How do we Diet Low Carbohydrate? There’s not too many foods without carbs. There’s billions of great foods and meals with a great deal of carbs. We can’t escape carbs so let’s turn our attention to working with them.

Here we’ll look at what carbs do for you, especially if you’re looking to lose weight. We’ll show you ways you can Diet Low Carbohydrate easily.

What carbohydrates do for you?
1. Carbs supply our body with energy.
2. They fuel the central nervous system.
3. Carbs provide the major fuel for exercising muscles

So the fact is that carbohydrates are our bodies primary and most efficient source of fuel or energy.

That’s great but, and it’s a big but (no pun intended), we simply eat too many carbs in our diet. This is only made worse by our sedentary lifestyle where we don’t burn enough of our body’s fuel produced by the carbohydrates.
Mind you, with the amount of carbs in many Western country diets, an Olympic marathon runner couldn’t burn them off.

What Diet Low Carbohydrate does for you?
Less carbs in your diet means your body will start burning fat faster. In other words, once your body has finished using the carbs as fuel it will turn on it’s store of fat for its fuel needs. Great, just what we want when looking to lose weight.

How can I Diet Low Carbohydrate?
There’s no sugar-coating it, reducing your carbs isn’t easy.

The first place to go is the nutritional panel on the back of the food you eat. Make it a habit to really monitor the level of carbs (plus other things like fat and salt). This is especially useful when dieting to lose weight.

GI or glycemic index is something else you’ll need to consider in Diet Low Carbohydrate. Put simply GI is a way of comparing different carbohydrates by ranking their effect on the level of sugar in your blood.
Low GI diet meals, compared to high GI meals, have a slower, gradual and longer lasting energy effect. Most importantly for weight lose is that low GI foods tend to make you feel fuller for longer.
Less hunger should mean less snacking and less eating in general.

Higher GI food and their lower glycemic index alternatives
Rice: basmati is lower than jasmine
Potato: sweet potato is lower than mash potato
Bread: multi grain is lower in GI than white
Soda: orange juice is lower than orange-flavoured sodas
Crackers: rye crisp bread is lower glycemic index than rice carckers

There’s many ways to Diet Low Carbohydrate. But you have to make some changes to your diet. If weight loss is your goal then you’ll lose more by making these changes.

Enjoy!

How do we Diet Low Carbohydrate? There’s not too many foods without carbs. There’s billions of great foods and meals with a great deal of carbs. We can’t escape carbs so let’s turn our attention to working with them.

Here we’ll look at what carbs do for you, especially if you’re looking to lose weight. We’ll show you ways you can Diet Low Carbohydrate easily.

What carbohydrates do for you?
1. Carbs supply our body with energy.
2. They fuel the central nervous system.
3. Carbs provide the major fuel for exercising muscles

So the fact is that carbohydrates are our bodies primary and most efficient source of fuel or energy.

That’s great but, and it’s a big but (no pun intended), we simply eat too many carbs in our diet. This is only made worse by our sedentary lifestyle where we don’t burn enough of our body’s fuel produced by the carbohydrates.
Mind you, with the amount of carbs in many Western country diets, an Olympic marathon runner couldn’t burn them off.

What Diet Low Carbohydrate does for you?
Less carbs in your diet means your body will start burning fat faster. In other words, once your body has finished using the carbs as fuel it will turn on it’s store of fat for its fuel needs. Great, just what we want when looking to lose weight.

How can I Diet Low Carbohydrate?
There’s no sugar-coating it, reducing your carbs isn’t easy.

The first place to go is the nutritional panel on the back of the food you eat. Make it a habit to really monitor the level of carbs (plus other things like fat and salt). This is especially useful when dieting to lose weight.

GI or glycemic index is something else you’ll need to consider in Diet Low Carbohydrate. Put simply GI is a way of comparing different carbohydrates by ranking their effect on the level of sugar in your blood.
Low GI diet meals, compared to high GI meals, have a slower, gradual and longer lasting energy effect. Most importantly for weight lose is that low GI foods tend to make you feel fuller for longer.
Less hunger should mean less snacking and less eating in general.

Higher GI food and their lower glycemic index alternatives
Rice: basmati is lower than jasmine
Potato: sweet potato is lower than mash potato
Bread: multi grain is lower in GI than white
Soda: orange juice is lower than orange-flavoured sodas
Crackers: rye crisp bread is lower glycemic index than rice crackers

There’s also high protein foods. These have the effect of filling you up so the hunger cravings are kept a bay longer.

High protein foods can be found not only in meat and eggs. There’s baked beans (many beans like white beans are good for protein), lentils, cottage cheese, yoghurt. Some cereals are surprisingly high protein. Check the nutritional panel.

There’s many ways to Diet Low Carbohydrate. But you have to make some changes to your diet. If weight loss is your goal then you’ll lose more by making these changes.

Enjoy!

1. Rate of food digestion relative to glucose
1. Compared to glucose or white bread as the control
2. High glycemic food adverse effects
1. Hyperglycemia may persist for 2 hours after meal
1. Stimulates higher Insulin release
2. Hypoglycemia results within 2 to 4 hours after meal
1. Stimulates appetite
2. Raises free fatty acid levels
3. Glycemic load (GL)
1. Corrects glycemic index for serving size
2. Examples
1. Scone GI is high at 92, but GL is low at 8
2. Arborio rice GI is only 69, but GL is high at 36

Indications: Focus on lower glycemic index foods
1. Obesity Management
2. Diabetes Mellitus Management
3. Coronary Artery Disease Management

1. A ranking of the relationship between various foods and glucose blood serum levels. The carbohydrate composition of the food directly effects the concentration of glucose in the blood.

2. A numerical system of measuring the rate of BLOOD GLUCOSE generation by a particular food item as compared to a reference item, such as glucose = 100. Foods with higher glycemic index numbers create greater blood sugar swings. These numbers do not correspond to calories or amounts of food intake but rather, depend on the rates of digestion and absorption of these food items.

(source: http://www.fpnotebook.com/Pharm/Nutrition/GlycmcIndx.htm)

There’s other things as well but sugar is a major factor in so many negative health issues, especially weight gain and obesity.

Sugar is so pervasive in our diet we hardly notice it any more.

When’s a diet food not a diet food?

When it’s full of sugar. So many so-called ‘diet’ foods are laden with sugar. That’s how they make it palatable. It’s certainly not how they make it a healthy food.

When you’re next scouring the supermarket aisle for diet food, say “no sugar, thanks”. The answer is on the nutritional panel.

When’s a healthy breakfast cereal not a healthy breakfast cereal?

When it has dried fruit in it. Dried fruit is a sneaky way to add the flavour of sugar without actually adding sugar in the ingredient list. But it’s there. Again, the answer is on the nutritional panel.

By the way, a sugary breakfast cereal can make the ‘most important meal of the day’ far less important. Sure the sugar gives you a burst of insulin and energy but it’s short-lived. Plus there’s the bust of a mid-morning energy slump.

Would you like a meal with your sugar?

Alternatives to sugar

• Try products with no sugar added. Give them three days to change your palate from sweet to neutral.
• Stevia. It’s an all-natural sweetener ‘no sugar sugar’ I’ve been using for years. I actually tried a dried Stevia leaf the other week and you can tell where it gets it’s sweetness from.
• Low Glycemic Index (Low GI) foods. Not a guarantee of no sugar but at least a low GI diet will even out your body’s burning of carbs.
• Honey. Still a sugar but in a far more natural, unprocessed form. Use sparingly.
• Fresh fruit. Again, still lots of sugar in them but you get added nutrients and all important fibre.

It’s so easy being bad. It’s just so much fun. By ‘bad’ I mean eating junk, partying hard, drinking too much, not exercising, scoffing sugary foods. The list goes on. And on.

We all go through phases in our life where we fall out of good habits like eating healthy foods, exercising regularly and not snacking.

Then there’s the bad times. We just can’t get up the motivation to do all, or even some, of the things we know are good for us.

The best way to start making yourself feel a little better about being a little bad is to start. Start somewhere.

Start with a healthy breakfast

If you’ve been partying and drinking and partying and drinking the night away then you’ll inevitably wake in fright. Did you comfort eat your way through a chocolate bar? Did you take the elevator up 1 flight?

Being bad

The best way to emotionally and physically feel better is to eat a healthy breakfast. By healthy I mean low fat and definitely low sugar.

Go low GI

A low GI breakfast cereal full of whole grains, nuts and seeds is the good way to feel less bad. There’s plenty of vitamins and nutrients and the low glycemic index (GI) means you’ll feel fuller for longer, so less bad snacking.

Even a big breakfast of eggs (poached), toast (whole grain) and sausage (low fat please), is a good idea. Interestingly, this breakfast idea can also be part of a low GI diet that satisfies your cravings.

Another must-have for a healthy breakfast after a bad day or night is plenty, and I mean plenty, of water. Flush out the bad stuff and fill yourself with the good.

Enjoy!

If it’s so great why is it so hard to have a healthy meal at breakfast?

Many of us think eating cereal with a few slices of toast is a healthy start to the day. Many of us would be wrong!

You are what you don’t eat

Just take a look at the nutritional panel of the cereal you’re eating. Yes, even the so-called healthy muesli. While you’re at it also peek at the bread and the spread you’re using.

Chances are you’re eating a great big bowl of sugar.

Are you eating sugar or breakfast?

You’re not eating a healthy meal, that’s for sure. What you have in sugar and carbs you’re going to miss protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Not eating enough protein and fibre is a recipe for feeling hungry in just a few hours. You know, that familiar mid-morning snack.

Healthy meals, healthy appetite

Enjoying more healthy meals more often will, over time, change the expectations of your body and mind. Soon you’ll start craving healthy meals instead of junk and sugary snacks.

Here’s a few ways to get more healthy meals into your life.

• Sugar fix – every day, every meal look for ways to slightly reduce the amount of sugar you’re consuming. If you have 2 sugars in coffee, make it 1.
• Take your time – at first preparing healthy meals will take some mind power and time. You’ve got to get used to the idea. So think about a few breakfast ideas the night before or while shopping.
• Green scene – have some green vegetables with lunch and dinner. Throw some spinach leaves on the side. Oh yeah, then eat them.
• Go Low – try introducing low GI (low glycemic index) foods into your diet. This is a whole new topic but low GI foods are easy to find. Plus you’ll find they fill you up for longer…less snacking.

A low GI cereal is a great start

Enjoy!

This article mainly concentrates on a healthy breakfast. Bondi is an active, energetic, vibrant place, especially in the morning. I work-out there 3-4 times a week from 6-7am with a friend. (Thought some days. like today, we decide just to wander about and grab a coffee. Bondi has great coffee).

Bondi is just 7 kilometres from the CBD of Sydney. So many people work-out each morning before going into work. There’s not many better ways to start the day than with a surf.

Bondi at Breakfast

Say ‘Hi’ to GI.

One of the simplest healthy meals is one low on the glycemic index (GI). If you’re working out in the morning you need a breakfast that will satisfy your hunger now, and until lunchtime. No point undoing all the good work with a mid-morning snack!

Try an all-natural low GI cereal with yoghurt and fresh, seasonal fruit. Add a piece or two of wholemeal toast with a low (or no) sugar spread. Sweeten your coffee or tea with honey or Stevia natural sweetener.

Sunny-side up

Don’t be afraid of having a big breakfast. As long as it’s not fried or fatty, a cooked breakfast can fill you up and keep you energised all day. You just eat progressively smaller meals throughout the day.

Poach 1-2 eggs and add to wholemeal toast. Try Tahini as a substitute to butter or margarine. Serve with tomatoes and avocado to really fill you up.

Bondi fruit salad

Most mornings the cafes in Bondi are full with people inside and out on the pavement sipping coffee, chatting about the day or the surf and tucking into healthy meals (and, to be honest, unhealthy fry-up meals).

Every good cafe has it’s own fruit salad. Here’s a typical version.

Banana

Kiwi fruit

Strawberry

Pineapple

Green apple

Roughly chop up the fruit – there’s no time for presentation in the morning.

For the special Bondi touch add a little fresh juice,  low fat yoghurt and low GI cereal. These will help with texture, moisture and protein to keep you going.

G’bye from Bondi

Unlike other diet strategies which end-up being fads, Glycemic Index diets and foods are part of the mainstream nutritional advice for weightloss. Importantly, Low GI is just one of a few ideas to keep in mind when looking to manage weight or be healthy.

The other ideas include ensuring you eat more and more fresh, natural, unprocessed foods and simply move more – get out and about and move your body.

What’s a Low GI Diet?

The glycemic index, or GI, is simply a numerical description how much the carbohydrates in foods affect blood glucose levels (glycemia).

The glycemic index ranks foods from 0 to 100.

Foods with a high GI ranking contain carbohydrates that cause a dramatic rise in blood glucose levels. Foods with a low GI value have carbohydrates with much less impact.

Why GI for weightloss?

Low GI foods have two major advantages for people trying to lose or control their weight:

• They fill you up and keep you satisfied for longer than high GI foods.
• They raise your metabolic rate higher by reducing insulin levels and helping you burn more body fat and less muscle.

These two reasons alone present a great case for low glycemic index diets. Here’s another.

All in good taste

We all know the issue with losing weight isn’t so much with losing weight. It’s keeping it off.

From experience, most diets, detoxes or diet programs are impossible to maintain over the medium to long term. Just too many rules and not much fun.

A Low GI Diet is a yummy way to lose weight

Low GI foods, on the other hand, are easy to find and lovely to eat. For starters:

Low GI foods
All vegetables

Most fruits (only watermelon is high on the glycemic index)

Low fat dairy products

Grainy bread

Medium GI foods
Honey

Basmati rice

Muesli

Case Closed

The closing argument for why a Low GI Diet is right for you is this: these foods will fill you up for longer so you snack less. Do you think snacking less will help you lose weight?

Enjoy!

Fortunately, low GI diets and foods are becoming more and more popular. People realise just how easy a low GI diet is to follow everyday and every meal. More importantly, they feel the benefits of sustained energy levels and feeling fuller for longer.

On the other hand, excess sugar continues to dog our diet. It’s amazing just how many products we eat have high levels of sugar. No surprise about soft drinks but even those functional waters have loads of sugar included.

Eating museli usually makes people feel they are doing good by themselves and their diet. Don’t shoot the messenger but check the nutritional panel and ingredient list for just how much sugar is included.

Sauces like many chilli and BBQ sauces are full of sugar. Use sparingly. Or go for the real thing – a fresh chilli.

Are you eating a bowl of cereal or a bowl of sugar?

Breakfast cereal or breakfast sugar

Many, in fact, most breakfast cereals on your supermarket shelf are loaded with sugar. Even the so called ‘healthy’ cereals and mueslis have 25% sugar.

By including dried fruit the sugar index shoots up. Dried fruit is OK but you have to know what you’re eating. Much better is to add your own fresh fruit to cereal. It’ll taste better, fill you up for longer and you’ll get more fibre.

Where do I find the sugar index?

It’s on every packet of food you buy. It’s the nutritional panel and the ingredient list.

The nutritional panel will show you how much sugar is by serving or by the 100g. I prefer using the 100g information as it’s easy to work out what percentage of the product is sugar. For example, if the panel says there’s 18g of sugar then 18% of the food is sugar.

The ingredient list must show all the ingredients in order of quantity. If sugar is high on the list is also a good indication of a high sugar food.

Go Low

A low Glycemic Index diet won’t necessarily mean a low sugar diet but is a far healthier option for you. There’s all manner of low GI foods, some high in sugar, like many fruits. But in moderation and as part of a low GI diet you’re on your way to a healthier lifestyle.

Enjoy!

The goal of a low GI (food low on the Glycemic Index) meal is to allow the release of glucose slowly and steadily into the bloodstream, without overstimulating the pancreas to produce too much insulin. In other words, keeping the ‘safety catch’ on the insulin trigger.

A low GI meal is wonderful for our bodies, but there is still a need to observe the fine print of the food we eat. For example, the amount of sugar (yes, some low GI food may contain large quantities of added or naturally occurring sugar. Always check the nutritional panel).

Some people say it’s a waste of money buying an expensive German car – all they care about is going from “A to B” safely. This is fine. But, the analogy doesn’t hold true when it comes to your meals. Quality ingredients produce nutritional food of a higher value than the rest. It’s as simple as that.

Each ingredient is there to either add nutritional value or bulk up the product and reduce the cost. You might notice this, for example, in cereal products that include dried fruit or rolled oats in the box.

Look for products with minimal processing like seed and nut mixes, fresh fruit and vegetables. The closer they are to nature the better the nutritional value.

Easy GI

It’s surprising to many just how easy it is to go low GI. For example, did you know, watermelon is the only fruit high on the glycemic index? So fruit’s in.

Vegetables, especially greens like broccoli, are ideal for a low GI diet. Just don’t smother them in high fat or high sugar condiments.

Whole grains are the low GI way to go for breads, rice and pastas.

Enjoy!