Sometimes we know certain foods are bad for us but we don’t know why. Sometimes we aren’t sure what the food is doing to our body. Here’s a short list of foods that you may not have known are actually signaling to your body to slow down metabolism and how.
Sugar:
Eating too much sugar causes your blood sugar to spike. When it spikes and your metabolism cannot keep up, your insulin levels rise accordingly in order to remove the sugar from the blood and send it to cells that might use it for energy. The increase in energy from the sugar is what we call a sugar high or a sugar rush. The problem is this. Your metabolism burns stored fat to get energy. When you have an overload of energy from sugar, which the metabolism detects by the increased levels of insulin, your metabolism stops burning fat for energy. Instead you body will store away more fat because it already has all the energy it needs for now and wants to save some for later. In this way, too much sugar slows, if not stops or reverses, your body’s natural fat burning processes.
Caffee:
Small amounts of caffeine can increase metabolism in. Here’s the dilemma. When you consume too much caffeine, from too many cups of coffee, energy drinks or even too much chocolate, your body will become dehydrated. When your body is dehydrated, your liver slows down metabolism in order to help the kidneys who will not function properly without enough water. Too much caffeine slows metabolism drastically. Resourceful site for more tips and ideas about wellness.
White bread:
White bread, like white pastas and rice, is made up refined carbohydrates. That means the complex carbs have been removed and all that remains is simple, quickly digested carbohydrates. It’s bleached, removing almost all its nutritional value, and sweetened. Your metabolism slows because white bread is so easily and quickly digestible. Refined carbohydrates won’t keep you full either so you’ll end up eating unnecessary calories later. Best to switch to whole wheat breads and pastas. The fiber will fill you up and keep you full and your metabolism will work hard to break down the complex carbohydrates, burning calories in the process.
Alcohol:
Drinking alcohol is drinking empty calories. It’s just a whole lot of sugar. I’m not going to tell you not to drink any alcohol. Small amounts of alcohol can promote heart health, but, keep in mind what alcohol does to your metabolism. The body doesn’t have to digest the alcohol so it doesn’t do any good for your metabolism. 90% of the alcohol is turned into acetic acid by your liver. Working on doing so distracts your liver from its other job, boosting your metabolism. But here’s the suggestion, if you’re going to drink, drink. Just don’t drink in excess if you want to keep up your metabolism. Drinking in excess will cause dehydration and that will substantially decrease your metabolism.
Diet products:
“Diet” products are low on calories but high on artificial sweeteners. Here’s what you need to know. You brain does a large part of the processing what you eat. Normally, when you eat something sweet it has a certain number of calories. Your body responds to the intake of calories by speeding up metabolism to compensate. When your brain detects something sweet but your body recognizes no calorie intake, your system becomes confused. Artificial sweeteners in diet sodas such as aspartame and sucralose for instance have this affect on your body. The result is this. At first, the body will respond by speeding up metabolism as the taste buds indicate that sugar is coming, but over time, your body will separate the sweet taste from the calorie intake. When this becomes the case, your body will actually slow down metabolism when you feed it “diet” products to preserve energy for actual calorie intake.
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