According to research low carb diets can be very effective for weight loss and improving health outcomes. When you decrease your carb (and fat) intake, and up your protein intake, one significant change most people notice is a reduction in their appetite, even though many say that they have never eaten as much on a diet before.
However, some people struggle when they try to adjust their diet to eat less carbs. What do they eat instead of the carbs they were consuming before? What can they eat to replace high-carb foods like refined grains, fruits, starchy vegetables and legumes?
How much protein can they now eat? How much fat is enough and what is too much?
Just removing refined wheat and processed foods high in fat and sugar are a great start for most people. If your body is sensitive to carbs and you have a low carbohydrate tolerance, then another way to reduce your carb load is to ensure that you eat your carbs and not drink them.
Liquid carbs are found in juices, energy drinks, soft drinks, specialty coffees, alcohol, chocolate milk and yoghurt drinks.
It is also much easier to consume larger amounts of carbs when they are in a liquid form. A glass of juice can be consumed very quickly as the fibre has been eliminated. To eat the same amount of fruit that makes up a fresh juice would take a lot more time, or even be impossible to eat. A glass of fresh orange juice may take the equivalent of 4+ oranges. It’s rare to get through one orange let alone 4+ in one sitting.
The sugar in drinks is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and can cause blood sugar to rise quickly and blood sugar to spike. Insulin is secreted to circulate the blood sugar and excess is converted and stored as fat, preventing fat burning and causing weight gain.
Your energy levels may increase quickly but when your blood sugars spike they can rebound to a low blood sugar state. Your energy and concentration levels can crash within 30-120 minutes. This makes you feel hungry and crave more carbs and sugar.
FYI… safety warnings to highway drivers say that “At 2 hours stop, revive and survive.” For some the drop in concentration might be from a combination of tiredness AND low blood sugar, due to the high carb foods and drinks they had earlier.
Time to get off this treadmill!!!!
Let’s have a look at some examples of the difference between eating carbs versus drinking carbs when we look at some common juices which most people considered to be “healthy”:
- 200 ml apple juice 21 g 1 medium apple 12 g
- 200 ml carrot juice 11.2 g 1 medium carrot 6 g
- 200 ml orange juice 19.3 g 1 medium orange 11 g
- 200 ml tomato juice 9 g 1 cup cherry tomatoes 3.6 g
Now compare a black coffee (espresso) with 1 Tbsp cream that contains just .5 g carbs to some other popular drinks:
- Affogato 140 ml 34 g
- Iced Chocolate 200 ml 26 g
- Latte 200 ml 10 g
- Lemonade 200 ml 17 g
- Red Bull Energy drink 250 ml 27.5 g
- Tonic Water 200 ml 18 g
- Yoghurt drink 60 ml 10.2 g
Remember that 4 g of carbohydrate becomes 1 teaspoon of sugar in your blood and any excess blood sugar will be stored in your liver, muscles and eventually in fat cells.
Just like in the 1990’s when we were all taught (simplistically) that fat was our enemy we avoided fat thinking that it would make us put on weight only to find that as a nation Australians were getter fatter and fatter.
We now have to get our head around the role of carbohydrates and the role that they play in our weight and wellness. There are good and there are bad carbs, but when it comes to being our best weight and having good health our bodies all react differently.
The Keto Fitness online program is a guided eating low-carb program where you learn how much and how often you can eat and what foods and drinks are right for your body.
Being your best weight and having good health is something that we should all aspire to and it is within your reach. If you would like to get started on your low-carb journey click on the Lose Weight Now button at the top of the page.