Two Critical Changes in Your Diet
Are you looking for a weight loss program? You can learn what foods are good to eat, what foods are bad for you, and two critical changes in your diet that will change your life for the better. What is good for you to eat? What is bad? Do the rules keep changing? I cannot keep it straight! It is confusing trying to sort out exactly what foods are healthy in what quantities. You want to eat a healthier diet. You want to lose some weight in a healthy way, but you do not have the time or energy to memorize a nutrition textbook. Try these two changes, for a start. If you can break yourself of these two bad habits, you are well on your way to conquering your food demons, and on your way to a successful weight loss program.
Stop Eating Processed Sugar:
First, let us give sugar its due. When we eat any sort of carbohydrate, from pasta to bananas to spinach, our bodies break it down into glucose, a form of sugar. Glucose is the basic energy supply that keeps us running. So, we need sugar to live. But notice that it comes from any carbohydrate. We can get all the sugar we need to function just by eating a healthy, balanced diet.
Unfortunately, a lot of the food we purchase at the grocery store has processed, or refined, sugar added to it. These sugars are not healthy for your
weightloss programs. Processed sugar is sugar that is extracted from plants like cane, beets or corn into crystals or syrup that can then be added to other foods to make them sweeter. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans eat an average of 156 pounds of added sugar a year! Look at that five-pound bag of sugar in your pantry. Take 31 of those. Now eat them.
Where is this sugar? Pretty much everywhere. Of course, we know it’s in soft drinks, cookies, candy and ice cream. But did you know that sugar is added to ketchup, spaghetti sauce, fruit juice, peanut butter, cold cereals and canned fruits and vegetables? All of this added sugar is just empty, extra calories that contribute to weight gain. Try getting the nutrients your body needs without eating foods with added sugar. Here are some tips:
• Read food labels. If sugar is one of the first few ingredients, avoid that food.
• Know your sugars. Anything that ends in the letters ose, like fructose, maltose, dextrose, is a sugar. High fructose corn syrup is one of the worst culprits.
• Substitute, Instead of a glass of juice, eat an orange. Instead of sweetened peanut butter, try unsweetened, or have a handful of nuts. Eat fresh vegetables instead of canne
• Avoid some foods altogether. Candy, sweet pastries and soft drinks have to go. Sorry.
Let Go of Fried Foods:
Fried foods are fatty foods. Fatty foods lead to weight gain, obviously this will not help any weight loss program. It is that simple. Do not get me wrong, like sugar; we need some fat to live. For instance, some vitamins only dissolve in fat, and without fat in our diet, these vitamins would pass right through. Again, like sugar, we get all the fat we need from a healthy, balanced diet. The process of frying adds unnecessary calories onto perfectly healthy food. Or not so perfectly healthy food, in the case of deep-fried Twinkies.
What about frying in healthy fats? What about that place with the arches? Since they don’t fry their French fries in beef tallow anymore, are they OK? Well, yes and no. Frying things in healthier fats is better in some ways. Your arteries appreciate the unsaturated fat and you may hold off heart disease a little longer. But from a weight loss program, fat is fat. Pure lard and extra-virgin olive oil both have 100 calories per tablespoon.
The problem with frying is that whatever is being fried absorbs huge amounts of fat. Have you ever squeezed a French fry between two napkins? Plus, most fried foods are covered in breading, which is just a giant “fat sponge.” Instead of frying, try baking, broiling and steaming. If you get creative with your seasonings – herbs and spices, garlic, lemon – you will discover that you don’t miss that heavy, grease laden fried food at all! This could be the best weight loss program of all!
