Texas Lap Band Surgeons Talk With You

It seems like certain foods go through phases when they’re “the bad guy”, the thing you’re not supposed eat, at all, in any quantity, or you’ll instantly blow-up like the Nutty Professor.  If you think about it, that’s nonsense to begin with; most foods are good for you – in moderation (okay, maybe not Cadbury eggs or bacon, but you get my point). In the ’80′s it was meat and protein, in the  ’90′s it was fat and sugar, now it’s carbohydrates.

But what’s the reality? Carbohydrates got a bad name as a byproduct of the Atkins diet.  The Atkins diet (and some other related diets) require followers to have less than 20g of carbohydrates per day in order to put the body into ketosis. Ketosis is a state in which the body has run out of carbohydrates to use as fuel and instead turns to fat burning. Sounds good, right? Wrong. This is starvation mode for your body – the body was designed to use carbohydrate as its main fuel, especially for the brain. It’s a strain on the kidneys and it prevents intake of necessary vitamins, fiber and other building blocks the body needs and naturally gets from fruits and vegetables.

What’s that you say? Fruits and vegetables? Yes!! Carbohydrates range from “simple” like bread, pasta and rice to “complex” like fruit and vegetables and beans.  They’re all carbohydrates but they don’t all have equal nutritional value.  Stick with “complex” carbohydrates and eat “simple”s in moderation and  you will (a) be less constipated (b) be giving your body vital nutrition to help burn fat and build a healthier you.