Most people know that maintaining healthy diets is an essential part of keeping you fit and healthy. Whether you have an existing health issue or you want to maintain a good weight, you need a healthy diet food plan to stay in shape. Despite what certain fad diets would have you believe, we all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fibre, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a healthy body weight loss.
What are good carbs and how can fiber be good for developing your own diet meal plan for weight loss?
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are food composed of some combination of starches, sugar and fiber. It provide the body with fuel it needs for physical activity by breaking down into glucose, a type of sugar our cells use as a universal energy source.
There are Bad Carbs and Good Carbs.
Bad carbs are foods that have been “stripped” of all bran, fibre, and nutrients. They are processed food made for easy and fast cooking. Examples are white flour, refined sugar, and white rice. These foods digest quickly in your system and they can cause elevations in your blood sugar, which over time can lead to weight gain, hypoglycemia or even diabetes.
Good carbs on the other hand are digested more slowly, these foods tend to make you feel fuller quicker and for longer time and they provide you with more energy. They keep your blood sugar and insulin levels from rising and falling too quickly. Examples are whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables.
To lose weight, make sure you include more good carbs in your diet food plan. Examples are whole grain brown rice, millet and barley. When you are eating grains, make sure you are getting them in their whole form, healthy grains in the form of breads or cereals.
When shopping for them, note that words like 100% wheat, multi-grain or bran, do not necessary mean that the product is whole grain. Confirm with the Whole Grain Stamp from the Whole Grain Council. If not, check the ingredients to make sure that grain listed is specified as whole grain. Not all food labelled healthy diets is really good for you. Examples would be dark breaks and toasted wheat cereals. Avoid refined grains like white breads, pastas, breakfast cereals that are not whole grain.
Fibre
Fibre keeps you feeling full longer. High fibre foods tend to slow down the digestive process and make you feel fuller for longer. Thus you will avoid overeating and excessive calorie intake during meals or during the day. This is the primary mechanism by which fibre helps you control weight.
It is recommended that you “eat your fruit rather than drink it” for better weight control. Fruit juices can contain up to 10 teaspoons of sugar per cup so either avoid or dilute with water. A cup of apple juice has about 120 calories and no fiber, but a medium size apple has about 80 calories and almost 4 grams of fiber in it. By eating the apple, you will consume lesser calories and having more fiber to fill you up longer.
And the simple organic acids produced to break down fiber in the digestive process helps to nourish the lining of your colon, thereby maintaining a healthy colon.
Fruits and vegetables are healthy diets that should be part of every meal, and be your first choice for a snack. Eat a minimum of five portions each day. They provide us with beneficial properties such as natural sugars, fiber, Vitamins and antioxidants. Choose fresh or frozen, and focus on variety. Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fiber, oranges and mangos offer vitamin C, and so on.
