Sweet Low Carb Foods – How Do They Do That?
If you’re a low carb diet enthusiast, you’ve probably tried some of those tasty low carbohydrate bars, candies or maybe even broke down and baked a loaf of that really easy to make and great tasting low carb banana bread.
And after getting your head around the concept of ‘net carbs’, you may still be wondering what are those sweeteners listed on the labels, such as mannitol, maltitol, sorbitol and others, and how they fit into your Atkins, Protein Power, South Beach or other diets.
Known as sugar alcohols, these and other low carb sweeteners are being seen more and more in diet products. And usually you can find several types in your low carb food. Although they are all effectively no to low calorie sweeteners (0.5 to 3.0 calories per gram) they are generally much sweeter than sugar, which allows even the higher calorie per gram products to be classified as low carb and low calorie sweeteners.
The reason you’ll see a number of them in your low carb chocolates for instance, is simple. The food tastes better. Food technologists have found that different combinations of low carb sweeteners can have a better flavor in certain foods than when using one type alone. For instance, if you’re making muffins, you want a sweetener that can stand up to the heat of an oven. But if it won’t give you the texture or ‘mouth feel’ you’d expect, then it won’t be popular, no matter how low the carbohydrate count. If you were making a chilled low carb dessert or a low carbohydrate ice cream, you’d want it to be sweet when cold. So the bottom line is taste.
Given recent attention to protein based fat replacements, which have great potential for use in all but fried foods, its easy to imagine that some new and tasty low fat, low carb, higher protein and low calorie treats will be coming soon. And that has brought out some strange concerns, such as the idea that if we’re not protected from ourselves by banning these foods, we might starve by consuming too few calories from these low and no calorie dessert and snack foods.
But after looking at some of the shoppers I saw during a recent trip to my grocery store, all I could think was, where’s my low carb cheesecake recipe?
Mike Boyd is an author and contributing writer for the popular healthy low carb.com, an online information source for low carb diets, free low carb recipes, diet basics,books, product reviews and informative up to date low carb dieting research low carb cheesecake recipe
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Barriers to Healthy Diets — Removing them is not as hard as you think
Barriers to healthy diets are placed into four broad categories:
This article examines only the most difficult barriers in each category. Let’s remove the barriers to healthy diets…but first, “What is a Healthy Diet?”
What is a Healthy Diet?
A healthy diet provides the recommended daily allowance for vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Any diet that fails to meet the minimum daily allowance for any nutrient is unhealthy. Of course, providing the daily allowance for all nutrients is next to impossible given the poor nutritional value of today’s diets.
We eat on average 1.5 meals a day (not even close to the suggested 5-6 meals). The one meal we manage to eat is usually late in the evening, high in calories, high in fat, and is missing Group I Foods (fresh vegetables and fruit).
The majority of young men between the ages of 20-25 eat only 2 servings of fruit and 1 serving of fresh vegetables throughout the week! The next generation is nutritionally starved.
A healthy diet is quite simple and easy to follow. Here are the steps to eating a healthy diet:
If the result is a positive number, you have a Positive Energy Balance. Simply, cut back on the amount you eat.
If the result is negative, you have a Negative Energy Balance. Increase the amount you eat.
Some weight loss experts advocate a strong negative energy balance at baseline. In theory, this makes sense but in practice it’s associated with weight regain.
I believe that energy should be balanced or slightly negative at baseline. The closer to a balanced energy state, the better the chance for avoiding weight regain and maintaining your ideal weight for a longer period of time.
A healthy diet is simple to follow. Eat fewer calories, exercise, and make dietary adjustments as needed. No pills, supplements, acupuncture, magnets, or magic minerals are needed. Just a calculator.
Removing External Barriers to Healthy Diets
Two difficult external barriers are peer pressure and time. Our friends and family influence our lives more than we like to admit. They affect our decisions, choices, moods, behavior, and weight.
During medical school, I worked in a weight loss clinic to make some money. I will never forget the level of influence a spouse or friend could have on a patient. Several times, I saw first hand someone, other than the patient, make the dieting decisions.
At this level of influence, our peer groups can make a big impact on eating a healthy diet. Just keep this influence thing in mind. OR, should I say, “Keep it in mind only if you have TIME.”
Time is another rarely acknowledged external barrier to healthy diets. We live in world that seems to lose time. The normal 24 hour day feels more like 15 hours. All we do is rush from one event or appointment to the next. Eating a healthy diet is next to impossible.
Please, slow down. Who knows, by slowing down we might actually pay attention to the important things in our lives. I find that the more I rush the less I get done. And what I do finish, really isn’t all that important.
Be serious about eating a healthy diet and slow down.
Removing Dieting Barriers to Healthy Diets
About two to three decades ago, while watching repeats on TV, Americans changed their diets and started eating lots of fat and processed foods. We have suffered ever since.
Eating lots of fat created a macronutrient imbalance and has clogged our arteries. Then we fell in love with processed foods. This love affair drained all of the vitamins and minerals from our bodies and resulted in a micronutrient deficiency.
Until we restore things to the pre-TV Dinner diet, we will continue to suffer heart attacks and weight gain.
It’s really crazy…we stuff ourselves with heavy fat and then starve for vitamins and minerals.
Removing Physical Barriers to Healthy Diets
Physically, our lack of exercise is the greatest barrier to healthy diets. Start exercising! Walk. Jog. Swim. Lift weights. Sweat. Move. Breath. Live.
Removing Psychological Barriers to Healthy Diets
The mind can be tough to control, especially when it comes to hunger. But what can help is changing your food perspective. Where do you place food in your life? To help you through this important change in perspective, check out…Weight Loss Psychology
Conclusion
Watch the influences in your life, slow down, reduce fat, eat raw vegetables and fruit, exercise, and change your food perspective.
Once you’ve done all that, then you can focus on eating a healthy diet. I think we need to get back the 24 hour day, what do you think?
To Healthy Living!
Michael A. Smith, MD
Chief Medical Consultant
Diet Basics Website
Dr. Smith is the Chief Medical Consultant for the Diet Basics Website, a content rich weight loss website dedicated to all dieters. Visit his site and check out his Diet Basics News Blog and RSS Feed. Hundreds of E-Zines and Websites have already tapped into this incredible free source of weight loss information. Don’t miss out!
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