Carbohydrates-What, Why and How: One of the Essential Nutrients for Good Health (#2 in series)

 

You need 7 nutrients in your diet to prevent disease and maintain good health. They are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber, vitamins, minerals and water.

 

 

Carbohydrates, Proteins, fats and fiber are to referred as macronutrients.  Macro means large and you need these nutrients in large quantities.   Vitamins and mineral are known as your micronutrients and you these in small quantities. 

 

Last week you learned about protein.  This week you discover what are carbohydrates, why you need them and how to chooses the right ones.

 

Carbohydrates (CHO):

 

Carbohydrates have gotten a bad reputation over the past years.   It has been blamed for obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases.  There are many diets that restrict carbohydrate intake or claim you do not need them, which is just wrong.

 

You absolutely need carbohydrates in your diet.  Carbohydrates come in many forms and there are certain forms you should avoid, but carbohydrates are essential to a healthy diet

 

Why carbohydrates are important?

 

The primary function of carbohydrates is to supply energy for cells in the body. Your brain, nervous system and muscles are fueled mostly by glucose the simplest form of a carbohydrate.

 

The fiber in carbohydrates is needed for proper digestion, a healthy colon and helps stabilize blood glucose levels in the blood.

 

Eating adequate amounts of carbohydrates spares protein breakdown and prevents the loss of muscle mass.    

 

Carbohydrates prevent Ketosis, which is the breakdown of fatty acids in the body. Ketosis occurs when you your carbohydrate intake drops below 50g a day.  People often do it for rapid weight loss.   While you do lose weight on a ketogenic diet, it should only be attempted under a physician’s supervision (1).

 

What are Carbohydrates?

 

Carbohydrates are merely saccharides, which are sugar molecules.  Think of carbohydrates as a strand of beads.  The number of beads in the strand tells you what type of carbohydrate it is.  Some strands only have one or two beads.  These are your simple carbohydrates.  Simple carbohydrates can come in the form of monosaccharaides (one molecule of sugar) or disaccharides (two molecules of sugar). 

 

Other carbohydrates have many beads and these are your complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are either oligosaccharides (3-10 sugar molecules) or polysaccharides (10+ sugar molecules).

 

 

Eventually, all carbohydrates are broken down to into glucose.  It is the useable form of energy in your body.  Simple carbohydrates contain only one or two molecules of sugar and are easier for the body to break down to glucose.  The problem arises when you consume too many simple carbohydrates and cause an influx of glucose into the blood.

 

Over time, high blood glucose levels can lead to type 2 diabetes, CVD, stroke and other health problems.  This does not mean all simple carbohydrates are bad, but you should try to choose naturally occurring sugar opposed to added sugar.

 

Fructose is a naturally occurring simple sugar found in whole fruit.  It is a little special because it has to pass though the liver where it is converted to glucose.  This extra step slows down the metabolism of fructose by about half.  Many fruits also contain fiber that further slows its breakdown.  Whole fruits contain vitamins and minerals that your body needs too.    

 

Another naturally occurring simple sugar is lactose.  Lactose is found in milk and dairy products.  They are a major source of calcium in the diet and most are fortified with vitamin D.  Calcium is needed for strong bones and teeth, muscle contraction and proper heart rhythm.   

 

On the other hand, sugar added is done in the manufacturing process and has no health benefits.  Added sugars are literally everywhere.  You find them in soda, fruit juices, energy drinks, chocolate, baked goods, cereals, package goods, condiments, breads and ice cream to name a few.

 

You can check the food label for total grams of sugar, but you really should check the ingredient label.  There are about 60 different names manufactures use to describe added sugar.    Besides those ending in “ose,” such as maltose or sucrose, other names for sugar include high fructose corn syrup, molasses, cane sugar, corn sweetener, raw sugar, syrup, honey or fruit juice concentrates High fructose corn syrup is a big one and it is not the same as naturally occurring fructose. (2).

 

Processes or refined grains are complex carbohydrates by definition, but act more like simple carbohydrates in the body due manufacturing.  In manufacturing the whole grain is stripped of its bran and gem.  The endosperm is all that remains.

 

This process removes fiber, essential fatty acids, vitamin E, B vitamins and essential mineral.  You are left with a chain of simple sugar with many sugar molecules. 

 

Processors add back some vitamins and minerals to enrich refined grains, but they still do not provide as many nutrients as their whole grain counterparts. 

 

Products that include refined carbohydrates include packaged cereals, white bread, white rice, pasta, cakes, biscuits, sweets, candy, pastries, pies, white flour and many others.

 

 

Why do you need fiber?

 

 

Cellulose is where you get your fiber.  There is strong evidence that dietary fiber protects against CVD, obesity and type 2 diabetes.  Dietary fiber is also considered essential for optimal digestive health.  

 

Dietary fiber is found in the indigestible parts of plants.  There are two kinds of dietary fiber soluble and insoluble fiber.  Soluble fiber will dissolve in water.  It can bind with fatty acids and prolong stomach emptying so that sugar is released and absorbed more slowly. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insoluble fiber will not dissolve in water.  It moves bulk through the intestines and helps control the pH balance (acidity) in the intestines.  Both, soluble and insoluble fiber keeps your

gut healthy.

 

 

 

 

How much fiber do you need?

 

The RDA for fiber is 25.2g/day for an average healthy adult female and 33.6g/day for an average healthy adult male.  Most Americans do not come close to these amounts.  Foods high in dietary fiber include: fruits, vegetables, whole grain breads, oats, nuts, seeds, and most legumes.

 

 

How would you increase your daily fiber? 

 

 

 

Maybe you could have a high fiber cereal for breakfast (1/2 of cup: 9.1g), then some lentils (1/2 cup: 7.8g) at lunch and some whole wheat pasta (1/2 cup: 3.2g) at dinner and some raspberries (1/2 cup: 4g) in between meals.  If you are an adult female you are already there. 

 

One word of caution is portion size.  Would you only eat ½ cup of pasta or one ounce of nuts?  If not then you may want to just add them to food-like vegetables with pasta or grilled chicken with peanuts.  Remember calories do count.

 

 

 

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Protein-What, Why and How: One of the 7 Essential Nutrients for Good Health (#1 in series)

Learning the facts about nutrition will keep your head in the game and empowers you to make better decisions about your health.  You won’t be fool by fad diets that promise you fast results.  You will be able to tell when something is too good to be true. 

You need 7 nutrients in your diet to prevent disease and maintain good health. They are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber, vitamins, minerals and water.

​​

Carbohydrates, Proteins, fats and fiber are to referred as macronutrients.  Macro means large and you need these nutrients in large quantities.   Vitamins and mineral are known as your micronutrients and you these in small quantities. 

Water is a forgotten nutrient, but you could only survive a few days without it.  I talk about the benefits and functions of water in “Water is Vital for Good Health: Symptoms You Are Not Getting Enough.”

Macronutrients:

Do you know how many calories are in each macronutrient?  A gram of protein and carbohydrate provides 4 calories.  Yes, protein and carbohydrates provide the same amount of calories per a gram.  You may never think with all the media on how bad carbohydrates are for you. 

Fats are more energy dense and have 9 calories per a gram.  Alcohol provides 7 calories per a gram.  Alcohol is not a macronutrient, because we do not need it to survive.  Alcohol is empty calories

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All three macronutrients are necessary in certain amounts to ensure a functioning body and healthy metabolism.  Today I am going to talk about protein.

 

Protein:

When you think of protein you probably think amino acids and you are right.  There are 21 amino acids the body needs to function properly.  Some amino acids you make.  These are called non-essential amino acids-not because you do not need them, but because your body can make them.  Some amino acids you can’t make and you need to get them from your diet.  These are Essential Amino Acids. 

Some amino acids your body makes, but under certain conditions you may need more and need to get them from your diet.  These conditions include times of growth, pregnancy and sickness.  That is why they are called conditional amino acids.

 

​Why do you need amino acids?  Amino acids form different chains know as peptides.   The specialized sequence of these chains forms protein. 

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Your body needs these proteins to perform different jobs.  The primary function of protein in the body is the growth and repair of cells, but it has many other functions too.  Protein is needed to make enzymes.  Enzymes carry out complex processes in the body, like digestion.  All enzymes are protein. 

Protein can transport other nutrients, like the protein hemoglobin transports oxygen.  Some hormones are made from protein, like insulin and growth hormone.  Antibodies that fight off infection are proteins.   

Our body’s pH balance is maintained by protein. Our bodies need to stay at neutral pH to function properly and protein though its buffering function keeps our pH at this level.

Protein is also thought to be the most satisfying nutrient, making you feel full.

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The Institute of Medicine recommends that healthy sedentary adults get 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, which is .36 grams per pound of body weight. Sedentary is defines as less than 30 minutes of accumulated physical activity.   If you are active, sick of pregnant you would need more.  I’ll talk more about changes in energy requirements latter. 

If you weight 175lbs, then your protein requirements would be 63g/day.  Your needs would change based on your weight.  If you weigh less they would be less and if you weigh more they would be more.

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Now that you know how much protein you need.  Where are you going to get it?  Protein sources are characterized as either having a “high biological value” (HBV) or “low biological value” (LBV).  A high biological value means the protein has all the essential amino acids in the right proportions and can be used by the body.  Sometimes it is referred as a “Complete Protein.”  A low biological value means it is missing one or more of the essential amino acids.  Sometimes this is called an “Incomplete Protein.” 

Foods from animal sources have a HBV and foods from plant sources have a LBV (except soybeans).  This does not mean a vegetarian diet is not healthy.  It does mean that more planning is involved if you switch to a vegetarian diet.  When you combine two LBV proteins they can become a complete protein, like bread and beans.  It is something you need to be aware of and plan for of if you decide to cut animal products from your diet. 

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If you weigh 175lb where are you going to get your protein?  Recall, a 175lb person needed 63g of protein a day.  You can practice using the table below (click to enlarge it).  You could have an egg with 2oz cheese for breakfast, chicken sandwich (2 slices of bread) for lunch and maybe salmon for dinner.  That would bring you to 73.7g for the day, which is above your daily needs (in this example).

I did that on purpose because often we underestimate that we can get what we need from food. You do not have to buy special protein supplements.  They are expensive anyway.

As a general rule 1 oz of high protein foods contains about 7g of protein.  Those would include your meat, poulty, fish, one egg, 1/2 cup of beans or one tablespoon of peanut butter.

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OBESITY FACTS: Are We Eating Ourselves to Death? What To Do!

The world Health Organization (WHO) reports that obesity has doubled worldwide since 1980. 

 

The American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 2 in 3 adults are overweight and 1 in 3 adult are obese.     That's about 78.6 million of U.S. adults (1). 

 

For American children and adolescents aged 2-19 years obesity affects 17% and about 12.7 million (2).

 

Healthy weight is determined by Body Mass Index (BMI).  It is a simple calculation of height and weight.  You can calculated your BMI here.

 

This trend is seen across the globe.  In 2008 the World Health Organization announced that obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally. 

In 2014 WHO reported that more than 1 billion adults were overweight and at least 300 million of them were clinically obese. 

In 2013 WHO reported that 42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese (3). 

 

 

 

 

Obesity is a major contributor of chronic disease and disability.  As highlight in the diagram below, you can see that obesity affects just about every part of your body.   Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer - some of the leading causes of preventable death.

 

 

What is going on?  It all comes down to energy imbalance.  We are consuming more calories than we are expending. 

 

When you consume more than your body is burning you gain weight.

On the right side you have calories burned. This includes your basal metabolic rate, dietary-induced thermogenesis (that just means digestion) and energy consumption during activity.  The sums of these three are your total energy expenditure (TEE)

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) accounts for the largest portion of your energy expenditure- 60% to 75%.  It is responsible for maintaining normal body functions at rest such as breathing, circulating blood, growing and repairing cells. 

Calculating BMR is done in a lab under very controlled conditions and with specialized equipment. Sometime you will see resting metabolic rate (RMR). RMR is the BMR value adjusted for the regular life environment. It is basically the same but has less of strict testing method.  RMR values are about 15% higher than the BMR values.

 

Although there are several equations to estimate BMR and RMR, it is affected by many factors such as age, hormones, exercise, body temperature, nutritional status, climate, sex, body composition or pregnancy.  Learn more about BMR and RMR.

 

Digestion counts for about 10% of your energy expenditure.  Physical demands counts for the rest of calorie needs.

On the left side you have calories eaten.  This includes all calories from food and beverages. 

When you consume less than your body is burning you lose weight.  Here you are creating what is called a caloric deficit.

When your intake is equal to your body's demands you maintain your weight and your energy in (calories eaten) = energy out (calories burned).

 

 

"Overweight and obesity happen over time

when you take in more calories than you use!"

 

 

 

 

According to WHO people are consuming more energy-dense foods that are high in fat and are more inactive than even before (3).

 

On an individual bases WHO suggest people limit energy intake from total fats and sugar; increase consumption of fruit and vegetables, as well as legumes, whole grains and nuts; engage in regular physical activity (60 minutes a day for children and 150 minutes per week for adults) (3).

 

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ADDED SUGAR = ADDED RISK: Know the Dangers of Added Sugar

Unfortunately, sugar consumption is on the rise in America and across the globe. It is making us fat and many people obese, which leads to an increased risk of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease (1).

Americans eat about 20 teaspoons of sugar a day. Average daily consumption for men: 335 calories, women: 230 calories, boys: 362 calories, girls: 282 calories (2).

What makes it worse -many people are not even aware there are consuming added sugar.

Currently, food labels do not differentiate from added sugar and naturally occurring sugar. Then once you hooked it is hard to give it up, because sugar is addicting (3).

 

The major sources of added sugars in American diets are regular soft drinks, sugars, candy, cakes, cookies, pies and fruit drinks; dairy desserts and milk products (ice cream, sweetened yogurt and sweetened milk); and other grains (cinnamon toast and honey-nut waffles) (4).

 

Changing your diet to limit added sugar can make a real impact on your health and your weight loss efforts. I discus this further in my article, "Two Things You Need To Know About Weight Loss."

This is video is about how manufactures are adding sugar to their foods.  Sugar is everywhere!  Most commonly packaged and processed foods. No wonder obesity has doubled since 1980.

 

 

 

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Water is Vital For Good Health: Symptoms You Are Not Getting Enough

Up to 70% of the adult body is water!  Wow that's a lot of water.  83% of your blood, 75% of your brain, 79% of your heart and 75% muscles are water.  Those are huge percentages and makes water a vital nutrient for good health. 



Given the large percentage of water in the human body, it is not surprising it is critical for many bodily functions.  Even a slight imbalance of water will negatively affect the body’s ability to function properly (1).  Here are some of the major functions of water in the body:

One of water’s major function is helps transport nutrients and oxygen to cells.  So water helps take all the food we eat, the beverages we drink and the air we breathe get to their intended place.  That allows all our systems to work properly.

Even a slight decrease (1-2%) in water balance will affect the body’s ability to deliver nutrients and oxygen to cells (1) (2).

 

This leads to:

 

 

 

Feeling sluggish lately? Having headaches or experiencing constipation?  Dark urine or dry skin?  All are symptoms you are not getting enough water.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) does not provide a hard guideline for water, because it is depends on climate, activity level, health status, age and sex (2).  Instead, it recommends a total fluid intake from food and beverages of:

 

• 91 ounces of fluids/day (11.38 cup/day) for a healthy adult woman
• 125 ounces of fluids/day (15.62 cups/day) for a healthy adult man (3)

You are probably thinking, "I thought it was 8oz –eight glasses per a day".  Remember the IOM is including water from food in their recommendation.   Their research shows the most people get 80% of their water intake from fluids and 20% from food (3).  There is no upper limit for water, but there is a thing as too much water (Hyponatremia).
 

One of the better indicators of dehydration is dark urine, with the exception of morning urine.  To bring your body into balance (a hydrated state) you need to drink more water and/or eat more fruits and vegetables.
 

Fruits and vegetables are mostly water. Most fruits run 84-92% water (bananas are 74%) , while most vegetables run 91-96% (peas and white potatoes are both 79%) (4).

Drinking more water has great nutritional benefits -yet people walk around dehydrated. There is no need for it. Commit now to drink more water.  You will be amazed at much better you feel.  Your cells and body will thank you.

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NEW YEAR! NEW YOU! WEIGHT LOSS & EXERCISE MADE EASY!

This is your journey.  Comparing yourself to others will not work.  Focus on being a better you every day.  This maybe eliminating that midnight snack or getting more exercise, but think about what you want to change that would bring you closer to becoming a “better you”.  Now keep that vision forefront in your mind.  Picture daily, hourly and slowly you will move towards your “Personal Best.”
 

Any change is difficult.  Try not to think about in “forever” terms.  Have a “just for today” approach and it will seem easier.  “Just for today” I am not going to eat sugary foods.  “Just for today” I am going to exercise.  If you still find yourself fighting the change, break down it further.  “Just for tonight” I am not going to have seconds.  “Just for 10 minutes” I am going to exercise.

 

 

 

Be patient.  You did not gain the extra weight in a week and it will not come off in a week either.  Slow and steady will get you to your goal.  Along the way you will stumble, but keep that vision of the “better you” to get you back on track and though those difficult times.

 

 

 

Adopt things that will work for you in the long term.  If smoothies aren’t going to work for you in the

long term, then don’t go that route.  There are other ways to eat healthy.

I see two things happen when people follow a specific plan.  One they abuse some of the “allowed” foods on the plan, like nuts and meats.  Or two they lose the weight on the program only to regain it once they try to go back to regular food, like the smoothie or prepackaged diets.

 

 

 

A reduction in food will lead to a reduction on the scale. One follows the other.  In my article “Two Things You Need to Know About Weight Loss,” I spoke of decreasing sugar and increasing fiber in your diet.  Cutting back on the amount of sugar is a good start. An other good place is fat, especially saturated fat.  All fat from meat are saturated including dairy.
 

While salt contains no calories, it the average American diet gets way too much and it is a health concern in our country.  Many of the same foods that are high in sugar and fat are also high in salt, so it is a double win.

 

 

It is fairly easy to shave 250 calories from your diet daily. A tablespoon of butter, mayonnaise and oil all have about 117.  An ounce of nuts has about 172 calories (healthy yes, but so easy to over consume).  The typical cream dressing has about 80 calories per tablespoon.   So basically, this could mean putting one less creamer in your coffee, having one less slice of cheese in your sandwich and one less pat of butter on your toast.  Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?

 

 

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