Over the last 10 years or so, it feels like there’s been a bit of a “war on carbs.” Recall the height of the Atkins craze and you had people eating McDonald’s Big Mac hamburgers without the bun and thinking all was OK.
Ha. Nice try.
See, the real enemy in your diet isn’t carbs as much as processed food. People don’t realize how many problems can be eliminated just by getting rid of processed food from their daily intake.
Where to start?
Let me give you the simplest rule of thumb on processed food elimination:
If you couldn’t kill it or pluck it from the ground, it’s probably not healthy.
I know that sounds blunt, but it’s true. If it comes from a box, it may or may not be as healthy. That’s when you need to look closer at the list of ingredients. The fewer the number of ingredients, the better it may be for you.
Let’s use ice cream as an example. Is all ice cream bad for you? Sure, if you eat a tub of it in one sitting. But assuming we’re eating in moderation, the brands I prefer have a select number of ingredients and all of them are all-natural. If that ice cream has a bunch of ingredients with long phrases you can’t pronounce, that’s trouble. If, on the other hand, the ice cream has cream, milk and just a few other ingredients that are all-natural, it’s probably better for you.
Low carb or no carb? Focus more on fats.
You don’t need to go “no carbs” in your diet. You can go low carb instead and live quite healthy. The bigger picture is understanding how to burn fat rather than being so obsessed with calorie counting and carbs. Because once you burn fat, you can get far more “bang for your buck” in your efforts.
How so? Take foods with high fructose corn syrup. When you put fructose into your diet, in order for our body to use it, an enzyme in the liver has to convert a 5-ring sugar into a 6-ring sugar in order to utilize it as fuel. 99% of the time, your liver stores this as fat. So guess what adding more fructose corn syrup is going to do to you? These are issues in the body that aren’t easily solved just because you didn’t eat a hamburger bun.
Better idea: Let’s create an eating plan that’s right for you.
Fortunately, you don’t have to try to figure out all the complexities of nutrition or punish yourself unnecessarily by eliminating all the foods you love. My program lets us customize an eating plan you can actually be excited about and not dread. Yes, we can even fit ice cream into the plan if you like.
To schedule a free initial conversation about Nutrition Counseling with Giulia Isetti, Ph.D., call 708.267.7173 or email g@coachingbyg.com.