“Prepping” meals (cooking and freezing portions) is useful when you have little time but still want a healthy homemade meal. An added bonus is that food freezing and reheating reduces carbohydrate content.
Do carbs make you fat?
No. You will not get fat from carbohydrates, and fully eliminating carbs can increase the risk of premature death.
But you will get fat from too much carbs. Same goes for too much fat and too much protein. Carbs are fuel for your body and contain fibers required for good poop, good health and a healthy body weight (How to lose weight by eating fibers). Products such as bread, pasta, rice and snacks contain a lot of carbs. So do fruits and vegetables. If you often eat more carbs than you burn, it is stored as fat and you will gain weight, and too muich fruit can lead to health problems. The risks of eating too many carbs when you eat a lot of bread, pasta, rice and snacks is higher than when you eat fruits and vegetables.
Check the following example:
An average woman needs 2000 kcal per day, ideally 50% delivered by carbs which amounts to 250 grams of carbs. Such is 8 slices of bread, 4 large table spoons of rice and one egg cake. But it is also 2 kilos of broccoli, half a kilo of apples and over 3 kilos of cherry tomatoes. The risk of overeating on carbs from fruits and vegetables is quit small. The carb density of 100 grams of vegetables is much lower than of 100 grams of bread or rice.
Carb density decrease
Completely avoiding bread, pasta and rice is not a good idea because these products contain many vitamins, minerals and fiber. Although you will not necessarily gain weight from eating carbs, lowering the carb intake sometimes cannot hurt considering the fact that nowadays many meals are very carb- dense (starch) and therefor calorie dense. Especially if you want to lose weight. More than 50% of the Dutch population is overweight and eat too many products that have a high carb density.
Smaller portions, smart timing and more vegetables
Eat smaller servings of bread, pasta and rice and concentrate intake around the high energy moments during the days, such as around playing sports. (Timing is everything in nutrition) Additionally, concentrate your meals around the veggies: Eat mostly vegetables and you will automatically ingest less carbs.
Freezing and reheating
Also prepare, freeze and reheat meals makes you ingest fewer carbs. This process of freezing and reheating changes the molecular structure of the carbs (starch) in such a way that the starch is being transformed into a resistant form your body cannot absorb. This also happens if you first freeze your bread and toast the frozen slice before you eat. You do not have to be afraid of carbs, simply make healthy smart choices.
Create your own health!©
