There are two answers to this question. Let me start with the simple one. When you eat protein, like a piece of steak, the cow protein is broken down by stomach acid and enzymes in the stomach into shorter chains of amino acids. Those shorter chains are then passes into the small intestine where enzymes[…]
Remember protein is only used for building your body if you have a healthy diet. Protein is not needed as an energy source and should not be treated as one. That being said the question of how much protein you should eat is not really that easy to answer. According to the American College of[…]
The word protein literally means of first importance and they are very important in our diet but maybe not for the reason we think. Let’s start with what proteins are. They are chains of amino acids that twist up into very specific shapes to do their jobs. Amino acids differ chemically from fat and carbohydrates[…]
The final type of carbohydrates to discuss is starch. Starch is often called a complex carbohydrate and is considered to be better than sugar; however, it depends on the type of food as to whether it is better. Simple starch is just a long chain of sugars that are easily digested and hit the blood[…]
Most people when they think of higher fiber intake think of the worst whole wheat/high fiber thing they ever ate and say, “I hate fiber”. There are some things that you need to be dedicated to increasing your fiber intake to eat; however, there are some things that are fiber rich and tasty. Here are[…]
I made the point that we don’t get enough fiber in our diets but that alone did not make you want to run out and chew the bark off of the trees. So what does fiber actually do for us? People with higher fiber intake have smaller waists. This is most likely due to several[…]
Fiber is simply the parts of the plants that don’t get digested. They pass into the large intestine basically intact. I know you wonder, “If they are not digested then how are they good for me?” They do several things and are extremely beneficial. Let’s start with some history. Humans have eaten mostly plant parts[…]
Most of us are familiar with sugar, starch and fiber but not glycogen. The reason for this is, it is not a carbohydrate we eat but it is how our bodies store carbohydrates. When we eat sugar or starch they are digested and absorbed into the blood stream causing our blood sugar levels to rise.[…]
The first and most obvious idea is to not buy sugary items then you don’t have to worry about it. For those of you with that much will power, bless you, you may now stop reading. For the rest of us some strategies will be needed to keep our sweet tooth under control. We are[…]
My research for this series has been eye opening, I knew added sugar was bad for you but I didn’t know how bad. I even left out the studies that lacked serious credibility even though they were very plausible. First let’s look at the different types of sugars. The three different single molecule sugars can[…]