You may not be a registered dietitian, but for the sake of your digestive system and general health, it helps to eat like one. Here are some practical steps to curb carbohydrate overconsumption.
Identify the Enemy
Fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds are all complex carbohydrates. These are not enemies to good health. They provide nutrients and fiber to slow the conversion and absorption of glucose. Empty or refined carbohydrates like potatoes, pasta, bread, chips, crackers, cookies, candy, cake, and sugary beverages are the enemies.
An average person consumes the equivalent of 52 spoonfuls (208 grams or about a half pound) of sugar per day! This glucose overload from sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or converted carbohydrates raises insulin and, unless you’re a marathoner, is stored as muffin-top fat, which can lead to many health problems. [1-4]
Let’s just say that you have more than a casual interest in this topic. For the sake of your digestive system and general health, it helps to eat like a nutritionist. In agricultural societies, meals can go from field to table on the very same day.
Capitalistic processing and marketing of food have led to competition for consumers’ taste buds. Food selection is often based on appearance (artificial coloring) and taste (artificial flavoring)—not nutrition.
A Trip Behind Enemy Lines
While making a selection from the visual menu board, it seems more cost-effective to get a meal deal, which includes a burger and soda. Later in the evening, a tamale with Spanish rice looks good for dinner.
These are all vision-based meal selections. If you think like a nutritionist, you realize you primarily consume non-fibrous carbohydrates and sugar that quickly convert to glucose. A limited amount of simple grain-based carbohydrates is required throughout the day for energy. Excess is stored as fat.
So that bag of chips and meal deal leaves you at a deficit for protein. Sure, there is some protein in the beef patty, but it can’t compensate for the bun, soda, fries, masa, and rice consumed today.
What’s the number one reason why we snack on chips, soda, and cookies? Because they are easily accessible. If you can’t stop filling your cart with addictions, perhaps someone else should shop for you. Various services allow you to have healthy meal ingredients delivered to your home throughout the week.
Successful Defense
With easily accessible healthy snacks, we reach for them to satisfy those gnawing cravings. So step one is to buy less junk. Spend twenty minutes chopping several days’ worth of carrots and celery into bite-sized pieces. Place these veggies in an air-tight container with fresh water and store them in the refrigerator.
Because carrots are root vegetables, they absorb moisture. This enhances the texture and flavor so you can snack on them raw (without calorie-rich dressing or hot wings). Having a large batch of precut veggies also makes it easy to add them to salads, stir-fry, or pasta. (Whoops.)
Refrigerate sliced carrots and celery in water so they are crisp, ready to add to healthy meals, or snack on.
In the sortable table below, notice how the sugars and carbohydrates in a cup of celery compare to those of a few cookies or a candy bar. Remember, carbs quickly convert to sugar, so they should be on your watch list. Note too that it only takes about 25 pretzels to reach an adult recommendation of 1500 mg of sodium per day (CDC recommends 2300 mg). [5]
| Food [6] | Serving | Sodium | Calorie | Sugar | Carb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celery | 1 cup | 96mg | 19 | 0.8g | 3.6g |
| Carrots | 1 cup | 88mg | 52 | 6.1g | 12.3g |
| Cheez It Original Snack Crackers | 27 crackers (30g) | 250mg | 160 | 1g | 18g |
| Lay's Barbecue Potato Chips | 35.4g | 190mg | 190 | 2g | 19g |
| Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies | 3 cookies | 110mg | 160 | 11g | 21g |
| Rolled Gold Classic Pretzels | 9 pretzels (27.6g) | 560mg | 110 | -- | 23g |
| Snickers Bar | 2 oz | 140mg | 271 | 26.2g | 34.5g |
According to MayoClinic, based on a 2000-calorie-per-day diet, 225 to 235 grams of good carbohydrates are recommended. [7] If endeavoring to lose weight, less might be consumed. Snack food flavor selection can dramatically affect sodium, calories, and carbohydrates. People often combine snack foods and exceed suggested serving sizes.
Eating like a nutritionist requires having a basic idea of how much protein, carbohydrates, and fat you should be consuming daily. It is helpful to stay within prescribed guidelines for sodium and sugar.
So when hunger pangs arrest your attention, curb them with something that digests more slowly, like carrot or celery sticks. Then drink a glass of water while you rationally consider more substantial healthy options.
It all starts with shopping habits. If all your snacks are refined carbs—chips, crackers, bread, cookies, Ramen noodles—then when you try to make wise choices during the day, you are nutritionally handicapped. Shop for fresh fruits and vegetables. Plan and prep healthy meals in advance.
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