All these food rules.
I’ve heard of people making themselves really ill by literally just eating protein and very little else.
Carbs or carbohydrate rich foods, have now become synonymous with celebrity fad diets. Fad diets full stop.
What do you think of when someone says they don’t eat ‘carbs’? Egg-white omelet anyone?
What do you class as carbs anyway? Pasta? Bread? Cake?! Well, yes these are carbohydrate rich foods. But carbohydrates are found in all foods.
Since the Atkins diet came on the scene in an article in Vogue magazine in 1970, the spotlight has been on high starch foods. Namely that they cause weight gain.
The Atkins way of eating is extreme as it limits fruit and vegetable consumption. But it was ahead of its time with the thinking that sugar was causing us problems. And that fat was not the baddy of the nutritional story.
But in the 70’s the world had no idea that sugar would cause us as many problems as it is today.
Glucose is the most basic of carbohydrates. It is used by our bodies as energy. The sun shines on a plant and what grows is a food source that can convert the suns energy into a useable fuel for us.
So eating a myriad of vegetables will provide us with carbohydrates without having to resort to bread, pasta, rice or cake!
Yet over and over again we are told that we must get a ‘balanced diet’ which should include those foods. Even better we are told are the brown versions of them.
So a diet without them is not balanced? And who exactly is telling us that these foods are vital?
The people selling us said products that’s who. Labeled ‘natural’, ‘wholegrain’, ‘good for you’. The people that say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, that filling yourself with a carb heavy, sugar laden cereal will be the only way to keep you ‘regular’ and give you enough energy to make it all the way to lunch!
Think about how they play on your mind for weight loss, like the Special K drop a jean size with 2 bowls a day campaign. Nutritionally balanced? I think not. But in desperation many have tried it. The high carb, low fat mantra has been with us for way too long and it doesn’t work, full stop.
Do yourself a favour. Try just for one week to get rid of your high starch foods. Just a week, it’s no time. Avoid bread, pasta, cereal, rice and potatoes. Eat high fat things such as cheese, nuts, coconut, meat, fish and all veg apart from potatoes……and see how you feel afterwards.
The recipes are on this website.
But I’ll bet you will feel more energetic, clearer minded and less bloated. You may even drop a few pounds without really trying.
Why does that happen? High starch foods basically load your system with glucose and for the body to process it it slows down. If you are eating high starch foods breakfast, lunch and dinner the body never gets a rest and it will lead to weight gain. The body stores the excess as fat. Most people would have cereal for breakfast or toast, then a sandwich for lunch and rice, pasta or potatoes for dinner. And each time you eat a high starch food it will cause a craving for the next ‘hit’. Ever noticed if you eat a big starchy dinner like a big bowl of pasta one evening, the next morning you’re extra hungry?
If you swap your cereal for scrambled eggs and fried mushrooms in the morning you will have a lot more energy to see you through and it will cut down the sugar cravings too, that need for a mid morning biscuit with your cuppa.
So the bottom line is eating the right carbs. A no-carb diet is wrong and is detrimental to your health. But getting rid of really high starch carbs is advisable. You’ll have plenty of carbohydrates with a diet that includes plenty of veg.
Eating scrambled eggs with fried mushrooms and tomatoes (bacon too) or a stir fry oozing with sesame oil and bursting with flavour is surely nicer than eating a bowl of cardboard-like-no-resemblance-to-real-food-Special-K twice a day isn’t it?!
