Refined Processed Carbohydrates
This is important information for health or weight loss.
Refined processed carbohydrates are the major cause of weight gain, obesity, specific skin conditions, and many diet related diseases including heart disease, hypertension, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and obesity.
When digested, all carbs become sugar.
If you consume a lot of carbs as well as fats and proteins, your body will burn the carbs and store the fat.
So, to reduce your percentage of body fat, we recommend, on most days, keeping your total daily carbohydrate intake to 25 grams or fewer.
You need to switch from a sugar-burning to a fat-burning metabolism for optimum health and weight loss.
So, let's learn more.
You can have one weekly cheat day of one or two meals in which you get plenty of calories as well as carbs and fats. (However, since this is counter-productive for some people such as diabetics, skip the cheat day unless your physician gives permission in advance.) This stops your body from going into starvation mode and decreasing your metabolic rate.
List of refined processed carbohydrates
Processed or refined carbohydrates are such things as:
- tacos
- corn chips
- wraps
- pizza
- croissants
- pasta (of all kinds, brown or white)
- rolls
- muffins
- flour (of all kinds, brown or white)
- crumpets
- pastries
- bagels
- bread (of all kinds, brown or white)
- buns
- pretzels
- doughnuts
- cookies
- biscuits
- cakes
- polished rice
- wheat
- all products containing wheat
- corn
- cornflour starch
- all products containing corn
- candy
- toffee
- sweets
- potato chips
- batter
- breadcrumbs
- pastry
- pastries
- desserts
- jams
- jelly
- jello
- dumplings
- pasty/pastie
- pies
- batter
- all sugars
- all products containing sugar
- granola bars
- breakfast bars
- cereals
- soft drinks
- sodas
- foods containing corn syrup
- sugary drinks
- cordials
- store bought cooked meats/cold cuts if they have added sugars and additives)
- sausages/hot dog frankfurters if they contain carbohydrate fillers, additives, or sugar.
For general good health or weight loss
For either health or weight loss, strictly limit all processed refined carbohydrates (apart from the occasional treat). They are a major cause of weight gain, obesity, food addiction, overeating, and many diet related diseases.
If you are insulin resistant (and many overweight people are insulin resistant without knowing it), it will seriously affect your ability to lose weight if you include foods high in carbohydrates (like the ones listed above) in your weight loss diet
In other words, you will be attempting to lose weight but there will be little to see for your efforts. If this seems to be your situation, you should be counting carbs. You need a low carbohydrate diet and you need to eliminate, or strictly limit, your intake of processed (refined) carbohydrates.
Here is an excellent weight loss tip.
If you use pre-prepared or ready-made foods, start reading food labels.
You may be surprised at how difficult it is to eliminate sugar; it is added to many processed or pre-prepared foods.
The nutritional void that is sugar has many names such as: brown sugar, beet sugar, cane sugar, granulated sugar, icing sugar, confectioner's sugar, corn sugar, invert sugar, corn sweetener, isomalt, malto dextrins, maple sugar, molasses, raw sugar, sorghum, turbinado sugar, and well as maltose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, galactose, lactose, levulose, sucrose, dextrose, maltodextrin, malt syrup, mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, and fructose.
Web pages related to this page
For information about how to use low carbohydrate foods, see the page links listed below:
Low Carb Foods. Weight Loss Diet
Our recommended books for this topic
Many books we recommend discuss the importance of minimizing your consumption of refined processed carbohydrates.
Here are our initial suggestions:
- Bennett & Sinatra's Sugar Shock!
- Cordain's The Paleo Diet
- Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
- Bradford's Compulsive Overeating Help
- Wolf's The Paleo Solution
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Paleo Diet › Processed Carbohydrates
