Low Carb Tips

As the urge to overindulge is replaced by the need to shed winter weight gain, more and more dieters are turning to a low-carbohydrate eating regimen. The increasingly popular low carbohydrate plans such as Atkins and South Beach diets are based on the premise that carbohydrates cause weight gain and focus food intake on protein.

As attractive as it may sound to eat steak, cheese, eggs and other calorie-rich proteins, many dieters find it challenging to bring tasty variety to their low carbohydrate menus and still stick to the guidelines for these diets.

Trying new foods and different food combinations are a good way to keep your taste buds satisfied, says Chef Patrick Finney, national culinary director of American Culinary Institute (ACI). He also notes that since dieters are limited in what they can eat, its important to focus on the taste and flavor of foods, instead of quantity.

The chefs from American Culinary Institute makes it easy to identify the best tasting choice in just about every food category, from everyday favorites, to gourmet and organic products. For over 15 years, the San Francisco-based organization of independent, professional chefs has provided shoppers with a fast, effective way to select the best tasting foods and culinary products by awarding its Best Taste Award medallion to the overall winner in each product category based on taste.

A recent study done by PARADE magazine confirms that flavor is still the number one criterion for Americans food choices. In addition, across the board in their own restaurants, the independent judging chefs of ACI see their customers modifying their eating habits to include low-carb plans, but note people will not sacrifice on taste with their new menu choices. Chef Finneys advice is to purchase the best tasting products you can buy.

Products bearing the prestigious ACI Best Taste Award have been judged superior in taste in the Institutes rigorous, unbiased five-step judging process. Look for the ACI Best Taste Award on food products at your local supermarket. Its the fast and reliable way to buy the best tasting food and culinary products for your family and friends.

Here are some menu suggestions from Chef Finney for those eating a low-carb diet, and a list of some of the best tasting low-carbohydrate food brands that earned ACIs Best Taste Awards in their respective categories.

Breakfast:

* Eggs are a good start to a low-carb day. Egglands Best took ACIs top spot for the fresh eggs category. Prepare them scrambled, fried, poached, hard-boiled or as an omelet. But dont stop with breakfast. Make egg salad for lunch, or whip up Asian egg drop soup for dinner.

* Bacon, which is banned on low-fat diets, is a nice treat for those following the Atkins plan. If youre in a hurry, Jimmy Dean gets the best taste rating for fully cooked, heat and serve bacon, while Maple Leaf bacon is the best tasting in its category for conventional bacon strips.

Lunch and dinner:

* For a quick, easy protein boost, add the best tasting canned/pouch tuna or salmon to your leafy green salads from Chicken of the Sea.

* Sprinkling a few nuts and seeds on your salad is another quick way to jazz them up. Using delicious Fisher Nuts finely chopped also add crunch, texture and protein to soups, and a surprising crunchy topping for steaks. A small handful of nuts make a great, quick snack.

* Fish and seafood are great lean protein sources. Fishery Products Internationals frozen shrimp under the Mirabel label make a great quick and tasty meal, or add them to stir fry, green salads and more.

* Cheese gives a flavor boost to any dish. Sprinkle hard cheeses like Romano cheese from Stella USA on salads, soups and side dishes for added flavor and texture.

* Cold cuts such as best taste winner William Fischer premium deli ham make a quick snack or lunch, and are a great addition to a green salad.

* Have convenient pre-packaged leafy green salads on hand at all times in your refrigerator for a handy meal or side dish from Ready-Pac. Top off salads with award winning dressings from Briannas salad dressings, such as their real French vinaigrette or zesty French dressing, both low in carbohydrates.

Sauces/Seasonings:

* When sticking to any meal plan, variety is the spice of life. Add a small spoonful of Crystal steak sauce to enhance the flavor of your steak or other meats. In addition, add a small splash to zip up sauces and dressings as well. Mrs. Dash grilling blends are a great way to boost the flavor of meat and chicken; try using it as a seasoning in place of salt.

Snack/Dessert:

* A little snack or a light dessert of fresh or frozen berries (of course with no sugar added), with a dollop of ACIs award winning Daisy Brand sour cream makes a delicious and satisfying treat.

For a complete list of the American Culinary Institutes Best Taste Award winners, visit www.chefsbest.org.

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Courtesy of ARA Content

Written By: ARA

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Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just want to eat healthier, you may be confused by the news you’re hearing about carbohydrates. With so much attention focused on protein diets, there’s been a consumer backlash against carbohydrates. As a result, many people misunderstand the role that carbohydrates play in a healthy diet.

Carbohydrates aren’t all good or all bad. Some kinds promote health while others, when eaten often and in large quantities, may increase the risk for diabetes and coronary heart disease.

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates come from a wide array of foods – bread, fruit, vegetables, rice, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, corn, and cherry pie. They also come in a variety of forms. The most common and abundant ones are sugars, fibers, and starches. The basic building blocks of all carbohydrates are sugar molecules.

The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much the same way – it breaks them down (or tries to break them down) into single sugar molecules, since only these are small enough to absorb into the bloodstream. It also converts most digestible carbohydrates into glucose (also known as blood sugar), because cells are designed to use this as a universal energy source. This is why carbohydrates can make us feel energetic. Carbohydrates fuel our body. Your body stores glucose reserves in the muscles in the form of glycogen ready to be used when we exert ourselves.

Carbohydrates are the highest octane – the most desirable fuel source for your body’s energy requirements. If you don’t have an adequate source of carbohydrate your body may scavenge from dietary protein and fat to supply glucose. The problem is when you’ve depleted your stores of glycogen (stored glucose in muscle and lean tissue) your body turns to burning muscles or organs (lean muscle tissue) and dietary protein or fat to provide blood glucose to supply energy needs. When this happens, your basal metabolic rate drops because you have less lean muscle tissue burning calories and your body thinks its starving and cuts back on energy requirements.

So you should continue to eat carbohydrates discriminately selecting those which have the greatest health benefits.

The carbohydrates you consume should come from carbohydrate-rich foods that are close to the form that occurs in nature. The closer the carbohydrate food is as Mother Nature intended, the greater the density of other vital nutrients. If you are looking for health-enhancing sources of carbohydrates you should choose from:

Fruit: rich in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, potassium and often vitamin E.

Vegetables: fiber, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, often vitamin E, potassium and a wider variety of minerals than fruit.

Whole grains and grain foods: rich in fiber, protein, and some B vitamins and are very rich in minerals.

Legumes: an excellent source of protein, fiber folate, potassium, iron and several minerals.
Dairy foods: protein, vitamin D, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, and vitamin B12.

You can also source carbohydrates from processed foods such as soda pop or soft drinks, snacks such as cookies and chips, and alcohol. These generally are considered to be a poor food choice and should be consumed rarely. The carbohydrate source (sugar and flour) in these food choices has been highly refined processed. A diet rich in refined carbohydrates and processed foods has been associated with heart disease and onset of type 2 diabetes.

Why are these sources of carbohydrates to be avoided?

1.They are calorie dense and contribute a large number of calories in a small amount of food. For example a 7oz bag of potato chips or corn chips have approximately 1000 calories. Most women on a weight management program will be aiming for 1200 daily calorific intake. So, this is what we mean by calorie dense and nutritionally scarce.

2.They offer little appetite-holding power because they have no fiber or protein. As a result you end up searching for food again soon after your first serve.

3. They contribute nothing to your nutritional profile except calories. This means you have fewer calories left for foods that your body requires for good health.

Whenever possible, replace highly processed grains, cereals, and sugars with minimally processed whole-grain products and ensure you have at least five serves of fruit and vegetables daily.

Rather than cut out carbs completely for a very short-term gain (usually weight loss), there are greater long-term health benefits in learning how to distinguish good carbs over bad carbs and incorporating healthy carbohydrates into your weight loss program.

About the Author

(c) Kim Beardsmore

Kim Beardsmore is a weight loss consultant whose business operates across 60 countries. This world renowned, medically approved program will give you results you’ll love and all the support you need! Estimate your body fat percentage and register for our weight loss ezine at http://leanmachine.org/?refid=170604-23625

Written By: Kim Beardsmore

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Low carb diets are popular. How good are they? How healthy are they? It all depends on what you know about the difference between different types of carbohydrates.

Common table sugar represents 20 to 25 percent of the daily caloric intake of Americans who live on the typical All American processed food diet. In the early 1800s average sugar consumption was about 12 pounds per person a year. In 1997, it was 152 pounds per person. Is that too much? You bet it is. Its making us old before we need to be.

Do we need carbohydrates? No, we dont. They are non-essential to the human diet. We do need water, fat, and protein. It is possible to survive for long periods without carbohydrates providing fat and protein needs are met. Fat and protein are broken down to make building blocks of carbohydrates as food and energy. This is something the carb-rich processed foods industry doesnt tell us.

Regardless of what is known about carbohydrate needs, we continue to consume massive quantities of carbohydrates. Therefore, its important to know which carbs are better than others. Its simple: All carbs are broken down into sugar in the body. The key is the rate and the amount that determines the level of sugar in the blood.

Complex carbs such as green leafy veggies, brown rice, potato, whole grain products, and fruits break down slowly. The result is a gradual rise and fall in blood sugar. It is generally understood that most complex carbs are good for you.

Refined, simple carbs such as cake, ice cream, cookies, breakfast bars, so-called cereals, and refined grains break down quickly in the body. This causes rapid elevation of blood sugar levels. These are not good for your health.

It should be understood that while refined carbs should be avoided because they are harmful, some complex carbs such as potatoes are not good because of their relatively fast breakdown.

How do you determine which carbs are really good, and what to avoid? Simple. Become familiar with something called the Glycemic Index of foods. When you look at a glycemic index for foods, bear in mind that the lower the rating, or number, the slower the digestion and absorption process and the better it is for your health.

As useful as the glycemic index is, you will need to learn which foods are good for you.. For example, a cup of low fat ice cream has a glycemic index of 50, which is lower than the glycemic index of a baked potato. Thats because the glycemic index rating of a refined sugar product is lower than that of a starchy food! So, learn to discern the difference between refined sugars and everything else. Just assume that if its made in a factory, its suspect!

Here are some glycemic index numbers for some popular food choices:
Baked Potato: 85; Cheerios: 74; Fanta soft drink: 68; Cheese pizza: 60; Banana: 54; Sweet potato: 54, Low fat ice cream: 50; Carrots: 49; Grapefruit juice: 48; All-bran: 42; Spaghetti: 41; Apple: 38; M&Ms (peanut): 32; Peanuts: 15; Yogurt, lot fat, artificially sweetened:14.

You can see from the above how misleading, yet useful the glycemic index can be.

The bottom is this: Do your homework. Dont rely on advertising or uninformed advice of well meaning friends to give you guidance about healthy eating. Making educated choices about what you put into your body puts you in the drivers seat and allows you to be in charge of how healthy you are, and how quickly or slowly you age.

About the Author

Barbara Morris, R.Ph., is a 76-year-old working pharmacist and recognized expert on unique anti-aging strategies. Author of Put Old on Hold, her message is for Boomers who want to feel and function as a healthy 40 or 50 year old for 25 or more years. She calls it Liberation Living a process she has discovered that bypasses infirmities and indignities of traditional old age. http://www.PutOldonHold.com

Written By: Barbara Morris

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The revolution is here. Weight Loss as we know it has changed forever because of one diet:

One diet that has reached beyond the weight loss program boundaries and invaded areas heretofore unknown: areas like beer commercials and even the all sacred fast food menus.

There was even a recent report on how this diet has taken a huge revenue chunk out of the bread and flour industries. Now that’s power.

You know which diet I’m talking about of course.

The big LC – LOW CARB

(also known as lo carb, Atkins, protein diet, Adkins, no carb, etc.)

The low carb diet isn’t new. In fact it’s been around for years (long before Atkins wrote about it). And yet it just keeps pressing on, affecting our food choices and popular culture.

So what is it about the low carb diet that makes it so popular? Here are 3 reasons:

#1 You can eat as much as you want (of certain low carb foods)

While the type of food is restricted to low carb or no carb, you don’t have to restrict how much food you eat (in theory).

This fact makes the low carb diet popular with those of us who have been starved and deprived by low fat diets for years.

It’s a kind of ‘have your cake and eat it too mentality’ (as long as the cake is low carb!) Essentially the low carb diets says ‘Eat all you want and STILL lose weight’

Hey, sign me up.

#2 You can eat ‘bad’ food.

Human nature being what it is, we love to break the rules, step over the line, tempt fate, and do something ‘bad’.

We’ve been told for years that low carb foods – foods like eggs bacon, cheese, cream cheese, butter etc, are bad for us. With low carb diets we can lose weight while breaking all the low fat rules we’ve come to resent.

#3 People feel out of control with carbs

You’ve seen the plethora of new books and articles surfacing regarding carbohydrate addictions or cravings. Many people have bought into the mentality that they are ‘addicted’ to carbs (much the same way we get addicted to cigarettes or caffeine).

They feel that when they eat carbs, their cravings get out of control and instead of having one brownie for example, they can’t stop the cravings and they eat the whole tray. So for some, low carb foods become the safe territory where they can eat and not feel out of control.

Those are several reasons why low carb diets are so popular; but do they work?

That depends on which study you read. There have been mixed reports, some say they work, some say they give you the same results as a low fat diet.

But to break it down to an individual level, here’s my take:

For the low carb diet to be successful, you have to approach it as a life change (and that’s a big life change).

You have to be dedicated to getting over the transition period (often called carb withdrawal) which can feel pretty lousy.

You have to dedicate yourself to finding new low carb ways of eating, new low carb recipes and products. It can be done – but you’d better be willing to put the work in.

However for those just looking for a chance to eat all the ‘bad’ food they want and still lose tons of weight in 2 weeks – save yourself the pain, the carb withdrawal and the keto-strips and just cut down your portion sizes.

About the Author

Kathryn O’Neill is a health writer for Diet and Weight Loss Reviews. For more free weight loss tips and diet reviews, visit http://www.freetobethin.com.
Reprint Rights: Author Bio must be included and ALL LINKS MUST BE CLICKABLE.

Written By: Kathryn O’Neill

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Now that you know the importance of good carbohydrates, you are going to learn about one of your body`s worst enemies, simple carbs. Simple carbs are everywhere and can easily be consumed if you are not careful with your food choices. Distinguishing the difference between complex and simple carbs is also confusing. A good way to remember is by the “s`s.” Simple and sugar both begin with an “s” and sugar is what you want to avoid right? So avoid simple carbs.

Simple carbs are basically just sugars added to processed foods. You can find them in soda`s, honey, cakes, many breakfast cereals, and even beer. Don`t be fooled into buying something that is fat free. Educate yourself by reading food labels on what is healthy and what is junk. Let`s say that we are going to have a bowl of “Corn Flakes.” Sure, there is not much fat in them but when the first words on the list of ingredients say “enriched wheat flour, or “high fructose corn syrup,” you have a problem. You should be looking for the words “whole grain wheat,” instead.

If your diet consists mostly of simple carbs, do not expect to lose any fat. Your energy levels will be so low that you feel the need to be eating just to keep awake. “So why are you writing an entire article on simple carbs if they are bad for me,” you may ask. Well simple carbs have positives to them.

After a hard day of training or working at a strenuous labored job, your body needs glycogen and wants it fast. This is when an “insulin spike” becomes useful. An insulin spike is repleneshing however many calories you`ve burnt throughout the workout. The nutrients you use to replenish your body should be a three to one ratio of simple carbs to protein. The most commonly used post workout simple carb is dextrose, which is the main ingredient in Gatorade powder. If you don`t have access to dextrose, then a simple liquid carb, such as orange juice, will work just fine.

Simple carbs are useful but they can become your worst enemy if you consume them at the wrong times. Almost everything you do in bodybuilding needs to be timed perfectly. There`s a time to eat, a time to sleep, a time to take your supplements,and even a time to have your post-workout meal. Welcome to the wonderful world of bodybuilding.

About the Author:

My Sites: http://www.clubbodybuilding.com and http://www.geocities.com/bashore69/bodybuildingarticles.html My book “Bodybuilding for Rookies” will be released August 12.

Written By: Zach Bashore

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The benefits of low-carb dieting are easy to see and make clear why so many are choosing a low-carb way of life. For example, there isn’t any counting of calories or measuring portions. In addition you do not have to cut out all the food you enjoy. You can continue eating burgers, cheese, and bacon. Putting yourself on an eating plan for most people is generally complicated and yet the low-carb diet plan is simple enough for anyone. Cut your carbs down and watch the pounds fall.

No more waiting around for your diet to show results. You will be able to see the results right away. Because of the very simple fact that the amount of calories you consume does matter, by cutting down on your carb intake you will be at the same time cutting out a large amount of calories without trying directly.

Keep yourself in check. As you are minimizing the amount of carbohydrates you are eating you want to make sure that your body is getting enough nutrients. When you are following your low-carb regime here are a few things to keep in mind:

First, make sure you maintain a good fiber intake. You can do this while still sticking to your low-carb plan. Keep away from those bad carbs, such as the ones consumed from sugars. Have the low levels of carbohydrates that you do eat come from whole grains or vegetables. In fact these good carbs that you do choose to eat also aids in weight loss, this is a bonus. Your plan might change names from the low-carb eating plan to the low-carb/good-carb eating plan.

Second, try to minimize the amount of saturated fat you consume. Some low-carb plans you may find are high in saturated fats, one of the worst kinds of fats. They raise your LDL cholesterol levels, which may put you at risk of heart disease.

While eating your low-carb diet, you can reduce your saturated fats by choosing leaner protein sources such as poultry, seafood, and lean pork and beef. Make sure you cut away all visible excess fat on meets. Choose low fat or nonfat dairy products. You should also replace butter with vegetable oils such as olive or canola oil. Try to eat smaller portions of all these foods.

All in all, be smart with your food choices and it will be to your benefit.

About The Author

Melissa “Granny” White is a Low-Carb Diet fan and has been making delicious Low Carb recipes for years. You can get all 800 of her delicious recipes at: http://www.grannys-low-carb-recipes.com.

granny@grannys-low-carb-recipes.com

Written By: Melissa White

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