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1. Weight Loss
Now, with some of the understanding of blood sugar control
behind us, we can begin to look at weight, and weight loss
from a place of more understanding.
It becomes quite obvious to all, that a satisfied appetite,
and lack of exercise are not the cause of all weight problems.
In fact this idea has led to a myriad of fad programs to help
one loose weight. Someone will put their name on a n old idea,
and sell us something that we already know.
It stands to reason that there must be something different
at work that affects weight, or else a few missed meals, and
an increase in pushups would cure us all. We found that several
factors affected blood sugar, and several factors also affect
body fat-many of them are the same.
Did you ever wonder why something like the Atkins diet helps
some, and then only for a while, and if you quit, why the
weight just seems to go back to the way it used to be?
Well, some of that has to do with hormones, and hormone changes
that diet creates. We have two systems of control of our bodies;
one of those controls is the nervous system, and the other
is the hormone system. The nervous system has the master control,
and the hormone system is subject to the nervous system.
We need some tools to tell what is at work in our bodies,
and that should help direct what approach needs to be taken
to help us. We will begin to look at some symptomatic pictures
in the next few articles, and then make sense of it all.
2. Weight Loss- Foods
For those who are trying to control weight loss, understanding
the Glycemic index is crucial. This is a tool that measures
how different foods directly affect blood sugar. It is a list
of measurements of how rapidly blood sugar rises after eating
certain foods.
The reason that this is so important, is that intestinal adsorption
is the first place that we can effectively control our weight.
Some may say that food is food, and we will eat whatever we
want to. Though we all have that right , the body just doesn’t
work that way.
You see, how rapidly our food absorbs into the blood as sugars,
is the first step of our ability to control our weight.
All foods are measured against table sugar, which has a value
of 100. This is an extreme and rapid rise in the blood sugar,
and taxes the body’s ability to deal with it. Whole foods
tend to have lower values than processed foods. Take for example
breakfast cereals: cornflakes has a value of 80, while All
Bran is at 50. Instant potatoes list at 80, while New Potatoes
are at 70.
Fruits tend to have lower values than some of the vegetables.
Carrots rate at 92, while apples and oranges are at 39 and
40. This is because fruit sugar, at a score of 20 absorbs
slowly.
Some of the best foods to have are legumes. They range from
Soy at 15 to Peas at 47. They also have qualities similar
to breads, vegetables, nuts and meats, making them quite healthy
for you.
Then there is timing. Foods are stored for a few hours, and
then are converted to the storage form of fat. If fat is not
wanted, then we want to avoid this. The easiest way to do
this is to change the way we, as a culture eat. Eat your largest
meal first thing in the morning. The second largest meal midday,
and the smallest meal in the evening. This way we burn the
calories that we eat, not store them.
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