Читать книгу The Coconut Diet: The Secret Ingredient for Effortless Weight Loss - Cherie Calbom - Страница 7

When I mention the word carbohydrate, what comes to your mind? If you’re like most people, probably sugar and starch. The topic of carbohydrates is certainly confusing for most people. Do we need these sugars and starches or don’t we? For decades we’ve been told to eat lots of carbs, making them the highest percentage of our diet, and to limit protein and fat as much as possible. Now, we’re being told the opposite.

Because of all the encouragement over the years to eat carbs, Americans have become the main refined carbohydrate consumers of the world, closely followed by the UK and Australia. From bagels, muffins, boxed sugary cereals and orange juice for breakfast, sweet rolls and doughnuts for coffee break, sandwiches and French fries for lunch, and pasta and bread for dinner, many people have centered their entire day around carbs.

Unfortunately, most of the carbs we eat are not the healthy, fiber-rich carbohydrates eaten in many other parts of the world; they’re simple, refined carbs that have had the fiber and nutrients stripped away. Once ingested, these foods rapidly turn to sugar in the body. And all this sugar, scientists are telling us, is making us fat and unhealthy.

What are Carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are macronutrients known as sugars, starches, and fiber. A carbohydrate is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and they come arranged in three sizes—monosaccharides, disaccharides, or polysaccharides. Sugars such as glucose with a single sugar ring are known as monosaccharides, sugars made from pairs of single rings such as sucrose are known as disaccharides, and large molecules like starches, which are long chains of single-ring sugars linked together, are known as polysaccharides. The monosaccharides and disaccharides are simple carbohydrates such as white sugar. The polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates that include starches, glycogen, (a polysaccharide, stored in the liver; easily converted to glucose) and most fiber.

To help you succeed on the Coconut Diet, you’ll need an understanding of the difference between the good carbs and the bad.