How Carbohydrates Cause Insulin Resistance & Diabetes
Carbohydrates are a name given to describe food that is either sugary (e.g. honey) or starchy (e.g. potatoes). There are two main types of carbohydrate, simple and complex.
Simple carbohydrates such as sugar and flour, are digested by the body very quickly. This means that when you eat simple carbohydrates, you will get a short and rapid boost of energy. It’s like lighting a firework, once you light it, you get a lot of immediate energy but it only lasts for a short time.
Simple Carbohydrates are…
- Usually the foods you love!
- Simple, so the body can use them quickly
- Usually taste sweet like sugar
- Provide a quick boost of energy
- Energy boost doesn’t last long
Complex carbohydrates are found mainly in vegetables, grains and rice. When you eat complex carbohydrates, the body takes longer to digest them resulting in a gradual release of energy over a longer period of time.
Complex Carbohydrates are…
- Usually the foods you hate!
- They are complex, so the body takes longer to break them down
- Mainly found in vegetables and rice
- Provide a gradual release of energy
- Energy supplied for a long period of time
What Happens When You Eat Carbohydrates?
Every time you eat carbohydrates, the body breaks them down into a form of sugar called glucose. Glucose is then burned and used as a source of energy. So when you eat carbohydrates it’s like throwing wood on a fire. The fire burns the wood and uses to it stay alive.
However, there is only so much glucose that the body needs or can use at any one time, so the unused glucose is converted to glycogen and then stored as a reserve supply of energy. It’s like keeping a few extra logs by the fireplace which you can use when the fire is dying down.
These glycogen reserves can only store a limited amount of energy, so when they are full, glucose is then stored as fat. As you probably already know, the body can store a lot of fat!
Glucose And Insulin
What helps the body to use glucose is a hormone called insulin, which is secreted by your pancreas. Insulin is a very important hormone, because high levels of glucose are dangerous and can damage the body. This means that insulin must be secreted after every meal to make sure that the food you eat doesn’t kill you!
The trouble with insulin is that every time it is released into the body, your cells become more and more resistant to it. As a result, over time the pancreas will have to release more insulin than it used too in order for the body to use glucose and keep it at safe levels.
In the medical world, this is known as insulin resistance. It is unavoidable and happens to everyone.
Insulin Resistance
Whilst you cannot prevent insulin resistance, you can control how quickly it develops. This is because different foods vary in the amount of insulin that they cause the pancreas to release after they are eaten. The worst offenders when it comes to the development of insulin resistance are the simple carbohydrate foods.
These foods have a high glycemic index, which means that when you eat them they cause a large and rapid release of insulin in the body. The significance of this is that the more insulin your cells are exposed to, the more rapidly they will develop insulin resistance.
One of the most noticeable signs that this process of resistance is occurring within the body, is the accumulation of excess fat. Or in other words, weight gain.
Weight Gain & Insulin Resistance
Although there are many signs of insulin resistance, an increasing level of resistance can easily be seen in males and females in two places:
If you’re a male, the first signs of insulin resistance begin in the belly. If you can’t see your toes for example, there’s a very good chance that your cells have already developed a very high level of insulin resistance which is now causing you to have a fat stomach.
If you’re a female, have a look at your bum! Insulin resistance in females often appears as fat accumulation in the buttocks first and then later around the thighs and waist.
The reason we look at body fat to indicate the level of insulin resistance, is because insulin has the ability to prevent the body from using stored fat as a source of energy and also plays a role in the deposition of fat.
This means that if you are eating lots of simple carbohydrate foods throughout the day which have a high glycemic index, your insulin levels will be high and so your body will continue to store fat rather than burn fat.
This is why models and actors often go on low carbohydrates diets, because doing so prevents excess fat accumulation whilst also allowing for existing fat deposits to be burnt off as energy for the body. When this happens, a person usually loses weight very quickly.
What’s So Bad About Insulin Resistance Anyway?
Over time with continual exposure to insulin, your cells get more and more resistant to it. This means that the pancreas has to secrete more insulin in order to have the same effect that a smaller amount used to have. When your cells get to a point where they are no longer responsive to insulin, or the pancreas can’t secrete enough insulin for it to be effective, you will become diabetic.
In the medical world there is already much concern for the current generation of young children, who many doctors fear are already borderline diabetic due to the large amounts of candy and soft drinks that they consume.
Some even speculate that in the future there may be an explosion in the number of diabetics. Interlinked with this is the rising obesity crisis, which is often interwoven with diabetes and heart disease.
Pre Diabetic Diseases Caused By Carbohydrates
We have already established a link between the consumption of simple carbohydrate foods and an increased risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease.
However, these diseases only tend to appear with high levels of insulin resistance, and therefore, tend to occur at a later age in life. But, there are many other symptoms which may appear before these diseases develop that may indicate the development of insulin resistance.
Below you will find listed some of the negative health effects that can occur when eating too many carbohydrate rich foods. All of these symptoms are often a sign of pre-diabetes, which basically means that you are on the verge of falling into a full-blown diabetic disease.
Let’s have a look at some of these symptoms now.
Fatigue
Commonly associated with insulin resistance. If you constantly feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, or parts of the day, you could be suffering from fatigue. Fatigue is one of the first signs that you are on your way to developing diabetes.
Brain Fog
Poor memory, brain fog and lack of concentration are all signs of insulin resistance. Brain fog often occurs shortly after eating simple carbohydrates and so should be relatively easy to spot.
Pay attention to when you get brain fog, as it will usually occur after eating certain types of foods. Avoid the foods that cause you brain fog, because they are usually the ones which will put you at greatest risk of developing diabetes.
Intestinal Bloating And Gas
Most intestinal gas is produced via fermentation from bacteria feeding on carbohydrates in the large intestine. If you have a lot of gas, you are eating too many sugary carbohydrates and are therefore increasing your risk of developing diabetes.
Sleepiness
Many people feel sleepy after eating a meal, this usually occurs after eating carbohydrates such as pasta.
Depression
Even though carbohydrates make you feel good when you eat them, they are in fact a natural downer as they can adversely affect your mood after they are eaten and even increase your level of aggression towards others. Many people suffering from depression also have insulin resistance and eventually develop diabetes.
Cancer
When certain carbohydrates are heated or fried (especially potatoes), they produce high levels of a cancer causing substance called acrylamide.
Encourage Growth Of “Bad Bacteria”
Bacteria and yeast love sugar, and so eating lots of sugary food (including fruit and fruit juices) promotes their growth. This can lead to yeast infections such as candida and chronic bad breath.
Weakened Immune System
Eating sugary food can impair the functioning of your immune system by as much as 50% for up to 3 hours. This makes you more susceptible to disease and infection.
Hair loss
Sugary foods can cause scalp inflammation which causes the body to attack the hair follicles in an autoimmune response. This is often occurs as “scalp pains” followed by hair loss in the same area.
Carbohydrates also reduce globulin levels, which help lower Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels. This means eating that lots of carbohydrates will accelerate hair loss.
Other Side Effects Caused By Eating Carbohydrates
- Damage to teeth and gums
- High blood pressure
- Poor eyesight
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Accelerated Aging
- Heart disease
As you can see, carbohydrates and the accelerated insulin resistance which they cause, can result in many negative health effects within the body.
However, these effects are largely associated with the consumption of high carb foods or foods that have a high glycemic index. Complex carbohydrates, such as green vegetables like broccoli, are generally not a risk factor in the development of diabetes for most people.
Is A “Zero Carb Diet” The Answer?
There is much debate about whether carbohydrates are good or bad for you. Some people believe they are so bad that they should be completely eliminated from your diet. This point is debatable, and there are compelling arguments for both sides, but this will take another article to discuss properly.
For the time being, if you would like more information about a zero carb diet, I suggest you read this excellent article on the dangers of carbohydrates. It also discusses the history of the food pyramid, upon which much of our food recommendations are based, and how and why the pyramid did not start out the way it appears today.
But overall the general gist is this, the more simple carbohydrates you consume the worse your health will become and the quicker you will age.
This occurs via a gradual process of insulin resistance and it usually takes decades before a full-blown disease such as diabetes or heart disease develops. The only warning signs that you will have of this occurring, is the visible accumulation of excess fat on the body. In men, this is first evident along the abdomen, and in women, on the buttocks.
Recommendations
If you currently eat a high carbohydrate diet, have large amounts of abdominal or buttock fat, or experience any of the signs of insulin resistance which were previously listed, you should strongly consider reducing the amount of carbohydrates that you consume.
It would also be wise to be selective over which carbohydrates you eat, paying particular attention to simple carb foods that have a high glycemic index. Unfortunately, this means most of your favorite foods! So ice cream, cookies, potato chips and soft drinks should all be avoid or severely limited.
If you are a parent, closely monitor what your children are eating, especially if your children are already overweight. This is most relevant for parents in the US or UK, where childhood obesity is a growing and extremely serious problem.
In addition to this, it is also a good idea to ensure that you exercise regularly. Anaerobic (e.g. weight lifting) and aerobic (e.g. running) exercise, has been shown to promote healthy insulin levels and lower your risk of diabetes.
Hopefully by now you should have a better understanding of why simple carbohydrate foods should be avoided as much as possible. To help you make changes to your diet, below you will find a glycemic index chart of some common foods. Ideally, you want to be eating low glycemic foods as much as possible and high glycemic foods as little as possible.
Glycemic Index Chart Of Common Foods
| (higher numbers cause faster/higher blood sugar/insulin rise) | ||||
| 10-29 good | 30-49 ok | 50-64 marginal ? | 65-79 bad | 80-100+ bad |
| Grains | ||||
| Uncle Ben’s Conv 44 Noodles (instant) 46 Bulgur 48 |
Buckwheat 54 Brown Rice 55 Lg grain White Rice 56 Basmati Rice 58 |
Taco Shells 68 Sht grain White Rice 72 |
||
| Cereals | ||||
| Kellogg’s Bran Buds 45 Oatmeal 49 |
Kellogg’s All Bran 51 Kellogg’s Special K 54 |
Shredded Wheat 67 Quaker Puffed Wheat 67 |
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies 82 Kellogg’s Cornflakes 84 |
|
| Breads | ||||
| Sponge Cake 46 | Pumpernickel Bread 51 Sour Dough Bread 52 Stone Gr Whole Wheat 53 Pita Bread 57 Blueberry Muffin 59 Pizza (cheese, tom) 60 |
Croissant 67 Whole Wheat Bread 69 White Bread 70 Bagel 72 Waffles 76 Donut 76 Rye Bread 76 |
||
| Pasta | ||||
| Fettuccini (egg) 32 Ravioli (meat) 39 Spaghetti 43 Spiral Pasta 43 Capellini 45 Linguine 46 Macaroni 47 |
Rice Vermicelli 58 | |||
| Legumes-Beans | ||||
| Red Kidney Beans 27 Soy Beans 18 |
Lentils 30 Cannellini Beans 31 White Beans 31 Lima Beans 32 Garbanzo(Chickpeas) 33 Navy Beans 38 Pinto Beans 39 Baked Beans 48 |
Broad Beans 79 | ||
| Vegetables | ||||
| Broccoli 10 Cabbage 10 Lettuce 10 Mushrooms 10 Onions 10 Red Peppers 10 |
Carrots 49 | Green Peas 48 Sweet Potato 54 Corn 55 Potato (new) 62 |
Beets 69 Potato (french fries) 75 Pumpkin 75 |
Potato (mashed, instant) 86 Potato (red skinned) 93 Potato (baked, white) 93 Parsnip 97 |
| Fruits-Berries | ||||
| Cherries 22 Grapefruit 25 Pear 38 Apple 38 Plum 39 Orange 44 Grapes 46 |
Kiwi 52 Mango 55 Banana 55 Papaya 58 |
Cantaloupe 65 Pineapple 66 |
dried dates (103)Watermelon 103 | |
| Cookies-Crackers | ||||
| Oatmeal Cookies 55 Shortbread Cookies 64 Stoned Wheat Thins 67 Ryvita Crispbread 69 |
Melba Toast 70 Kavli Crispbread 71 Soda Graham Crackers 74 Crackers 74 Vanilla Wafers 78 Water crackers 78 |
Rice Cakes 82 Rice Crackers 91 |
||
| Beverages | ||||
| Milk (whole) 22 Soy Milk 31 Milk (skimmed) 32 Milk (chocolate flavored) 34 |
||||
| Snacks-Desserts-Condiments | ||||
| Yogurt Plain 14 | Peanuts 14 Walnuts 15 Cashews 22 Yogurt (low-fat) 33 |
Snickers Bar 41 Chocolate Bar 49 Ice cream (low-fat) 50 Popcorn 55 Potato Chips 55 Power Bar 58 Ice Cream (whole) 61 |
Rasins 64 Corn Chips 72 |
Jelly Beans 80 Pretzels 83 Tofu Frozen Dessert 115 |
| Sugars | ||||
| Fructose 23 | Lactose 46 Honey 58 |
Sucrose 65 | glucose 100 maltose 105 |
|
How To Reduce Your Risk Of Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder which affects blood sugar levels, of which, there are two main types: Type 1 & Type 2.
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes usually occurs in young children as a result of a virus or an autoimmune disorder which destroys the body’s ability to produce insulin. As a result, people with Type 1 diabetes must take insulin injections for the rest of their life.
Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes occurs more commonly in middle age as a result of a poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle which subsequently reduces the efficiency of insulin to control blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult onset diabetes”, but because so many young people were developing diabetes the name was changed to Type 2.
Unlike Type 1 diabetes however, Type 2 diabetes can be prevented and managed by making lifestyle changes such as those which are listed below.
Lose Weight
The fatter you are, the higher the level of insulin resistance you have. So a fat body indicates that you are eating too many simple carbohydrates and are storing more energy than you burn off. You need to lose this extra fat, because with each passing decade you bring yourself one step closer to developing diabetes.
However, if you find that you can eat whatever you like without putting on excess weight, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not at risk of developing diabetes. Some people for example, develop what is known as intra-abdominal fat, so rather than accumulating visible fat which can be seen as fatty skin, they develop fat around their internal organs.
Intra-abdominal fat can be just as deadly as regular fat, so if you are eating an unhealthy diet but don’t find yourself putting on any extra weight, you may want to speak with your doctor to get yourself checked out.
Exercise
Exercising for 30 minutes, five times a week, can half your risk of developing diabetes. Ideally, this exercise should make you sweat, but if you don’t have time to exercise for so long, just make sure that you keep yourself active throughout the day.
This form of exercise is called non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), and can reduce your risk of developing diabetes simply by you being active during a normal working day.
If you find that you are very active throughout the day but are still overweight, be aware that exercise is not a very effective means for weight loss although it does still offer many health benefits. Making a change to your diet, such as by cutting out sugar, will be much more effective than exercising regularly but continuing to eat an unhealthy diet.
Lift Weights
Lifting weights helps to develop muscle mass, which then increases the rate at which you burn fat whilst also helping your body to use insulin more efficiently. If you don’t have weights, use your own body weight by doing press ups or squats.
Cut Out The Carbs
As we have already discussed, refined or simple carbohydrates are a major contributing factor towards the development of diabetes. You should therefore try to avoid any form of sugar or flour based food, and only eat complex carbohydrates such as green vegetables.
Try cutting out sugar from your diet for a few weeks, and then if you eat a sugary food again, you will be surprised at just how sweet it is.
Cut Out Artificial Sweeteners
Although people used to eat a moderate amount of sugar in the past, most did not develop diabetes. Apart from the fact that they did not eat so much sugar as we do today, the type of sugar they ate was different. Today, we tend to eat a lot of high fructose corn syrup or glucose fructose syrup, instead of the natural sugars which people used to eat.
The trouble with these artificial sugars, is that the body can’t deal with them in the same way that it does with natural sugars. This makes artificial sugars the biggest single cause of obesity and diabetes, and should therefore be completely avoided if you are trying to reduce your risk of developing diabetes.
Other artificial sweeteners however, such as Aspartame and Sucralose, will not increase your diabetes risk. They do however, have many other adverse health effects and so should also be avoided as discussed in this article.
Stop Smoking
Smokers are almost twice as likely to develop diabetes than non-smokers, so you can reduce your risk simply by quitting or cutting down. One of the main reasons why smoking tends to increase one’s risk of diabetes, is because tobacco, especially American grown tobacco, usually contains a lot of sugar in it.
If you can’t stop smoking, try smoking a natural additive free tobacco instead such as American Spirit or Pueblo.
Take Vitamin Supplements
Nutritional supplements such as zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, green tea extract, cinnamon or chromium can help your body to better control blood sugar levels and thus reduce your risk of developing diabetes.
Avoid Drinking Milk
Recent studies have found that a certain protein in milk is almost identical to a protein on the surface of insulin producing cells. Drinking milk could therefore cause the body to destroy its own insulin producing cells, leading to type 1 diabetes (insulin injections for life).
Since there seems to be a strong link between this milk protein and the development of heart disease and diabetes, it would be best to stop drinking milk completely if you are trying to reduce your risk of diabetes.
Things Not To Do When Dieting
If you are concerned about developing diabetes, want to reduce your risk of diabetes or simply just want to lose some weight so that you look better, you are going to have to modify the type of foods that you eat as part of your normal everyday diet.
So to conclude this article, we shall now look at some of the things you want to avoid doing when going on a diet, something which we refer to as the three D’s of dieting: Defensiveness, Depression & Despair.
1) Being Defensive When Dieting
People can become very defensive when they are on a diet, especially when someone makes a comment about their figure. For example, if someone notices that you have gained a few extra pounds, studies show that you are much more likely to come up with an excuse for this weight gain rather than admitting it was because you broke your diet.
The trouble with being defensive about dieting and weight gain, is that it sets up two obstacles for you to deal with: yourself and other people.
With other people you may make excuses for your weight gain, and by doing so, you justify it to yourself rather than admitting the true cause. Once you begin to justify your weight and your figure, you slowly become comfortable with it. As a result, you become less and less motivated to exercise and stick to a weight loss diet.
The second way that being defensive about dieting can affect you, is through self sabotage. For example, you may say to yourself “I don’t smoke or drink, so I deserve to eat this tub of ice cream”. Self sabotage can be due to many things, although most commonly, it is due to a lack of self acceptance and a low sense of self-worth.
Both of these can cause you to become defensive about your figure and weight, and cause you to break your diet in ways that seem to make sense to you at the time.
To help overcome defensiveness, don’t tell anyone that you are on a diet, because unless you have very supportive and understanding friends, you’re probably better off keeping it a secret. To help improve your level of self acceptance, look in the mirror each morning and tell yourself that you love and accept the person you are. Keep doing this until you mean it.
2) Getting Depressed When You Don’t See Any Weight Loss
Depression is a very common symptom of dieting, and one that stems from a constant frustration of being unable to lose weight through diet and exercise.
Some people for example, will try to look for a reason why they are not successful at losing weight, such as wondering if they have a rare medical condition.
When they find that there is nothing wrong with them, they are driven further into depression because they think that the reason they are overweight must be because they are lazy and greedy.
To make matters worse, they know that the solution to their weight gain is to eat less and exercise more, something they have already being trying to do but which hasn’t worked for them.
As a result, this constant cycle of frustration can lead to very severe depression, and unless it is dealt with in an appropriate manner, it could very easily lead to obesity if food becomes a comfort which is used as distraction from painful feelings.
To avoid the frustration that can lead to dieting depression, it is important to stop doing the things that aren’t working for you and to not let bad days ruin your whole diet plan. For example, if you have tried a particular diet for several months and have been exercising regularly, then perhaps that diet isn’t very effective for a person with your genetic makeup.
This is why it is important to set yourself weight loss goals, so that you can monitor your progress and avoid frustrating yourself with things that don’t help you to achieve what you want.
3) Diet Despair
Despair is something that many dieters experience, and when they do, it can be extremely demotivating. For example, you spent the whole week eating healthy foods and exercising every day, but when you step on the scale you haven’t lost any weight at all. It’s times like these when dieters despair, and feel like giving up on their diet altogether because they don’t see the point of going on.
The feeling of despair usually occurs when you have been following a very strict diet or exercise plan, because you expected to see some results for the sacrifices you made. But when you don’t get those results, you feel even worse than when you began.
For this reason, it is important to set realistic weight loss goals rather than expecting miracles to happen overnight. In addition to this, any diet should be approached slowly and gradually be built up to a level which you a comfortable with.
As you age, your metabolism will naturally slow down, which means that it may take you longer to lose weight when you are older than it did when you are younger. So to avoid despair when dieting, set yourself realistic goals, goals which challenge you yet you know are possible to achieve.
Your Diet & Your Skin
The importance of eating healthy food for good-looking skin can often be very obvious just by looking in the mirror. If you eat lots of junk food for example, then your skin is likely react badly in the form of redness, inflammation, breakouts, dry skin and many other types of common skin conditions and complaints.
In rest of this article, we are going to be looking at the types of foods you should and shouldn’t eat for great looking skin. To make things a bit easier, we have broken these foods down in to proteins, carbohydrates, fats and artificial foods.
As you read each section, try to think about how your current diet compares to what you are reading and how your skin currently is as a result of your present diet. If your skin looks good with the foods that you normally eat and you don’t have any skin complaints, then you are probably eating the right type of food for your skin.
If however, you have many skin complaints, then you would probably benefit from making a change to your diet.
Protein For Healthy Skin
Protein is very important for the body. Protein helps to form muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, nails, hair and skin. In fact, virtually everything in your body is in one way or another composed of protein. Protein, or more specifically, amino acids, are the things that the body uses to literally build you piece by piece.
In terms of the skin, the skin contains the proteins collagen and elastin. If you don’t get enough protein in your diet, then collagen and elastin levels will start to decline and cause your skin to wrinkle prematurely and lose its elasticity and firmness.
Without enough protein, the skin becomes dull and looks pale and the muscles in the face lose their strength. The effect of a lack of protein in the diet can often be seen with vegetarians who sometimes experience brittle hair, hair falling out and split nails.
Since your body and skin is made up of protein, it makes sense to get an adequate amount of it into your diet, and to avoid the people who tell you to minimize the protein that you eat because it’s “bad for you”.
How Much Do You Need?
Whilst you can get protein from virtually any type of food, you can only get complete protein from animal products such as meat, fish, poultry, seafood, eggs and cheese. In case you don’t know, complete protein is protein that contains all amino acids.
An average woman requires about 20 g of animal protein three times a day, making a total of 60 g of protein per day. 20 g of protein is about the size of a can of tuna.
Men require a bit more protein than women, up to about 30 g three times a day, or 90 g of protein per day. This works out to about four and a half cans of tuna.
When Should You Eat It?
It is recommended that you spread out the protein that you eat throughout a day, rather than just eating it all in one meal. The body will find it a lot easier to handle, and eating throughout the day will also help to keep your energy levels up. One thing that is worth remembering though, is that not all protein is equally nutritious for you.
For example, if you overcook food then you are likely to destroy a significant portion of the protein, or change it to a form that the body doesn’t use very well. So even though you may think that you are getting a lot of protein, the reality may be somewhat different.
For this reason, try not to overcook meat or fish, and if possible, lightly boil them instead, as some studies have shown that frying food can result in the formation of cancer causing chemicals. In addition to this, you can supplement your protein intake with protein rich food such as brewer’s yeast or by drinking raw eggs.
Proline & Lysine
Collagen is made from lysine, proline and vitamin C. Supplementing with proline, lysine and vitamin C is therefore very beneficial to your skin, as it helps to prevent your skin from sagging whilst also keeping it smooth.
Most people notice smooth skin within a week after taking these supplements, and they are also very good for the linings of your arteries.
Anti-Aging Fats
Fat serves many important functions in the body, and is absolutely vital in keeping your skin plump, moist and wrinkle free.
A lack of good fats in the body will cause the skin to age prematurely. So like protein, this is something that you definitely don’t want to exclude from your diet, such as by going on a low-fat diet.
Out of all the fats available, there are three that you need for healthy and age resistant skin.
• Essential Fatty Acids
• Olive Oil
• Butter/Coconut Oil
Essential Fatty Acids
Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are extremely important for promoting good general health and health of the skin. Essential fatty acids make your skin glow, reduce inflammation and can help with dry skin problems (such as psoriasis and eczema) and premature aging of the skin.
In addition to the benefits that essential fatty acids provide your skin with, they are also important in helping you to think more clearly and concentrate better as well as improving your mood.
Although you can get essential fatty acids from vegetable sources such as flax-seed oil, the best source is cod liver oil because this also contains vitamin A and vitamin D. Both of which are good for the skin.
Olive Oil
Cold pressed olive oil is an excellent source of monounsaturated fatty acids, which are excellent for promoting general health, heart health and skin health.
Why you buy olive oil at the store, look for pure virgin olive oil that is in a darkened glass bottle. Plastic bottles should be avoided because they can leach chemicals into the oil, and you don’t want a clear bottle because light can damage oil and cause it to go rancid.
Also be very weary of cheap olive oil, and this is usually pomace olive oil not extra virgin. This means that it can be made up of a variety of different grades of olives.
Butter
Butter has unfairly gained a bad reputation over the past decades because it contains saturated fat. This is despite the fact that it contains many vitamins and minerals which are essential to good health and healthy skin.
Despite what you have been led to believe, saturated fat is actually very beneficial for the body. One of the main reasons for this is because saturated fat is very resistant to oxidation. Unlike polyunsaturated fats, saturated fat does not go rancid quickly when exposed to air or when you cook with it.
The reason why this is important is because the cells in your body use fat to build a membrane which protects the cell from its external environment.
If this membrane is primarily composed of saturated fat, then it is much more resistant to damage caused by free radicals. This means that the DNA inside your cells is less likely to develop mutations, some of which, could lead to cancer.
If however, your cell membranes are primarily composed of polyunsaturated fats, then they will be very susceptible to free radical damage. This then increases the risk of damage to the cell and the genetic material it carries within it.
Fat Face
Some saturated fats, such as coconut oil, can be used on the face. This highly stable fat (which is virtually pure saturated fat) is excellent at protecting your skin from free radical damage, thereby helping it to stay looking younger for longer.
Some studies have shown that including saturated fat in the diet also makes the skin much more resistant to the harmful effects of the sun, thereby reducing premature aging caused by sun exposure.
If you are worried about heart disease, don’t be. Saturated fat does not cause heart disease. That is mainly caused by eating too many high glycemic foods (carbohydrates) which stimulate the body to deposit fat.
If you add butter to food, it is best to do so right at the end after you have finished cooking. Or, if you prefer coconut oil, you can eat that on its own in addition to cooking with it.
Carbohydrates & Premature Aging
Lots can be said about carbohydrates, but I will keep it very simple to make things easy to remember. Carbohydrates supply the body with energy. When you are active, you use that energy. When you are not active, that energy is deposited as fat.
So if you are going to be very active throughout the day, you can eat a fair amount of carbohydrates because your body will burn it off throughout the day. If however, you will be sitting down for most of the day, then eating lots of carbohydrates will cause you to put on weight quickly.
In terms of what types of carbohydrates you should eat for healthy skin, your total carbohydrate intake should largely consist of complex carbohydrates that have a low glycemic index and a low glycemic load. You should minimize or completely eliminate simple carbohydrates from your diet if you wish to achieve optimum levels of health and wellness.
Turmeric, The Anti-Aging Spice
Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory. It is has also been strongly linked to a reduction in cancer risk.
It would be beneficial to take turmeric every day if you can. This can be done by purchasing freshly ground turmeric spice, or by taking turmeric (curcumin) capsules.
If you choose to use turmeric as a spice, you can greatly increase its absorption by consuming fat and black pepper with your turmeric meal.
Artificial Foods
Artificial foods contain ingredients which don’t appear naturally in nature. For example, aspartame and high fructose corn syrup. Artificial foods can also contain chemical preservatives, food colorings and artificial fats (e.g. trans fatty acids).
Although food manufactures say that these ingredients are harmless, there have been many studies showing just the opposite. Research the dangers of aspartame for example, and you will find over 90 different health complaints that have been associated with its consumption.
Since many new artificial substances are used in foods each year, there is no way of knowing for sure if they are truly safe or not. Even if they have been shown to be safe on their own, there is always the possibility that they could not be safe when mixed with other ingredients.
But rather than worrying about specific ingredients, just try to avoid man-made processed foods. As we don’t need scientists to tell us that junk food is bad for our health.
