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What type of diet is good for you?
To remain healthy, our diet must contain sugars (or carbohydrates or simply carbs), fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fiber and water in sufficient amounts. These "sufficient" amounts
are the allowed daily intake suggested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA determines these amounts after researching the available clinical data and the research reports. These amounts are revised nearly
every year based on the new data and to suit the new demands and changing lifestyle. For example, the daily calorie intake was 2500 calories for men about 50 years ago when most people walked to work, did manual
labor for a living. Now it is reduced to 1800 calories to suit today's sedentary lifestyle. The diet suggested by FDA is called balanced diet because all of the components are closest to the amounts we need. The number of calories allowed depend on the age, lifestyle and the occupation of a person. For example, pregnant women and children need higher calories, especially rich in proteins, than the normal adults. Construction workers need higher calories rich in carbohydrates.
Any diet other than balanced diet is not optimum for a healthy living. This is because such a diet contains one or more of the components in excess or insufficient amounts.
Normal adults with sedentary lifestyle need a minimum of 1800 to 2000 calories a day to live and function in a normal way. Calories are nothing but units of energy given out when the food
is digested. We use energy to grow, to maintain, for our activities and to fight against diseases. If we eat a low-calorie diet (containing less than 1800 calories), we may not get enough energy, vitamins or
minerals, making us weak and prone to infections. If we eat a high-calorie diet (more than 1800 calories), the extra energy will be converted into fat.
If we want to follow a low-carb diet such as Atkin's diet, then we must consume higher amounts of fat or protein, to get our daily allowance of calories. Similarly, if we want to consume
a high-carb diet, we must reduce the amounts of fat and protein. You might ask - how about selecting only the component that is good for us. Well, our body needs all of the 7 components. Moreover, components like
carbs can not be converted into energy without the help of proteins or vitamins. We would suffer from deficiencies if any one or more of the components is in insufficient amounts and we would suffer from diseases if
one or more components is in higher amounts than we need. There isn't a single component that has only good but not bad effects and is self-sufficient, not even water!
Sugars or carbs are our primary source of energy. To breathe, to be able to think, to move and to even to blink, laugh or move, we need sugars. Sugars need not be sweet. Honey is a sugar.
Starch is also a sugar but grass is also a sugar. However, we have no ability to digest the kind of sugar present in grass. It is called cellulose or fiber. Pasta, bread, rice, noodles, root vegetables, fruits,
milk, desserts are sugar-rich foods. Sugars that are sweet are Simple Sugars. They are digested mostly in the mouth. This means they are available for use within 10
minutes after chewing. Starches on the other hand, are non-sweet sugars or Complex Sugars. They are digested in the stomach and are available for use (as blood sugar) in
about 30-90 minutes after eating.
Whatever we eat (sugars, fats or proteins), it will eventually end up in our blood after digestion. Blood carries oxygen and food components to all of our tissues and organs. Tissues and
organs suck out oxygen and food components from blood, process them into energy, return the waste byproducts, dead cells and carbon dioxide into blood. Energy is produced by burning sugars and oxygen. Products of
this process are water, carbon dioxide and energy. More the oxygen and food components, more energy! Blood carries these waste products and carbon dioxide into lungs and kidneys for excretion.
Sugars are digested right in the mouth and then in the stomach. The entire digestion of sugars is completed in 90 minutes after we eat. As we eat, the sugar levels in the blood start
rising. The brain senses this increase in blood sugar level and sends instructions to the body to produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that drives excess blood sugar inside the cells and tissues so that the blood
sugar remains constant. In addition, it also helps in converting excess sugar into a storage form called glycogen. Regular blood sugar is like electricity. It must be used instantly and can not be stored but
glycogen can be stored in muscles, kidney and liver for later use. This glycogen is used when blood sugar level drops to lower than normal levels. For example, at the end of 2 hours after eating, sugar levels return
to normal levels because excess sugar has already been driven inside the cells or converted into glycogen. At this point if you start exercising or walking, blood sugar levels begin to drop below normal. Brain
senses this drop in sugar levels and sends signals to make us feel hungry as well as to produce another hormone named glucagon. Glucagon counters the actions of insulin i.e. it releases glycogen from storage and
converts it into blood sugar, bringing the levels back to normal.
Unfortunately, both blood sugar and glycogen love water. One gram of glycogen holds 3 grams of water. This means, more glycogen we store, 3 times more water we store. One gram of glycogen
should produce enough energy to move 4 grams of body weight! This is inefficient. So, our body does not store a lot of glycogen.
Low blood sugar levels make us hungry, weak, dizzy and irritable. If the levels drop to dangerously low levels (in starvation), the brain does not get enough food and therefore can not
function well. Such a situation results in confusion, coma and eventually death.
Fortunately, our body has alternative mechanisms to get energy. Under normal circumstances, excess sugar present in blood, is also converted into fats in addition to glycogen. This means,
even when we consume low-fat or zero-fat diet, when our blood sugar levels rise above normal level, excess sugar is converted into fats. Why does the body do this?
This is because the body wants to use fats as energy source in emergency situations where neither sugar nor glycogen is available. Why fats?
First, fats give a lot more energy than
sugars. Sugars give 4 calories of energy per gram whereas fats give 9 calories per gram.
Second, fat is much lighter and can be stored throughout the body underneath the skin, around the organs, in the belly,
thighs, buttocks, arms and chin without weighing a ton.
Third, besides being future energy source, fat has other functions too. It insulates the body from extreme heat and cold; cushions the organs as well as
nerves; helps in the digestion of vitamins A, D, E and K; is required to make hormones, new cells and tissues.
Fourth, muscles of the limbs use fats as their sole energy source when they are at rest.
We need to get 25% of the total calories from dietary fat for all of these things to work. So, why don't we use fats as our first source of energy?
Fats have a complex structure and so their digestion takes too long - about 2 to 3 hours. This means our body can not rely on fats as an instant source of energy eventhough they give more
energy than sugars. Sugars on the other hand, like a checking account, are available for use within 5-10 minutes after we consume. Fats are sort of like Certificate of Deposits, meant for future emergency situations
like starvation. Even the muscles of the limbs, though use fats as their energy source at rest, begin using glycogen when they become active because they need instant energy for their movement. Moreover, fats need
to be converted into blood sugar or to ketone bodies, a form of fat, in order to be available to the brain because brain can process only these two forms. And the conversion is not efficient. Ketone bodies are
acidic. A large amount of ketone bodies turn the blood into an acid!
When the body has exhausted all of its glycogen, it begins using fats as the alternative source of energy. For example, let us say you ate your lunch at noon. By 2.30pm, your digestion is
complete and the blood sugar levels have dropped to normal. Let us say you started running a marathon. Within no time, you will be hungry because you use your blood sugar for your movement. At the same time, your
glucagon converts the stored glycogen into blood sugar. So, you do not feel weak until all of your glycogen has been used. Once that happens, brain sends signals to process the stored fat. In other words, you
begin losing weight from this point onwards.
This means, you can lose your fat, if you run or exercise after you have nearly used up all of your sugars (or about 3-4 hours after eating).You can also lose your fat by exercising a lot
so that you spend more calories than you eat.
Remember that sugars hold a lot of water. For every 1 gram of stored sugar, the body stores 3 grams of water. So, when you lose all of that stored sugar, you are losing 3 times water!
This rapid weight loss seen in the first week of weight loss programs (either by exercise or by using special diets) is only a result of loss of water! For the real weight loss to happen you need to lose huge
volumes of fat because fat is very light. This is noticeable only after 2-3 weeks.
Let us say, you went on hunger strike after running the marathon. Body releases more fat into blood. Muscles, heart and other organs can use fats directly to make energy whereas brain
consumes the sugars and ketone bodies formed from these fats. Since the blood sugar levels are lower, you feel weak. Loss of sugar and glycogen and the acidity produced by the fat conversion results in dehydration.
Once the fat from underneath the skin is exhausted, you begin to feel very cold because there is no insulation. Also your skin begins to hang in folds and becomes flaky, bones ache if they hit hard objects.
If you continue your hunger strike even after exhausting all of the stored fat, your body tries its last survival mechanism. It begins using proteins as source of energy. Unfortunately,
there is no stored protein in our body that is meant to be used in starvation. In fact, excess proteins in the diet are converted into fats and glycogen. Proteins are normally involved in making structural
components like muscles, immune bodies, tissues, enzymes and hormones and NOT in energy production. Only about 10% of the energy comes from proteins. But when there isn't any sugar or fat left, body begins breaking
down the muscle fibres to utilize the protein from them. The muscle loss will make you look emaciated, like the Somalian kids after a famine. When proteins are processed, huge amounts of ammonia and urea are
produced. They are toxic. So the body tries to rid of them through urine by releasing water from the tissues and blood. This results in dehydration and weight loss. Muscles disappear one by one making you look like
a skeleton. At this point, you suffer from major vitamin and mineral deficiencies too. You can not think straight, may suffer memory loss and confusion. Hopefully you will change your mind before losing your bones
and essential organs or damaging the brain permanently...
Why don't we talk about vitamins, minerals, fibers and water as sources of energy?
Vitamins and minerals are required for many processes that are involved in growth and maintenance of
our body (blood clotting, bone formation etc.) but they can not give energy.
Water is essential in making the blood flow throughout the body, in helping waste products get out of the body as urine, in
maintaining a constant temperature throughout the body by carrying heat, in dissolving the food components so that all tissues get the same concentration of nutrients and so on. However, it can not give energy.
Fibers add bulk to the food. So, food can move down the throat by gravity. Fibers stretch our stomach, convincing the brain that we ate a lot. However, fibers cannot give energy because we can not even digest them.
In fact, when they descend into the large intestine, the intestinal bacteria feed on them for energy. This fermentation produces gas and acids but supplies us vitamin B12.
Okay, we saw what happens if our diet does not contain sufficient amounts of components. What happens if they are in excess?
Let us say we follow high-carb diet such as the following:
strudels or frosted miniwheats with raisins and bananas and orange juice for breakfast
a can of soda around 10 am
apples, grapes, yogurt and a bagel with jelly and a can of soda for lunch
pretzels and potato chips and a can of soda for an evening snack
pasta and wine for dinner, ice-cream for dessert.
Our blood will have high sugar throughout the day and night, especially if we don't utilize most of it (by working in front of the computer or reading/writing). This makes us sleepy and
lethargic. This is because our brain will divert its attention to digestion, production of glycogen and fats from mental activities. High levels of sugar will force our body to produce more insulin so that the sugar
can be driven into the tissues rather than in remaining in blood. Insulin drives sugars into the tissues, converts the excess into fats and glycogen. But our pancreas can only produce so much of insulin! If there
isn't enough insulin (such as in diabetics), sugar remains at high levels in the blood forever! This leads to constant fat production. In a normal person, when blood flows through the kidneys, they filter out the
sugars and all of the important nutrients from blood and
process the rest to make urine. But when the blood has high levels of sugar, kidneys can not filter out all of the sugar before the blood flows out of the kidneys. The blood sugar that could not be filtered out, gets into urine. Since sugars love water, the urine sugar takes a lot of water with it resulting in excess urine output. This explains why an untreated diabetic is always thirsty and dehydrated and experiences frequent urination. In a normal person, this does not happen because the body produces enough insulin to drive the sugar into the tissues and to make glycogen and fats, keeping the sugar at normal level.
Unfortunately, there is only tiny space allotted to store glycogen (kidneys, muscles and liver). So, when a high-carb diet minus exercise is followed, a lot more fat is produced compared
to glycogen. In addition to forming a layer underneath our skin (especially around the abdomen, buttocks, arms and chin), fat forms a plaque in our arteries narrowing them and forms a layer around the organs
obstructing their work. This will result in high blood pressure and atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) leading to heart disease.
You might have already guessed that a high-fat diet will also give similar results. This means, both high-carbohydrate or high-fat diets are bad. What if we eat low-carbohydrate, low-fat,
high-protein diet?
We know that proteins are not the traditional energy suppliers. Only 10% of the energy is supplied by proteins that after its conversion into glycogen and fats. So, when you consume
low-fat, low-carbohydrate high-protein diet, you are essentially starving. Moreover, brain can use only sugars or fats not proteins. Conversion of proteins to sugars is a roundabout process and needs more energy
than it can produce! So, expect disorientation in addition to weakness. Excess protein will also lead to acidity, increased ammonia and urea. This will make the kidneys and lungs work very hard. Fat soluble vitamins
cannot be digested because of low amounts of fat. If this type of diet continues, it will lead to malnutrition or a situation similar to starvation.
What if you eat a low-calorie but balanced diet?
Low calorie diet contains inadequate amounts of all components required to function normally. Low sugar will make you weak. Low fat may
result in poor digestion of vitamins, leading to vitamin deficiency. You can probably counter it by taking vitamin supplements. However, the body reduces the metabolic rate and increases fat production to cope with
this "low sugar" emergency situation. This means your breathing will slow down. The low amounts of oxygen and food components will result in low energy production. In addition, you fat reserve will increase. Since
you feel weak all the time, your activity will reduce. This means you will spend lesser calories than before. At this stage you need to eat even lower calories to stop making fats. When you do that, the brain thinks
it has to make even larger amounts of fat to cope with the more serious situation......
You probably have concluded by now that you have only a few options to help you lose weight and still be healthy. Here are some tips:
1. Spend nearly all of the calories you eat. Walk
30 minutes a day, especially when your blood sugar levels are high (one hour after eating). It is best if you walk or exercise after supper. This way you can use up the excess sugar thereby reducing fat production.
Also your body reduces its metabolism when you sleep. So, your sugar levels do not drop to below normal levels and make you hungry because you are asleep.
2. Eat balanced diet with 1800 to 2000 calories and drink 8 cups of water daily. You can allot the components based on your lifestyle. For example, eat most of the carbohydrate part
during the day when you spend energy and eat most of the proteins at night when you don't need much energy. Eat fat sparingly. You need only an equivalent of a tablespoon of corn oil per day. If you want to eat high
fat diet occasionally, make sure to eat it 8 hours before you sleep and that it is low in saturated fats (solid fats like butter, margarine, shortening, cream, cheese, peanut butter, palm oil, coconut, and nuts that
have high saturated fats) and you exercise heavily on that day.
3. Many small meals (4-5) instead of a few big meals (2-3) is better. Infrequent big meals result in high levels of insulin due to high blood sugar levels. Obviously, all those excess
sugars, proteins and fats will be converted to fats. Many little meals (never eat till you are full!!!) will keep your insulin levels lower as your blood sugar does not go through a roller coaster. Since your
insulin levels will be low, glucagon levels will be higher. This means you will be using up the glycogen and fats, or just maintain/even lose weight after exercise.
4. NO SNACKING!!! Snacking, involves eating unnecessary calories. If the snacks are high carbohydrate foods, the resulting higher blood glucose level will trigger insulin production
further signaling fat production. If you snack all day, WHATEVER you are eating will be turned into fats. Most people think they can eat more if it says ' fat free' or 'low fat' - a very fatal misconception.
Remember that only a third of your cholesterol is from your diet. The remaining two thirds are made in the body from sugars!
5. Eat plenty of fibers. You can add fiber powder such as metamucil or benefiber to your meals while cooking. They do not add any taste but make you feel full. If you were eating a lot
earlier, your brain may think you are not full (even if you eat 2000 calories) until your stomach is stretched to your pre-diet levels. You can deceive your brain by stretching your stomach to the same extent as
before but by eating non-digestible zero-calorie fiber! You can also do this by drinking water or decaffeinated coffee with no milk or sugar. However, remember that all elements, in excess are bad, including water!
6. When you start an exercise regimen, expect to see a significant weight loss in the first week due to water loss. Then the scale may show the same weight for 3-4 weeks. This is
because fat is like feathers. You need to lose huge volumes of it to show on the scale. If your aim is to lose weight and gain tone or muscles, you should do aerobic exercise only in the beginning. Your scale will
start showing weight loss after 3 weeks, about 1-2 lb per week. Continue exercising until your scale shows no reduction in weight or you feel you do not have excess fat on your body. Begin strength training at this
stage to gain muscles. You will gain 1lb of muscle per week beginning from the 4th week.
If you start both strength training and exercise simultaneously, you will lose fat but build muscle at the same time. However, fat is like feathers and muscle is like bricks. You will
start gaining weight after 4 weeks because you are gaining muscle eventhough you are losing fat. You may stop your exercise program thinking it is useless. Remember that muscles are used up as protein source in
between meals because there is no other storage. Frequent meals with proteins can counter this problem. Muscles grow large if they are used and reduce in size if they are not used. Regular exercise is the key to
keep them in good shape. Muscles have a high metabolic rate. This means they need a lot of calories to survive. So, if you have a large muscle mass, bulk of the calories go into keeping the muscles in shape. As a
result, fat production is reduced.
How to gain weight?
Well, that is tougher than you think. Healthy way of gaining weight is to bulk up the muscles because muscles are dense and heavy. Moreover, increased muscle mass
helps keep the fat at low levels by using them up at rest. Another advantage is muscles can use up sugars without the help of insulin. This is good news to diabetics who do not produce enough insulin or are
resistant to insulin. Diabetics with large muscle mass can reduce a significant amount of blood sugar with low insulin levels.
Since muscles store glycogen, they also store three times water. This adds to the weight. The more work you give to your skeletal muscles (in the limbs), the bigger they become. The
increase in size helps them store more glycogen and perform better. Unfortunately, they do not grow big by consuming more proteins as the protein supplement advertisements claim.
Muscles use glycogen as energy source while active. As soon as the stored glycogen is used up, muscles feel exhausted. This is why the weight lifting champions can lift heavy weights only
for seconds! Muscles use up all of their stored glycogen in seconds! However, muscles can bulk up only by increasing in size not by producing more cells. Once the growth period is over, you can not add any more
fiber. So, you will not be able to gain weight if you do not have a lot of muscle fibers to begin with, not the healthy weight at least! Poor musculature could be inherited or due to low-protein diet while in the
womb or while growing up or due to some muscle disorders.
1. Lift weights 3 times a week for 20 minutes at a time. If you want the body builder's look, lift your maximum capacity weight for a short period. If you want a leaner, toned look, lift
small weights many times. Start with 10 times and gradually increase. Muscles grow in response to usage. Therefore using them regularly is important. As soon as you stop using, the muscle fibers will be used to make
enzymes or antibodies and they will be replaced with a spongy filler tissue. Muscles grow in between usage or exercise. Lift weights on alternate days to give the muscles a day in between to grow.
2. Eat sugars before you exercise and proteins after you exercise. Drink plenty of water. Eat frequent meals to have a continuous supply of proteins and sugars to your muscles.
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