I recently came across Dr. Clyde Wilson’s website. He is a doctor in the Bay Area. He teaches at Stanford. He has a lot of great scientific-based research on his website shared through print and video. One topic I was particularly interested in reading was regarding weight gain due to overeating. This is a major issue that many Americans face on a daily basis.
Dr. Wilson gave a good analogy “If I told you that putting too much fuel into your car made the tank over-flow (like belly fat over-flowing from too many calories), would the answer be to never put any fuel into the tank? The more you drive your car, the more fuel it needs, but that doesn’t mean you should over-flow your tank whenever you drive a lot.”
He went on to explain “Carbohydrate drives our brain and the highest-intensity part of movement, meaning that carbohydrate serves as the basis for the highest level of function for both body and mind.
Processed carbohydrates digest too fast, enter the bloodstream faster than they can be absorbed by the brain and muscle, forcing the carbohydrate to go to body fat, where it is converted to, and later burned as, fat. Fat burning is slow, so you will be moving and thinking slow.
Trying to live a high-energy life without carbohydrate is like trying to race a sports car without fuel. People who exercise or are very physically active and don’t eat carbohydrate are the worst off, wondering why the harder they exercise the harder it is too lose body fat.
You can slow down carbohydrate digestion by eating minimally-processed foods. For example: whole fruits and vegetables instead of fruit or vegetable juice, steel cut oats instead of dry cereal, corn kernels instead of corn flakes or corn bread, wild rice instead of brown or white rice, and coarse bread made from whole kernels of grains never ground into flour instead of regular whole-grain or white bread.
You can also slow down carbohydrate digestion by always eating them with coarse vegetables, such as salad, or by eating smaller amounts more frequently through your day, such as the 6-meal-per-day approach. Or you could eat the slowest-digesting carbohydrate foods; lentils and starchy beans.
These different approaches to slowing down carbohydrate digestion rate, make up most of the spectrum of diets on the market. They all look different on the surface, but underneath they are just reducing the rate that carbohydrate enters the bloodstream. The low-carb fad diets simply cutting out carbohydrate, cutting out the high-energy part of your life at the same time. When I look at the eating patterns around me in the Bay Area, which is more health conscious than most other parts of the country, processed carbohydrate and animal fats make up the bulk of the calories. For those who eat like that, eliminating carbohydrate is a good starting point. But to live life to its fullest, you will eventually have to bring them back into your life in the form of healthier options or else combined with a lot more vegetables than before. Anything will work that slows the carbohydrate digestion rate down so your brain and muscle have time to absorb them.”
Be sure to check out his website to view his entertaining and informative videos
Reference: http://www.drclydewilson.com/
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