Posted by kathryn in Weight loss, Carbohydrates and Q & A Thursday

Kicking off Q & A Thursday this week is a question from Mallika of Quick Indian Cooking: is avoiding carbohydrates at dinner a sensible strategy for weight loss?

I’m finding it interesting how many Q&A Thursday questions are centred around carbohydrates. In the past weeks the carbohydrate focussed topics I’ve covered include the GI of different foods, winter carb-loading, whether rice is a bad food to eat and brown rice vs white rice.

Carbohydrate containing foods

There are a wide range of foods that contain carbohydrates. Some of the grain sources are listed here, while the other main sources include:

• potatoes
• sugar containing foods and other sweeteners – lollies, jam, honey, chocolate, ice-cream, biscuits, golden syrup, etc
• dried fruit
• cassava
• sweetcorn

There are also moderate amounts of carbohydrate in milk, some other dairy products, nuts and sweet potato.

Kilojoule content

As I’ve stated before there’s nothing inherently wrong with eating carbohydrate foods. Many of them also contain some of the B vitamins, minerals, protein and antioxidants – all valuable things in our diet.

The problem comes when you eat too many of them. Meals are often based around the carbohydrate component, particularly at the expense of vegetables. This leads to the consumption of more kilojoules than are needed.

Avoiding carbohydrates in the evening

Along with moving more and watching portion sizes, if you have a few kilos to lose, it’s sensible to reduce your carbohydrate intake in the evening. One of the purposes of carbohydrates is to provide energy. Most people spend the evening at home, relaxing before going to bed and simply do not need a big meal.

For this to be effective, you also need to watch your fat and protein intake, as these will also bump up the kilojoule content of your meal. Use a minimal amount of fat in your cooking and make sure your plate is filled with plenty of vegies.

If you don’t want to avoid carbohydrates altogether, then follow my 50/25/25 rule.

05 July, 2007