Low Cards Diet: A Good Fuel Source?

Eating a low carbs diet does have it's consequences, but the question is, is it a good fuel source?

You're probably aware that staying on this type of diet doesn't mean going on a starvation diet. No, it means excluding foods with added sugar and other starchy, fiber-rich foods.

Your body uses carbs to make glucose, the fuel that gives you energy and helps keep everything going. Extracting glucose from the carbohydrates you give it, your body either uses glucose immediately, or stores it in your liver and muscles for when it is needed.

But whether you eat foods high, or low, in carbs, the point is that your body needs carbs for fuel; otherwise, you'll experience sluggishness, inactivity.

So the issue is not whether you're better off eating a low carbs diet, but whether eating any carbohydrate-rich foods is a good fuel source for your body.

The media, including books, scientists and doctors alike have agreed that filling up on the good carbs and rejecting the bad carbs is a good weight loss strategy. And the strategy begs the question: does eating simple carbs a good fuel source for you?

To answer this question, let's . . .

Differentiate Simple Carbohydrates from Complex Carbohydrates

Simple and complex carbohydrates are terms used to distinguish the two types of carbohydrates.

On one hand, you have simple carbohydrates, and in this category are fruits, breads vegetables and others with naturally occurring sugars in them. They're dietary fibers-rich foods, without the added sugar.

Simple carbohydrates also include foods with added sugar, milk, and milk products. Some diet books use "bad" carbs to talk about foods with refined carbohydrates (i.e., meaning they're made from white flour and added sugars). Examples include white bread, cakes, and cookies.
In general, foods with added sugars have fewer nutrients than foods with naturally occurring sugars.

On the other hand, complex carbohydrates include all the starchy, fiber-rich foods.

Starch and dietary fiber are the two types of complex carbohydrates.

Starch must be broken down through digestion before your body can use it as a glucose source.

Quite a few foods contain starch and dietary fiber such as breads, cereals, and vegetables:

Starch is in certain vegetables (i.e., potatoes, dry beans, peas, and corn), breads, cereals, and grains.

In addition, dietary fiber is in vegetables, fruits, and whole grain foods, all of which may be included in your low carbs diet.

Thus, eating a low carbs diet is a good fuel source, but is it enough? This question is best answered when you define your weight loss goal.

What's Your Weight Loss Goal?

Without question, losing weight is the aim for you to choose and stay on simple carbohydrates diet. You will lose some weight; however, staying on this diet will exclude nutrients found in the high carbohydrates foods.

It seems clear that eating the simple carbohydrates diet, oatmeal, oat bran, nuts fruits, etc., soluble fiber, excludes the insoluble fiber group.

You'll exclude many of the nutrient-rich foods in the insoluble fiber group, including whole wheat bread, barley, brown rice, couscous
bulgur or whole grain cereals, to name a few.

Will you lose weight on a low carbs diet? Absolutely. But if you want to stay healthy and maintain sustainable energy, include both complex and simple carbohydrates in your diet.


The author lives in Georgia, where he's a writer and internet marketer.

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