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September 19, 2005
The Second Key Principle For A Successful Heart Healthy Diet
Processed carbohydrates, especially starchy ones, make you fat and diseased.
Get your carbs from unprocessed vegetables that grow above ground and skip the grains and potatoes.
What makes one food “better” for you than another? Different foods contain different nutrients, of course, but the body handles them differently. For example, all carbohydrates contain four calories per gram, but they can have wildly different effects on the body’s blood sugar levels.
The body converts all digestible carbohydrates into glucose or blood sugar. Then the pancreas kicks into gear, producing insulin to move the blood sugar into the cells to use for energy. The body stores any excess as glycogen in the liver and muscles or as body fat.
Recent studies have found a link between processed starches and heart attack. All grains must be processed before we humans can eat them. Many studies, including a recent one from Spain, link processed starches to heart attacks. These processed starches can come from lasagna, bread, cookies, spaghetti, pizza, crackers, chips, and cereals.
These foods cause an unnatural surge in blood sugar. Your body responds by secreting excessive insulin until your blood sugar returns to normal. Because there is so much glucose tightly packed into these starches, your body secretes more insulin for a longer time than if you ate sources of simple sugars such as fruit. This prolonged and excessive release of insulin makes us fat, and it causes heart disease.
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Posted by james at September 19, 2005 6:12 AM