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| Carbohydrates have gotten a bad reputation lately. With the popularity of the low carb diets such as Atkins diet, the Zone diet, the Hampton's Diet, South Beach Diet and others, many of us are counting our carbohydrates. The food industry has responded to this demand by creating low-carb foods.
Low-carb foods are not necessarily low-fat or low in calories or higher in nutritious value. They may be low in just carbohydrates. In fact many of these foods are high in fat and calories. In other cases, the portions are smaller. For example, some low-carb breads when compared on a weight basis, are as carbohydrate dense as the regular bread, but per slice or piece, they have less carbs because the slice size is smaller.
Net carbs This is a term that makes a lot of sense to the Atkins diet followers. It indicates the content of carbohydrates that do not come form sugars. If you are not following a diet, such as the Atkins, this does not mean anything. (Related article: Lower your sugar consumption)
Which diet foods are better? This is a question only you can answer. Most nutritionists recommend having small or normal portions of the original foods, and in the case of calorie dense foods such as cheesecake or French fries, have small portions sporadically only.
In the US, we tend to take things to the extreme and when we read that a food is low fat, diet or low cal or has any similar terms attached to it, we interpret it as “We can eat more and as often as we want. It is good, it is healthy, and it is not going to make me fat.” This is simply not the case, and in reality, if we are trying to control or maintain our weight and/or health, it may have a totally opposite effect. In a study published in The Journal of Nutrition, the researchers found that cutting back carbs and consuming more proteins leads to higher weight loss and preventing muscle loss. Next articled: Diet foods to lose weight 3 hour diet review |
