It is becoming common knowledge that it’s wise to limit the amount of carbohydrates we eat. However, it is difficult to determine what are bad versus good carbs and how many carbs per day should we consume. This article will give significant information about dietary carbohydrates and how to know how many carbs we can have in our diet.
With books such as The Keto Diet, Grain Brain, The Paleolithic Diet, The Mediterranean Diet and The South Beach Diet it is becoming apparent that a diet high in carbohydrates can be deleterious to our health. The old “food pyramid” that was used as a dietary suggestion consisting of very little fat, a bit more protein, and lots of carbs has been shown to have a paucity of scientific evidence and poor anecdotal evidence to convince anyone that it had much validity. In fact, many healthcare practitioners believe that it is the major reason why we have such poor health in the United States. Lifestyle pathologies such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, dementia and others can be directly linked to high dietary carbohydrates.
Newer guidelines have established standards that warn not to consume high amounts of “starchy” carbohydrates like cereal, bread, pasta and grains. These are the foods that can ruin health. Of all the grains, wheat is the most harmful. It contains high amounts of a protein called gluten. For many of us, gluten is an allergen that is categorized as causing food sensitivities. Gluten sensitivities or gluten allergies are very common in the American population. It is not surprising that we find a myriad of gluten-free food-types on the shelves of most of our grocery stores.
If one wants to utilize a safer grain, oats and rice would be the best recommendation. Rice and oats have little to no gluten. However, they are still problematic because they are starchy carbohydrates.
It should be said that vegetables and fruit are also considered carbohydrates. But they can be eliminated from this discussion of limiting carbohydrates. Fruit and veggies are a completely different type of carbohydrate than grain carbohydrates. Even so it would be best to consume a limited amount of fruit as some contain high amounts of carbohydrate called fructose. It is suggested that a person eat 3 portions of vegetables for every 1 one portion of fruit consumed.
How many starchy carbs should one consume a day? Many experts suggest approximately 100-200 grams/day. This amount is certainly reasonable, attainable and provides enough appetite satisfaction to work for most people.
What sometimes is difficult is to be able to measure or count the grams of carbohydrates in various foods. However, food labels on the packaging of our foodstuffs provides the knowledge required to determine how much we should consume. There are two features on a food label to look for. The first is the serving size. The second is the total carbohydrates. As an example, let’s say you wanted to eat a food bar. Assume that the label said a food bar was one serving and the total carbohydrate listing was 20 grams. You would know that by eating one food bar of this type 20 grams of starchy carbohydrates would have been consumed. Another example might entail eating oatmeal. Let’s say the food label notes that one serving is 1/2 cup and that one serving yields 100 grams of total carbohydrates. We would now know exactly the amount of carbs eaten. If one were to reduce the serving size to 1/4 cup 50 grams of total carbohydrates would be ingested.
By using food labels, it is very easy to determine the amount of carbohydrates/day a person takes in.
If a food label is not available it is very easy to go on to the Internet and to simply provide the browser the information of the type of carbohydrate, the serving size and asking for the amount of total carbs numerated. By using this method, it is quite simple and easy to determine the amount of carbohydrates we consume per day.
Again, 100-200 grams per day of starchy carbohydrates is a good goal to shoot for. Many of us who initially utilized this approach found that within a year we reached a desirable weight, eliminated chronic pains, had increased energy and better sleep.
This diet does not have to be excessively stringent. Most people who do not have serious metabolic diseases could certainly afford to have a “cheat day” or two each week when they could exceed the 100-200 grams of starchy carbohydrates and have some sweets.
Limiting the amount of starchy carbs, consuming reasonable amounts of protein and healthy fats and supplying our diets with plenty of organic vegetables will allow most people to obtain healthful diet. Many healthcare practitioners, dietitians and nutritionists believe that this type of diet would allow the majority of the American population to reduce lifestyle health pathologies to a point of essential national insignificance.
