In order to have a healthy lifestyle, begin by looking at the food that you put into your body. Does your diet allow your body to operate with the utmost efficiency, giving you energy, delivering important nutrients to your body, and helping your organs to function properly?
When talking about diet and nutrition, low carbohydrate diets quickly bubble up to the top of the list, and are often seen as a way of quickly and effectively managing weight loss. There are good reasons why this works, not least because it encourages us to be smarter and more aware about what we eat.
Our bodies are designed to run on carbohydrates. The digestive process turns carbs in the form of starches and sugars into glucose (or “blood sugar” as we often call it). The body then takes the glucose that it has created and uses it to provide energy to its cells. If there is too much blood sugar, it is taken away and stored as fat. Too little blood sugar, and the body will dip into its fat reserves.
A low carb diet tries to keep carb consumption to a level where the body is pulling from its energy surplus (fat) instead of adding to it. Additionally, a good diet will consider not only the quantity of carbs you should consume, but also the quality of the carbs. Simple carbs, those with a high “glycemic index”, are very quickly converted into glucose by the body, and produce rapid spikes in blood sugar – which is the body’s signal to make fat. By minimizing the consumption of simple carbs and controlling the amount of carbs in general, we can limit the amount of fat that our body creates, and hopefully use up some of those excess reserves as well!
We have partnered with Dr. David Holland to develop a low-carb diet that you can follow to get acquainted with this new way of eating. Start by eliminating all grains and carbohydrate-rich foods, such as bread, pasta, sweetened beverages and snacks, peanuts, milk, and vegetable oils. Then, after 2 to 3 weeks, add limited servings of bread, some sugar-rich fruits, beans, and pasta. The Limited Carb Diet details can be mailed to you immediately or shipped with your next Natren order by request.
Along with this diet, take a probiotic to support the “good bacteria” in your gut and to help keep you regular. We recommend Healthy Trinity as a good overall probiotic for adults. Children following the Limited Carb Diet should take Bifido Factor.
Add regular exercise and adequate sleep, and you will be on the road to great health!
The post Managing your Health: A Low-Carb Diet appeared first on Natren Probiotics Blog.
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