Wednesday, June 1, 2011

All Calories Are Not Shaped Alike

Eat less fat. Eat more fat. Carbs are bad. Carbs are good.

Nutrition opinion changes so often, no wonder so many people are befuddled.

But when it comes it calories, the opinion to take fewer of them seems set in stone. After all, "a calorie is a calorie"-Right?

Wrong.

For years, we've been told that if we "eat less and exercise more," we'll lose weight. That commendation is based on the perception that we need burn more calories than we take in. But this doesn't tell the whole story.

As it turns out, it isn't the amount of calories you consume that really affects your weight and your health. It's the type of calorie.

It's true-the calories you eat are in fact absorbed at different rates. And the poles apart amounts of fiber, carbohydrates, protein, fat, and nutrients in these calories can have very different belongings on your metabolism. There's no variation between a thousand calories of kidney beans and a thousand calories of a low-fat muffin-until they're metabolized.

As you can see, food isn't just a basis of energy-it's a spring of in commission instructions for your body.
Calories 101

So what is a calorie anyway? Merely put, a calorie is just a unit of energy. When we eat food, element procedures that make up our metabolism break this food down and turn it into energy. Burning this energy lets us do what we need and want to do-from breathing to running a marathon.

It's like your car: You have to put energy in it to make it run. For people, food is our energy. Calories are what help us "run."

The Dieting Fable

Just like high quality fuel is better for your car than the cheap material, some calories are better for our metabolism than others. That idea flies in the face of conventional diet wisdom, but it's true-and science backs it up.

For example, contemporary studies show that high-carb diets can boost insulin and blood sugar levels. The result? Weight gain (not to bring up high cholesterol and triglycerides). On the other hand, people who eat a healthy low-carb diet that's rich in vegetables, whole grains, beans, and lean animal protein-but use up more calories than low-fat dieters-in point of fact lose more weight!

As you can see, the kinds of calories you take can have a big force on weight gain, because different foods are metabolized in poles apart ways. Food "talks" to your genes, giving your metabolism specific directions-whether to lose weight or gain weight, speed up or slow down the aging course, add to or decline your cholesterol level, and produce molecules that enlarge or drop off your taste.

No wonder you can feel like you're doing everything right and still not lose weight!

The Whole Truth

If you want to lose weight and be healthy, you have to send your body the right messages. That means living in harmony with your genes.

This means dissimilar things for different people. Depending on our genes, some of us may need more carbs, protein, or fat than others.

But there's one basic code that works of everyone: Base your diet on whole, unprocessed foods. Foods that are in their natural state talk to your genes the most well-and were designed by nature to keep you at a healthy weight.

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