Carbohydrates And Fueling Your Diet

You should take about 70 per cent of your food in the form of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are not stodgy or fattening, they are essential for fuel. During exercise, your muscles are fueled by glucose in the blood, and by glycogen, which is stored in your liver and muscles. Muscles normally contain enough glycogen to fuel between one and two hours of vigorous exercise. Carbohydrates are also nothing new, athletics and professional sports players have been loading up on carbs for years right before vigorous exercise.

Potatoes, rice and bread contain complex carbohydrate which releases its energy over a prolonged period and therefore decreases the likelihood of hunger pangs or cravAï¿½ings. You also get carbohydrates from fruit, vegetables, pulses and pasta.

Here are some typical combinations which contain mostly complex carbohydrates and some simple sugars. They would be enough for one day:

50 g/2 oz breakfast cereal

4 large slices of bread

175 g/6 oz boiled potatoes

1 pear

1 peach

1 scone/bagel or 1 bowl cornflakes

1 helping pasta

2 small bunches of grapes or 1 orange

mixed bean salad

3 slices bread

1 baked potato

2 bananas 1 apple

1 biscuit

2 large slices bread

It’s also important to mention, that durum wheat used to make pasta is hard and high in gluten, which many people cannot tolerate. If you suffer from irritable bowels or wheat intolerance, I suggest you eat less pasta and more potatoes and rice, with plenty of fruit.

The key to making sure you are eating a healthy diet is to make sure you get lots of carbohydrates in your diet, without sacrificing proteins and vitamins. That’s why you will notice, that part of the diet includes lots of fruits as well as potatoes, both of which are rich in vitamins and important minerals your body needs to function. Also, it’s important that you exercise; loading up on a ton of carbohydrates and then not exercising is not going to do you any good. In fact what will happen is you will actually gain weight if you don’t exercise and your diet consists of a lot of carbohydrates. So with any healthy diet plan, it’s important to exercise and keep active.