Happy Tuesday!Have you ever wondered which foods are more likely to be stored as body fat? Today I want to share some of the goodies in The Calorie Myth that help clarify why carbohydrates tend to be demonized by many diets out there. Jonathan Bailor explains it so well, so I'm going to piggy-back on a few quotes from him. Check it out!
I don't know if I can say it better than Bailor did so here it goes... the dirty on how foods are definitely not "equal" to our bodies:
"It takes our body five to ten times more energy to digest protein than it does to digest fat or carbohydrate. In fact, about 30 percent of the calories we get from protein are burned in digesting it. Even after we burn 30 percent of protein calories during initial digestion, protein cannot be directly stored as body fat... So when we have excess protein lying around, it is sent to the liver to be converted into glucose... This process burns 33 percent of the remaining protein calories... What started off as, say, 300 calories of juicy protein is reduced to 140 calories of glucose in the bloodstream. Converting that newly formed glucose into body fat consumes 25 percent of the glucose calories. So when everything is said and done, only 35 percent of the initial calories we get from protein can be stored as body fat."
Crazy, right? Wait... it gets better... :)
"If we follow the same process for starch, we would find that 211 of 300 starch calories can be stored as body fat. That means 70 percent of calories from starch can be stored as body fat."
You're probably thinking what I was after reading that...
"This research doesn't suggest we should eat 100 percent protein. But it is suggesting that we can eat more and burn more by eating more protein-packed (and fiber-packed) food.
Jonathan Bailor has done a great job of defining the most nutritious foods that will nourish our bodies and help us burn body fat instead of storing it. This information helps us understand why people say to stay away from bread/grains, rice, potatoes, & other starchy foods & processed carbohydrates, right? Those foods tend to have much less nutrition and are twice as likely to be stored as body fat as quality protein! Non-starchy vegetables aren't going to trigger as much insulin or glycerol-3, which are both required to store body fat.
With this understanding, I feel like we can make more informed eating decisions instead of simply taking someone's word for it. They can tell you to avoid bread/grains, rice, potatoes, etc. but now you know why other foods (non-starchy vegetables, quality protein, good fats & low-fructose fruits) should become your best friends if they aren't currently. :)
How is the SANE eating challenge going so far? We eat a lot of veggies in our house but this challenge is a stretch for us to try and get 10 servings in a day! The picture posted today was a breakfast hash with eggs, bacon, onions, red pepper, a ton of kale, & avocado. I literally stuff as much kale into my frying pan as I could, put the lid on and let it wilt and condense a bit. It's a really effective way to squeeze in more veggies! Did I feel deprived this morning... absolutely not! :)
