5. Nutrition Facts - Scary Carbs

Carbs are by far my favourite subject. Just up until recently, fat used to be the bad guy then carbs took over. There really is no doubt that carbs have become a subject of conversation all over the world. Some people say there are bad while others say are good. However, what I find so interesting is how passionate people get about the subject. People who believe that carbs are bad really take their stand very seriously. Just to prove my point, I know people who don’t mind having a pound of bacon for dinner because bacon has no carbs. They don’t really care if there are thousands of calories or enourmous amounts of fat in that pound of bacon. All they care about is the carb content. To make matters more interesting, whenever there is a discussion revolving around carbs, they get very opinionated. Who knew carbs could evoke such strong emotions in us?

Anyway, let’s get to the facts. In general, we have carbs in the form of starch, sugars and fibre and either of these types can be found practically anywhere except for a few animal products like meats and cheese. Other than that, everything else has at least some carbs. Because carbs are so abundant in nature and our supermarkets, we have evolved in such a way that our bodies can easily digest carbs. In fact, carbohydrates are the easiest macronutrient to digest. We even start digesting carbs right at the mouth. We digest carbs so easily and efficiently also because our nervous system, mainly the brain, can only use glucose or glucose derivatives for energy. By the way, glucose is the building block of carbs. Thus, we need carbs to keep our brains awake. You might then be wondering why is it that our nervous system keeps working when we are on a no-carb diet? The reason is that when we have no carbs, we start using our body’s lean muscle or the protein we eat to make those glucose derivatives (ketones) that our nervous system is equipped to use. This switch from real glucose to ketones is what is very well known as starvation mode.

The main problem that people have with carbs is that they supposedly make you fat instead of helping you lose weight. Unfortunately, there is some truth to that. In our bodies, only a limited amount of carbs can be stored as carbs and the rest cannot be converted into anything else but fat. So if you have a few extra carbs and your carbohydrate storage is full, these extra carbs will turn into fat. However, this only applies to the excess of carbs. Thus, only excess carbs are the problem. To avoid this unwanted excess, you should be having between 45 and 65% of your calories as carbs. There is also a minimum requirement set at 130 grams of carbs per day. It is estimated that our nervous system needs this amount per day. In case you’re wondering, there are 4 calories in every gram of carbohydrate. Finally, don't forget that complex carbs (whole grain) will help you lose weight as opposed to sugars. The reccomendation is that you should be having no more than 25% of your calories from sugar. Although these are the established recommendations, nutritional labels use a daily value of 300g of carbs per 2000 calories. No wonder why we are always so confused about how much we actually need?

There is some good news, though. The diet programs that have reported the highest rates of success were using diets that included carbs as the main component. This is because carbs often provide you with that sense of fullness or satiety. Thus, you don’t have as many calories in the day and you don’t feel hungry for longer periods of time. Remember that your weight loss depends on the amount of calories in and the amount of calories out – that’s all.

4. Nutrition Facts - Salty Sodium

When you’re trying to lose weight, you really want to watch how much salt you eat since too much salt usually causes some bloating, right? When I have a very salty dinner, I usually weigh more the next morning. Even if you don’t weigh yourself in every morning, you still feel a bit bloated. This is one of the disadvantages of sodium. Another disadvantage is that sodium is strongly related to hypertension. So, salt sure makes food tasty but it is not so good for your health. Yet, we still have to consume some sodium everyday because it is very important in our bodies. The minimum recommended daily amount is 500mg and the maximum is 2,400mg. Just to give you an idea of how much salt we should be having a day, ONE teaspoon has 2,000mg of sodium!

In my case, salt is one of those ingredients I don’t measure anymore. This is such a big problem for me, though, because I just love salt. I’m one of those people who always thinks that everything could use a bit more salt. Fortunately, I recently discovered the world of spices. I hadn’t never really cooked with spices because I, honestly, was a little scared. I just wasn’t sure how to use them or which ones to use. But I think they can be a great substitute of salt since they bring so much flavour to whatever it is that you’re cooking – especially since low-fat, low-calorie dishes tend to be somewhat bland. So, lately I’ve been cooking with spices. So far, so good although I still need recipes to guide me. I don’t think I’m ready to cook with spices on my own just yet.

However, I know not everyone is a fan of spices. Fortunately, there are other ways to reduce sodium intake:

1. Buy fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned. All canned products are typically very high in sodium.
2. Avoid processed foods
3. Avoid frozen or commercially-prepared (junk food) meals
4. Stay away from foods packed in brine
5. Eliminate the salt shaker

 As a rule of thumb, the more processed a food is, the more sodium it contains.

3. Nutrition Facts - Making Peace with Cholesterol

Cholesterol has a terrible reputation. We’ve all heard just how bad cholesterol is for you. However, cholesterol itself is not the real problem. The problem is how our body handles it. Our bodies have evolved to survive starvation and be prepared to face times of famine. This is why our bodies are so efficient at absorbing most nutrients. Now, going back to cholesterol. Cholesterol is a type of fat that can be found in the membranes of animal cells. This means that all foods of animal origin have cholesterol and all the foods coming from plants do not.


Back when we were cave man, we couldn’t just go to the grocery store and get ground turkey, right? We had to go out and chase a turkey around. And, maybe we wouldn’t see a turkey for months so we wouldn’t get any meat for months. Thus, our body developed this recycling system that would help keep necessary nutrients inside our bodies since these nutrients might not always be readily available. Cholesterol is one of those nutrients that takes advantage of this recycling system because food of animal origin was not always available. Here’s how this recycling works:

1. You eat a cheeseburger that has lots of cholesterol
2. The cheeseburger makes it all the way to the intestine
3. In the intestine, the cholesterol gets absorbed
4. The absorbed cholesterol is transported to the liver
5. The liver takes the cholesterol to make several things your body needs like bile juices which are juices that help your body digest all the food we eat
6. Bile juices containing cholesterol are released into the intestine to digest food
7. Bile juices (still containing cholesterol) as well as fresh, new cholesterol is absorbed and the cycle starts all over again.

As you can see, cholesterol can rapidly accumulate in our bodies since we don’t excrete any (or almost any) of it. Back in the day, this recycling of cholesterol was not a problem since cholesterol was not as abundant in our diets, but now we consume cholesterol on a daily basis. To make things even more interesting, our body cannot break down cholesterol. Thus, all the extra cholesterol stays in the form of cholesterol usually floating around in our blood. This is when the extra cholesterol becomes dangerous since it can start the plaque-building process in our arteries.

But, what makes cholesterol so important? Why would we want to keep it in our bodies since it is, apparently, really bad for our health? Well, cholesterol is bad only if it starts to accumulate. Inside our bodies, cholesterol is responsible for many important functions like producing several hormones like testosterone. In fact, cholesterol is so important that if your body needs it, it can make it. Similarly, if you get the required cholesterol through your diet, your body will not make any.

Finally, the recommendation is that we should not be having more that 300mg of cholesterol a day - especially when your only having only 1200 calories a day like me. You don't want to be wasting calories on something your body can make.

2. Nutrition Facts - The Omegas

Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids seem to be all over the media these days. Some days we hear that they are super good for us and the next they say they are not quite sure. Well, omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fat and are very important because our bodies need them but cannot make them. Thus, we need to get them from our diet.

Omega 3 fatty acids serve the important function of decreasing blood clotting and blood pressure. On the other hand, omega 6 fatty acids play the exact opposite role: increase blood clotting and blood pressure. This makes omega 6 fatty acids look bad, but they are still very important. Imagine you get a simple paper cut, if your blood is not capable of clotting, you would most likely bleed to death. We obvously don't want that to happen. Thus, blood clotting is very important and omega 6 fatty acids make it happen. However, you don’t want your blood to clot too easily either since we know that clots are what cause heart attacks. You want a nice balance of omega 3 fatty acids and omega 6 fatty acids. Thus, it is recommended that you have a 4 to 10g of omega 6 fatty acids for every gram of omega 3 fatty acids. There are also set recommendations that reflect this recommended ratio: the optimal intake of omega 3 is 1.1g for women and 1.6g for men (this translates to about 2 to 3 servings of fish per week). As for omega 6 fatty acids, the optimal intake is set at 4 to 10 grams a day. Remember that the ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 is still very important.

Omega 3 fatty acids have been widely advertised in the media lately – especially in the form of fish oil. DHA (a type of omega 3) has also made the news due to the critical role it plays in the development of the nervous system and maturation of visual acuity. As you can see, omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are very important so why don’t we have a bit more than what is recommended to enjoy even more of their benefits? I used to think that as long as you followed the recommended ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids, it was ok to have more than the recommended grams. In fact, I thought: "the more, the better since these omega fatty acids seem to be almost miraculous in preventing heart disease". However, this changed when I came across these warnings:

1. Omega-3 fatty acids should be used cautiously by people who bruise easily, have a bleeding disorder, or take blood-thinning medications because excessive amounts of omega-3 fatty acids may lead to bleeding
2. Three grams of omega-3 fatty acids per day (equivalent to 3 servings of fish per day) increase the risk for hemorrhagic stroke

So, don’t get carried away with those omega 3 fatty acids. As they say: everything’s good in moderation. After all, you don’t need a lot of omega 3 or 6 to get the benefits.

A last piece of info I found quite interesting is that they are testing the possibility of treating depression with omega 3 fatty acids. This idea emerged after it was reported that “seriously depressed patients had lower omega-3 blood levels compared with healthy controls and mildly depressed patients”. But the data is still controversial, though. I guess, we will just have to wait and see what happens.