates that is overwhelming our metabolism and keeping us constantly off balance. Why carbs? Carbs don't exist in a vacuum; they are broken down into sugar without very much effort by the body. Sugar is a source of energy on one hand, but we use such concentrated amounts that we can't make use of all the potential energy. Not only do we store it in fat, but we also have a difficult time managing the high levels of sugar that get dumped into our bloodstream. (If you would like more information on how sugar affects the body, I suggest this NY Times article.)

A better way to use donuts - as a flash drive!

When you eat a donut, for example, you get a sugar bump immediately (hello sugary glaze!), followed by another bump once you unlock the carbs. The flip-side is that your body produces a ton of insulin to stabilize your blood sugar, and after about a hundred donuts or so, it starts to build up. Now you can't process the sugar properly and you get - not diabetes at first - but metabolic syndrome (extra weight around the middle that just doesn't go away).

Craving a ton of carbs is common when we eat every 6-8 hours because our bodies are screaming by the end of that fast. With all that extra insulin from the hundred donuts, it's easy for our blood sugar to really bottom out. Without stores of energy, your body panics, and you panic. Eating every 3 hours disrupts the feast/famine cycle, and I guarantee you'll see a pleasing change in your mood.

First, you'll want to see how many carbs are in the foods you love. Are there foods in your diet that have 60g or more carbs per serving? That's enough for the whole day! Here are some examples of some "healthy" foods that are actually carbohydrate bombs: one banana has about 27g, a cup of pinto beans has about 43g. Eat two of either and you've eaten your allotted carbs for the day, and you're still hungry! Root vegetables such as potatoes are higher in carbs than leafy vegetables or fibrous stalks. Fruit is high in carbs because of fructose.

Simple vegetables, herbs, and butter.
I do this all the time at home and find it delicious.
(Click the link for the recipe.)

More importantly, what foods are low in carbs?  Squash, spinach, herbs, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, onion, and of course, eggs, butter, and fish. Don't forget nuts! I could go on.

The beauty of this approach is that you can use butter and other healthy fats. If you have been avoiding fat and cholesterol for health purposes, I highly advise that you read this NY Times article about the perception of fats in the United States. Enjoy the advent of your return to the community of cheese-, egg-, and butter-lovers.

While you may have genetic or cultural limitations that affect your body's response to sugar and carbs, these are weaknesses which can be overcome by giving yourself the proper building blocks. And I guarantee that they're not in that donut.