Pages

June 6, 2012

Empty Calories

Empty Calories: Commonly found in processed snacks, sugary sweets & sodas






It's no secret that our modern food system contains an overabundance of high-calorie carbohydrates and sweets, all of them available 24-7. And according to Dr. Todd Burstain, an associate processor of medicine at the University of Iowa and an obesity specialist, eating too many of the empty calories in processed carbohydrates and sweets can disturb the delicate balance between leptin and ghrelin, the hormones that tell us when we're full and when we're hungry, respectively. 


"We find that obese people never really feel hungry and never really feel satisfied - they've lost their sense of when they should be eating, so they're eating all the time," Burstain says. "They end up being driven by cravings, gravitating to sweet foods that light up the pleasure centers in their brains." 


The result - beyond just weight gain - can be insulin resistance and diabetes, among other health problems. 


The Solution? Learn to cook. 


Most problematic high-calorie intake is linked to processed food. 


Organic whole grains, lean proteins, healthy fats, and fresh fruits & vegetables are the best best for a balanced diet, says Dr. Rebecca Booth, an ob-gyn in Louisville, Kentucky, and the author of The Venus Week


Need recipes? Click HERE.

No comments:

Post a Comment