Health Tips

Twenty years ago, the food enemy was fat. Today, it’s carbs. From diets to restaurant menus to supermarkets, we’ve become a low-carb nation. Is that good? Depends on how far you take it. Going low-carb without paying attention to total calories may mean you won’t lose weight and you might even gain.

The American Heart Association and the American College of Preventive Medicine both held national conferences recently. The topic of concern on this low-carb trend is that the emphasis should be on the rest of the calories they were taking in–especially those from fat Eat too many calories and you won’t lose weight; you might even gain weight. People that focus on low-carbohydrate intake, are missing this point.

There has been an increase in fat and cholesterol intake while fruits and vegetables have decreased in the past few years.

An eating plan that increases fat consumption and skimps on fruits and vegetables is not the best choice when it comes to good nutrition. But if you’re using a low-carb approach to losing weight, you should choose the healthiest low-carb foods available from natural foods.

This food list contains the healthiest low-carbohydrate foods as determined by:

* Saturated fat content in meats
* Fiber and phytonutrient content in vegetables and fruit
* The monounsaturated and polyunsaturated content of the fat choices

Be sure to pay attention to the serving size–low-carb doesn’t mean you get to eat as much as you want. Cooked foods are steamed, broiled, or roasted, with visible fat trimmed away and skin removed from the meats. The grams of fiber were not deducted from total grams of carbohydrates as they are in some nutrition labels.