Paleo, Mediterranean and Keto diets all have a variety of things in common; eat plenty of vegetables, meat, fish, healthy fats and limited amounts of fruits. Meats must be baked, broiled or grilled never fried. Vegetables can be consumed raw steamed or sautéed. Fish can be consumed grilled or baked while certain types of freshwater oily fish can be eaten raw. Remember the 80-20 rule where 20% of what you consume is meat, fish and or healthy fat while the other 80% is fruits and vegetables. While carbohydrates play a crucial part in the Standard American Diet (SAD) those who support healthy eating habits recommend that carbs be restricted or totally eliminate from your diet. Here’s why.
Carbohydrates control insulin and insulin controls fat storage. What does this mean for you? Think of it like this: white bread, whole wheat bread, pasta, crackers, chips, rice, donuts, grains whole, cracked or steel cut; all turn to sugar once consumed. The body automatically creates insulin to help with absorption by turning carbs into glucose/sugar. Insulin then goes to work distributing glucose throughout the body for the energy that fuels bodily functions. Unused glucose not burned as fuel gets stored in fat cells for later use. This, however, is a major problem for those of us who enjoy larger amounts of sugar-laden foods.
Too much insulin in the bloodstream causes the onset of type 2 diabetes among other things. This happens even when there is no physical evidence that you’re overweight. Have you ever seen a skinny diabetic? Too many carbohydrates coupled with the consumption of countless bad fats cause obesity. This can lead to heart attack, stroke, ED, kidney and liver problems and other major organ dysfunction as a result of frequent carbohydrate ingestion. Is there a workable solution? Yes, however, it’s not easy. Its all according to what you have become accustomed to and how easily you can break that habit. Our society has become adapted to having its cake and eating it too. Years of habitually selecting fake food options approved by the FDA as healthy simply because it has been sprayed with fake vitamins has caused a great many of us to become unhealthy.
When God created Adam and Eve there were no fast food restaurants, no supermarkets, no microwaves, no kitchen sinks filled with plates, forks, or knives and no place to grab a quick bite. They were hunter-gathers, who thrived off the land and sea. They literally ate only what they could capture or find: meat, fish, vegetation, nuts, seeds, roots, grub worms and yes a variety of other healthy insects. Sugar played a very minimal role in their everyday diets, yet they lived for hundreds of years. Here’s the bad news, we should also drastically reduce sugar consumption in all its forms. We too will live longer, healthier, happier lives as a result. “Adrienne Vanterpool”