Facts About Your Body Fuel. What You Really Didn’t Know About Carbs.

Facts About Your Body Fuel. What You Really Didn’t Know About Carbs.

Diet. It is such a varied, and not to mention sometimes a scary word. However, as we know, we are what we eat, and we need to start paying more attention to this fact, particularly when chronic illnesses are becoming so prevalent in our society. This increase is generally due to inappropriate diets and not enough exercise.

Most of us are renown for eating too much sugar, too many grains, and not enough healthy fats. Protein is being consumed in excess, and most of that is sourced through poorly made convenience and processed foods. Eating “enough carbs” is drummed into us. However, it is this advice that is adding to health problems.

Since the evolution of man, dietary fats have been the favoured fuel for our metabolism. According to Dr Joseph Mercola, osteopathic physician, one of the main successes to long-term management of your weight and wellbeing is a healthy mitochondrial function. This entails keeping your net carb, fat and protein ratios in check.

So, how do you improve your mitochondrial function through your diet? The basic rule is to eat with an approach to burn off fat as the chief source of fuel instead of sugar. Some helpful eating tips for this include ketogenic diets, intermittent fasting and extended water fasts for overweight people.

Our bodies were engineered to have the flexibility to use glucose as well as fat for a fuel source. One slight problem is that many people don’t have the capacity to burn fat, and this inflexibility is a consequence of eating a high-carb diet for a lengthy time. The outcome is, these people have issues with their weight (which could also manifest as visceral fat) and battle with health problems.

To combat this, try metabolic cycling to help burn fat and avoid late night binging.

Good fats have been known to improve the metabolism of glucose and reduce inflammation. Primarily, Omega-3 fats (found in foods like salmon and other oily fish for example) lower the autoimmune response linked with type 1 diabetes, which is a disorder where your body kills off beta cells responsible for manufacturing insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by your body to regulate the metabolism of fats, carbs and protein.

Changing your eating habits from being high in carbs to one full of healthy fats, moderate levels of protein and low in net carbs can help your body’s chemistry get back into balance. You don’t really put on weight by eating in excess and not exercising enough. Good fats are also not a real cause to weight gain. Obesity commonly results from consumption of too many carbs, which leads to a failure to burn through fat for body fuel.

Diets with an abundance of refined foods and fructose can cause cells to gather up fat. Dietary carbohydrates, in particular, fructose, are the building blocks of glycerol-3-phosphate, which is a substance that encourages fat to fix itself within fat tissue.

A high-carb diet also increases your level of insulin and averts fat from being released from your body. There is no amount of bouncing, jogging, skipping or swimming that will compensate for this, and is the reason it’s almost impossible to shift the weight. Dropping back on your carbs is vital when you are trying to move the bulge.

On the other hand, remember when you cut out the net carbs like grains and sugar, you need to ensure adequate intake of carbs through vegetables, as they contain important fibre as well. The fibre that is enjoyed from vegetables is crucial as it builds a healthy gut microbiome and steadies blood sugar levels and improves fat burning.

It’s also important to increase your consumption of healthy fats through foods like coconut oil, nuts and seeds, avocados and egg yolks.

Among all, remember to chill a little, laugh a lot and enjoy a break with a cup of Bondi Beach Tea Co. Our tea blends are low in carbs and might even help with that motivation you need for getting started on your journey to wellness.