Sugar? What sugar…
Keep your carbs in check! They are pretty much sugars (actually, that’s all they are). If you think about it, sugars are meant to either fuel the body for energy during physical activity, or used to make food taste yummy and sweet.
So why not use them solely for those reasons?
Consuming carbohydrates before you exercise will help make your workout efficient and effective… the more fuel you have to work out, the more productive you will exercise. Additionally, consuming carbohydrates after your workouts will refuel your glycogen storage in your muscle and trigger muscle rebuilding hormones in your body.
Now for the “use carbohydrates to make food sweet part.” This means eat your carbs when you eat dessert, and only dessert. Try to avoid any other time except before and after you exercise. A healthy habit for dessert consumption should be limited, say maybe 1 time a week…sometimes 2 on a limited basis. Eating carbohydrates when you are at a resting state and not exercising or indulging yourself for a treat will put you at risk of gaining additional weight by storing the unused carbohydrates as fat and decreasing insulin sensitivity (which can lead to diabetes). A better option would be to snack on things like raw veggies, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, seeds and nuts and have meat and vegetables for your breakfast, lunch and dinner.
So eat your carbs! They’re good for you. They will enhance your exercise performance and they taste good in DESSERT FORM when treating yourself for all of your hard work. Just eat them at the right times and monitor your servings.
You can get energy from fats and proteins in your diet, as well as fat from your body in the form of gluconeogenesis, which is the process of converting non-sugar sources to sugar to use for energy… you don’t always need to get your energy from carbohydrate.
Eating dessert is good! Just eat it at the right times! Which is not all the time.
But hey, we’re human and we were placed on this earth where amazing pastry chefs and the Snickers company exists… so go partake, just make sure you get your exercise in 3-4 times a week first and earn those dessert and pre/post exercise carbs!
