CHOOSE SUPER-FILLING, FAT-BURNING CARBOHYDRATES
These days, when people peddling fad diets say the word
“carbohydrate,” they tend to get a sour look on their faces, as if they’ve just
bitten into a very tart lemon. To them, carbohydrates should be avoided at just
about all costs. It’s all very black-and-white to them: Carbohydrates are bad.
Staying away from them is good.
The only problem with this kind of anti-carbohydrate approach is
that it reflects the old way of thinking that has been debunked by the
scientific community.
Listen, when it comes to sugar, white flour, white bread, and
many of the other simple sugars—I’ll tell you more about them in a minute—I
agree, you’re better off without them. But there are plenty of good
carbohydrates that you absolutely should be including in your meals. Foods like
vegetables, fruits, legumes—even whole grains, which some fad diets wouldn’t
recommend in a million years.
The Doctor’s Diet is different from a lot of the other eating
plans out there because it includes a healthy assortment of complex
carbohydrates. Not just vegetables, but beans and whole grains, such as a
variety of whole-grain breads, cereals and pastas. That’s because I
believe—based on my reading of the medical literature and all of the study and
analysis I’ve done in the area of dietary science—that cutting out a whole tribe
of foods just because a few members of the family are troublemakers makes no
sense whatsoever.
Yeah, there are a lot of unhealthy carbohydrates. But there are
some pretty great ones, too. I just don’t believe that avoiding all
carbohydrates is the way to go for enjoying long-term health, not to mention the
enjoyment of eating. And I think they should be a part of your diet, so I give
them an important role in The Doctor’s Diet.
One of the arguments made by the anti-carbohydrate camp is that
cutting out carbs speeds up weight loss. There’s some truth to that. But like so
many things in life, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Yes, cutting out simple carbs helps rev up weight loss. But it’s not
necessary to push complex carbs off your plate. You can
lose weight and burn fat while still enjoying the many health benefits of
fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. You just have to make smart
choices about which carbs you eat and how they balance out
with the protein and fat in your diet.
Follow The Doctor’s Diet and your meals will contain the best
combination of high-fiber carbohydrates, fat-burning protein, and
appetite-satisfying fat.
THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT CARBS
Your body uses the carbohydrates in food for energy. It breaks
carbohydrates down into glucose, which is the fuel your cells need to
function.
There are two kinds of carbohydrates: complex and simple. In a
nutshell, you’re best off cutting back on simple carbohydrates and focusing on
complex carbohydrates. Here’s why:
COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES
Complex carbohydrates are, as their name implies, complex. They
provide a more gradual energy source than simple carbohydrates and are more
likely to come from whole, natural foods that have not been processed and
stripped of their God-given, nutrient-rich components. Foods that contain
healthy amounts of complex carbohydrates include vegetables, legumes, and whole
grains.
Complex carbohydrates can boost your health by providing
vitamins, minerals, and a range of phytonutrients, as well as fiber.
Your body does convert the complex carbohydrates in food into
glucose for fuel, but it takes longer than it does for simple carbs. As a
result, when you eat foods with complex carbohydrates, glucose enters your
bloodstream slowly and gradually, rather than with a sudden, near-instantaneous
spike.
SIMPLE CARBOHYDRATES
Simple carbohydrates are exactly what their name suggests:
simple. Often they are refined, which means their complexity has been stripped
away by food manufacturers and processing. The most famous example of a simple
carbohydrate is table sugar, but simple carbohydrates are also found in white
bread, white rice, white pasta, cakes, cookies, pastries, sugar-sweetened soft
drinks, and candy. Simple carbohydrates from processed foods and sugar make
weight gain easier and weight loss more difficult. They also raise the risk of
heart disease and diabetes.
When you eat simple carbohydrates, your body converts them to
glucose very quickly. That glucose gets dumped into your bloodstream rapidly,
causing a quick rise in blood sugar and insulin.
Simple carbohydrates also include natural sugars found in plant
foods (fruits and, in small amounts, some vegetables) and dairy products.
Although these carbohydrates are simple, they are in a different category than
simple sugars such as white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, and others that are
added to foods. That’s because they contain other components (vitamins, proteins
and minerals in dairy, and an abundance of phytochemicals and fiber in fruit)
that make them way more valuable than sugary, processed foods.
FIBER
Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that can’t be digested by your
body. It passes through your body without being broken down into glucose.
There are two kinds of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Plant foods
can have one or both kinds of fiber, and both are important for your health.
Soluble fiber is found in oatmeal, oat bran, nuts, seeds, most fruits, and
legumes. Insoluble fiber comes from whole-wheat bread, barley, brown rice,
bulgur, whole-grain cereals, wheat bran, seeds, and most fruits and
vegetables.
Fiber is crucial for a few reasons. For one, it actually helps
get rid of fat in your digestive system—think of it as a scrub brush that
travels through your intestines clearing away some of the excess fat and
cholesterol that’s floating around. It also helps move things along as they
should in your intestines, which helps prevent constipation and promotes good
bowel health. Eating foods that are high in fiber helps you feel full longer,
keeping hunger pangs at bay and helping you lose weight and keep it off. And
because fiber slows down the digestion of carbohydrates, it helps keep blood
sugar stable.
Studies show that people who eat a high-fiber diet are less
likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who don’t. High-fiber foods also
seem to lower the risk of heart disease.
PUT CARBS TO WORK FOR YOU
So many people have said so many bad things about carbs lately,
but as you can see, there’s no reason to give them up. In fact, you can make
carbohydrates work for you, giving them a major position on your weight-loss
team. The trick is to eat the right kinds of carbs—and now you know which ones
will do the most heavy lifting for you.
As I said earlier, The Doctor’s Diet is different from many of
the other eating plans out there because it builds in a healthy assortment of
complex and healthy carbohydrates including fruits, whole grains, beans, and
fresh vegetables.
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