Carbs, Fats, Proteins, Oh My!



Women Need Protein Too!!!
As we all know, or should know, protein helps us to build muscle. Lean muscle tissue burns more energy (calories) at rest than fat and also takes up less space! Many women do not eat enough protein because they don’t want to “bulk up” like a man. This is NOT true. The reason men bulk up is mainly because of testosterone and unless you are heavy lifting and eating mass amounts of protein, you will keep your feminine shape. Therefore as women, we need protein to build muscle and essentially burn fat! 

We Need Fat, to Burn Fat
Yes, you read that correctly. In order to get rid of the “bad” fat stored as LDL cholesterol in the body we need to “good” HDL cholesterol to be produced in our bodies. Most of the fat we consume through the foods we eat should be unsaturated (liquid at room temperature). These fats come from oils and fatty acids like olive oil and omega fatty acids from fish and other sources. The saturated and trans fats should be the fats we least consume. These are animal fats that we find in fatty meats like beef and lard (butter). You will notice in these recipes, we use oils in our cooking and no butter! These oils will keep our heart healthy and help us look flab free in our bikinis!

Glycemic Index
After we consume carbohydrates, our blood glucose levels will rise and cause us to feel satiated. When we consume simple carbohydrates, our glucose levels will rise fast and decline fast, causing us to feel hungry again in a short period of time. Complex carbohydrates do the opposite, they cause a slow release of blood glucose that is sustained longer which makes us feel fuller, longer. Foods that rank high on the glycemic index are simple carbohydrates such as fruit and white starches (white bread, rice and potatoes). Foods that rank low on the glycemic index are complex carbohydrates such as whole grains like brown rice, oats and sweet potato. We want to choose carbohydrates and starches that will sustain our blood glucose levels and ward off hunger pain. Low glycemic carbohydrates also contain more fibre which aids in our digestion and lowers cholesterol.

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