Carbohydrates that are slowly digested are important because they produce glucose to the human brain. The body will brake down muscle tissue as a result to provide glucose to the brain without a supply of glucose coming in from our diet. It's believed in the last ten-thousand years, human like folks survived on a high carbohydrate and low fat diet. They probably received their carbs from beans, vegetables and whole grains, and they must have received their sugars from fruits and berries. Therefore, food preparation must have come as a simple process such as grinding food between rocks and cooking from the heat of an open fire. The result of such a simple process would provide all of their food with the ability of being digested and absorbed slowly, which would provide their blood sugar to rise slowly and to be prolonged.
There has been a lot of research to suggest that carbohydrates that are slowly digested and absorbed do not quickly raise our blood sugar levels. And it's probably the way God intended for us to eat and therefore He would have packed the nutrients that we need to be released in a slow format. With our so called "modern diets" we are producing fine white flour that the human body must quickly digest and absorb. It's this industrial revolution that is producing carbohydrates that are manufactured as an instant food that gives us a more eye-catching product that is less perishable. Not only is our modern western diet very high in saturated fat, but it's also very high in the way the carbohydrates are quick to be released in our blood stream.
The "so called" advances in the way we now prepare our food for processing have an awful lot of us believing that this profound effect is the norm for the food we eat. The bottom line is to have our carbs release slowly from the intestine. And there are foods that do just that such as pasta, barley, whole grains, oatmeal, all-bran, some varieties of rice, and bread made with softened whole grains. The carbohydrates are packaged so they are slowly digested and absorbed and therefore they are released gradually from the intestine. This provides the body with a source of glucose that is slowly released.
It should not be a surprise that the natural state of carbohydrates that are slowly digested provide a slow-release. Raw sugars and starches that are unprocessed foods provide a great deal of fiber and are gradually broken down in our gastrointestinal tract by the enzymes of the body. Carbs that provide a fast-release are digested and absorbed faster, and therefore they are not broken down gradually, but rather are stimulated by more insulin that is the hormone providing glucose to the muscles for either immediate use or stored as fat for future use.
Insulin is the hormone our pancreas produces to control blood sugar levels and so eating carbohydrates that help to regulate low blood insulin levels is directly related to the blood sugar response. Many health care professionals recognize that helping to keep insulin levels low in the blood is the way our body should function. High insulin levels are associated with weight gain, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance.
The human body will convert carbohydrates that are slowly digested and absorbed into glucose without quickly raising the blood sugar to a high level. In other words, the human body will convert carbohydrates that are quickly digested and absorbed into glucose, which will raise the blood sugar levels significantly higher than the response the body would receive from the lower digested and absorbed carbohydrates. This means less insulin will be needed to bring the elevation in our blood sugar when we eat carbohydrates that are slowly digested and absorbed.
And so we do not need to eat sixteen slices of bread everyday because there are much slower-released as well as low fat content. Carbs are also found in fruits and vegetables such as beans, carrots, broccoli, bananas, peaches, melons, cherries, grapefruits, apricots, apples, pears, plums, peaches, oranges, grapes, and pineapple. Some of the best are also old fashioned oats, barley, buckwheat, oatmeal, popcorn, sweet-corn, sweet-potatos, yogurt, kellogg's all bran with extra fiber, kellogg's special k, and kellogg's frosted flakes, and don't forget about the peas. Good breads are eagle mills bread, pumpernickel whole grain, pita-bread, sourdough bread, and also don't forget about dairy products that are low in fat.
Calorie-laden foods such as chocolate, potato chips and candy do not provide a whole lot of nutrients, and yet they are packed with an awful lot of calories. The Western diet of today has been developed based on the speed at which the roller mills can function mostly because of the need to have our processed food to have a longer shelf life. The bakers realize that if they can produce a very fine particle size flour that it will produce a greater shelf-stable product. And therefore today many of our carbohydrate foods, such as ordinary bread, are made in such a way that they are quick to be digested and absorbed by the human body.
It's sad because the effect of instant foods is helping to cause problems for the human body because of the many diseases that are associated with obesity and diabetes. Even preventing poor eyesight as we get older may be as simple as cutting refined carbohydrates out of our diet. Among 3,977 men and women who were at the age of 55 and older, who ate above-average amounts of white bread, white rice, and other foods with a high glycemic index were 17 percent more likely to develop age-related macular degeneration, reports the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. It might be a good idea to cut back on soda and sugary sweets to protect our eyes, advise the study authors, and stick to whole wheat versions of pasta, bread, and rice.
Releasing body fat is not always about reducing how much we eat because the kinds of food that we give our body determines how much it will burn and what it will store as body fat. Foods that digest slowly will fill us up and keep us satisfied longer and they will help us burn body fat. Eating to release body fat with slowly digested foods is easy because our body will release body fat as energy when the blood sugar levels are not spiked quickly to a high level. Therefore, what we then end up with is a true fat release (which should be our goal) to lose body fat and not just weight. And it should be stated the real goal is to "release" body fat because to say we want to lose something kind a suggests we are hoping to someday find it again.
And by the way, it's true that eating less of a quickly digested food or more of a slower digested food will produce an equal amount of blood sugar response. However, I am willing to bet that most of us cannot control the portion size of the faster digested food. And yes, after it's all said and done there is an awful amount of control involved when it comes to controlling the portion size with any food.
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