Low Carb Food
Learn how low carb food help you to lose weight.
Low-Carb Foods:
Low Carb Food - If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, or even to McDonald’s or Blimpie, you’ve seen promotions for low carb foods. Many breads, sandwiches, muffins, pasta, cereals, tortillas, pizza crusts, beer, cakes, cookies, and other foods now bear "low-carb" labels. While the health claims are seldom spelled out, the implications are clear.
If you’re following a low-carb diet (such as Atkins) that forbids or severely limits bread, pasta, and other starchy foods, especially those made with white flour, you might think, well, here’s a way to eat some bread and still stay on the diet. Indeed, many low carb food products are sold under the Atkins brand name. Or perhaps you’re not on any diet but are just calorie-conscious. You may conclude, logically enough, that a low carb food is also lower in calories this may not be true.
Here’s how manufacturers reduce the carbs in various low carb food:
They replace refined wheat flour with soy flour (higher in protein), soy protein, or wheat protein.
• They add extra fiber, such as wheat bran, oat bran, or other fiber (this is not a bad thing, but read on).
• They add high-fat ingredients such as nuts (again, not so terrible: nuts are good food, containing healthy fats).
• They replace sugar with sugar alcohols (maltitol, lactitol, or sorbitol) or artificial sweeteners. This has been going on a long time.
• For beers, they use certain chemicals in the brewing process to reduce carbohydrates in the brew. But the result is not very different from "lite" beers, long a market staple.
Ultimately it is important to remember low carb food does not necessary mean low calorie, to avoid weight gain, energy intake should not be more than energy output over a period of time. Avoiding large portion sizes for low carb food will help keep energy intake in check.
If you do choose to follow a low carbohydrate diet, do not avoid carbohydrates completely - you need some in your diet to metabolise fat. Choose low carb food that are unrefined or unprocessed , including whole grains rather than the more refined and energy-dense forms such as cakes, sweets and soft drinks. Choose fats from plant sources (such as olives, olive oil, canola oil, peanuts, peanut oil, soy or soy oil) rather than from animal sources (butter or meat fat). Protein source should come from low carb food low in saturated fat such as lean cut red meat, chicken and fish or plant-based such as nut, beans and soy product such as tofu.
For long term weight management do not rely solely on low carb food, the benefits of regular physical activity cannot be emphasized enough.
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