So to avoid this we need to know what good forms of each of the three macronutrients, carbohydrates protein and fat that we should eat and ones which we can reduce the consumption of.
Carbohydrates
there are refined and unrefined
carbohydrates in fruit but these are fructose not sucrose which are metabolised differently by the body and sucrose is better for you as it contains fibre and vitamins and fibre which aids in digestion and keeps you feeling fuller for longer.
Sucrose has no nutritional benefit it also spike your blood sugar as it has a high glycemic index which means that your blood sugar will rise causing a large surge in insulin, caused by leaving you feeling lethargic, hungry and craving more sugar. Eating low-GI carbohydrate which is a value of 55 or less foods causes a steady rise in the level of glucose in the blood, which in turn leads to a small and gentle rise in insulin.
Sucrose is the sugar in desserts and added to most foods to make them more delectable fact especially fast food and high processed ready made food and take away food and snacks.
The same principle of glycemic index applies to grains and such as bread, pasta and rice. White forms of these are the highly processed and refined versions they have most of the fibre b vitamins and the outer coating of the carbohydrate which id full of nutrients the end product being mainly just sucrose.
The flour used in white breads are bleached further—by the use of chemicals such as potassium bromate, azodicarbonamide, or chlorine dioxide gas to remove any slight, natural yellow shade and make its baking properties more predictable. This is banned in the EU because of the health affects.
Whilst we are on the topic of carbohydrates, Fruit juices are from concentrate hear and pure sugar so please avoid them making your own juice through juicer or even better smoothies because juices are just the sugar part yes the vitamins as well but the fibre is of great benefit so its probably better to have your juice in smoothie form.
Ok, so now I have given you an insight into nutrition and all the science behind food and what to avoid we can move onto weightloss and the topic of calories and dieting.
I wanted to start off by talking a bit about calories which I mentioned earlier just to explain a bit more about them and how to use this information. Calories are a unit of energy. In nutrition, calories refer to the energy people get from the food and drink they consume, and the energy they use in physical activity
On packets of food they usually provide this information along side the grams of other components such as fat, protein and sugar content.
(When you want to know how many calories are in a particular food look at the kcals).
Now many believe there are weird and wonderful secrets to super speedy weight loss or just weight loss in general. Let me tell you something, there isn’t theres a super simple equation. Eat more calories than your body needs you gain weight. Eat even just slightly less and you will lose weight. And to know how many calories you need to eat is also pretty simple. It’s all based on your BMI and BMR which again are not as complicated as they sound. BMI is your body mass index a measurement used to quantitatively determine whether you are underweight, healthy, overweight or obese
obese meaning grossly overweight in that you are medically highly overweight which could have a severe impact on your health. You are most at risk.
Just a quick note for those who exercise very frequently, lift weight it doesn’t take into account if your an athlete who is extremely lean and posses a large amount muscle but for a large quantity of people it is quite accurate.
In part 3- we will be discussing how to calculate BMI, examples of healthy meal options, portions and exercise.
Thanks for taking a read and have a lovely day!
HealthyScientist 