Archive for January, 2010
In a person’s daily lifestyle, carbohydrates are the main source of energy. It is the one of the most important components of our diet considering the active lifestyle that people lead nowadays. Carbohydrates should form the major proportion of our diet, preferably around 50 percent of our daily calorie intake. That however, is heavily dependent on physical exertion and body weight.
Carbohydrates are found in foods in the form of starch and sugars. We can commonly find them in foods that consists of legumes, starchy vegetables, or fruits. Through digestion, carbohydrates become glucose and are absorbed into the bloodstream. They are then transferred to organs and tissues around the body to be taken in by cells. Those that are not taken in by cells will be stored as glycogen in the liver.
Generally there are two classifications for carbohydrates, ‘simple’ and ‘complex’. This classification is based on the physical structure of the carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are broken down relatively quickly and hence release larger amounts of glucose into the blood in a short period of time. Simple carbohydrates are sugars found in candies, fruits and baked food goods and on the other hand, complex carbohydrates are those carbohydrates that are found in beans, nuts, vegetables and whole grains.
People are often confronted with decisions of what to eat and more precisely, what we should eat for a healthy lifestyle. For people who love to eat, it is a common misconception that eating healthily equates to bland and tasteless food. That is not true at all. The secret to a well-balanced diet is to “Eat In Moderation”.
To illustrate this concept, I would like to introduce the food pyramid.
A typical food pyramid
When we eat in moderation, we can compensate for some of our unhealthy indulgences. Let’s say we had an ice-cream one day after lunch as dessert. By having more vegetables and fruits during dinner, we can balance out the high calorie intake that we had during lunchtime.
Blogsplutter.com says hello food world!
As mundane as eating may be, it is one of the few habits that we humans have retained our passion for since the times of our ancient ancestors.
As our first few readers, you may ask “What has SPLUTTER got to do with food?”
Well, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, a splutter is an incoherent sound. And that is exactly the sound that we make when EATING.