Why Are Carbs So Bad?

Why have carbs gotten a bad reputation lately? Everyone seems to think that carbohydrates make you fat. Guess what, most carbs can cause you to gain weight quickly and amass a huge, bloated belly.

Eating simple carbohydrates or processed carbohydrates like snack cakes, candy, and cookies cause an immediate insulin response. Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas. Insulin controls how the body's cells absorb, use, and STORE energy or blood sugar.

When you eat a meal heavy in carbohydrates, your blood sugar levels rise almost immediately. This causes insulin to be released. Insulin takes the sugar from the blood and places it in the cell. The cell uses the sugar for energy.

Since, you just ate a meal full of carbohydrates, your body does not need to breakdown fat for energy. Insulin effectively stops the breakdown of fat reserves for energy. And any sugar left from the meal that was not used by the cells, muscle, or liver will be stored as fat.

Thus, the best way to prevent obesity and promote fat breakdown is to stay far away from carbohydrates that will activate insulin. Those simple carbohydrates are always the sweet and delicious ones, like cake, ice cream, sugar, candy, cookies, etc. They also come in packages at the supermarket. Pasta, sauces, ketchup, salad dressing also are simple carbohydrates that can spike an insulin release.

Keep in mind, not all carbohydrates are bad. Vegetables are complex carbohydrates. They are beneficial for any diet. They keep you from feeling famished. Veggies also promote an optimal GI system, while providing nutrients and vitamins. Fruits act as complex carbohydrates as well. However, they also have a natural sugar. So keep these sweet treats to the AM hours only.

So re-vamp your diet today. Try a high protein diet with a complex carbohydrate with every meal. Chicken, tuna, eggs, and steak are excellent sources of protein. These meats coupled with a salad, broccoli, or asparagus spears makes a nutritious meal that will help you burn fat.

If a high protein diet is not feasible. Try a raw food diet. essentially a diet of complex carbohydrates that have not been processed or touched by chemicals, preservatives, and dyes. Eating this way will not allow for a quick rise in blood sugar and therefore insulin cannot halt the fat burning process.