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Articles
Carb Counting Madness, Part 2
My wife and I were in Wal-Mart getting ready to
check out (yes, I go to Wal-Mart and I am proud of
it.) While we standing in line, there were a bunch
of bars that said, "0 Carbs." Now, my wife
picked one up and I thought she was going to by it.
So I go, "Oh no, don't tell me that they
got you too!" She said with discontent,
"No, I was going to show you that it really
does have carbs in it." Looking at her in an
apologetic manner I go, "yep, it's just a
bunch of bull."
It turns out that there were actually 8 grams of
carbohydrates. In addition, there were 5 grams of
fat and 5 grams of protein. Now let me ask you this
question, which has more calories, the fat or the
carbohydrates? Answer: the Fat.
Simple math, for every gram of fat there are 9
calories and for every gram of carbohydrate there
are 4 grams. So, 9*5 = 45 calories and 8*4 = 32
calories. It's only a difference of 13 calories.
To me, that's not really a big deal. However,
I'm only trying to illustrate the point that
carbs are not really all that bad when it comes to
the amount of calories they deliver. And you know
what, fat isn't all that bad either so long as
you eat in moderation, variety, and balance.
So, what's the problem. Well, mostly likely you
(along with the majority of most Americans)
don't eat "real" food, but food that
comes from a package, cardboard box, pre-made (maybe
months or years), wrapped in plastic, saturated in
monosodium glutamate, pressed with trans-fatty
acids, colored with yellow # 9, hydrogenated, added
with salt, depleted of nutrients and fiber, comes
from a Styrofoam cup, comes from a can, sweetened
with something you never heard of… Whew! Do
you see where I am going with this?
The fact is, carbohydrates are not the enemy.
Furthermore, it is not ONE particular thing that has
caused an epidemic of obesity in this country.
Instead, it is a combination of factors such as,
lack of activity, eating a poor diet, dieting in
itself (yes, diets contribute to obesity and I'm
about to explain why), and other poor lifestyle
habits.
If you recall in my last ezine, when you deplete
yourself of carbohydrate energy you will begin to
breakdown muscle to get the necessary glucose for
quick energy. So, when one goes on a diet or low
carbohydrate diet, one will lose weight. However,
it's not just fat, but water and muscle. This
leads to you gaining even more body fat once you
have stopped the diet for a while. This leads to the
Yo-Yo diet. (Yo-Yo dieting is going on and off of
diets over a period of time.) You think, well I
guess I need to go on the diet again because I
didn't do it right. But it's not your fault.
The diet becomes part of the problem, not the
solution.
Recently, a friend of mine sent me this article -
The Deadliest Sin. The article was written in
Harvard Magazine by an epidemiologist (someone who
studies a population of people). This article is by
far one of the best articles I have seen exposing
what "pill" you can take for optimal
health, fitness, weight loss, and vitality.
Kelly Huggins, B.S., ACSM HFI
The Fitness MythBuster
404.303.8305 kelly@kellyhuggins.com
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