The Coconut Diet: The Secret Ingredient for Effortless Weight Loss. Cherie Calbom

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      Carbohydrates are macronutrients known as sugars, starches, and fiber. A carbohydrate is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and they come arranged in three sizes—monosaccharides, disaccharides, or polysaccharides. Sugars such as glucose with a single sugar ring are known as monosaccharides, sugars made from pairs of single rings such as sucrose are known as disaccharides, and large molecules like starches, which are long chains of single-ring sugars linked together, are known as polysaccharides. The monosaccharides and disaccharides are simple carbohydrates such as white sugar. The polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates that include starches, glycogen, (a polysaccharide, stored in the liver; easily converted to glucose) and most fiber.

      To help you succeed on the Coconut Diet, you’ll need an understanding of the difference between the good carbs and the bad.

       Simple Carbohydrates: The Bad Ones

      When it comes to our blood sugar and weight management, simple carbs such as sugar, starch, and refined flour products are the biggest obstacles. These foods have little or no fiber and plenty of readily available sugar. French fries, sweet rolls, pretzels, potato chips, soda pop, milk shakes, ice cream, doughnuts, bagels, alcohol, and most packaged breakfast cereals are all examples of foods that provide high amounts of simple carbs, very few, if any, nutrients, and little to no fiber. They convert to sugar quickly in our bloodstream, which often goes straight to the fat cells.

      Some of the simple-carbohydrate foods can catch us off guard—they don’t taste sweet, and we may think we’re actually eating something healthful. Take a savory-flavored rice cake, for example. It has no fat and not a lot of calories, but look out when it comes to carbs—about 12 carbs in each rice cake; plain has about 8 grams of carbs. Many people have felt good about eating three or four of these snack crackers in place of something that has fat in it. But they are not a good-carb choice. They are made of puffed rice, which is high on the Glycemic Index. (An index that shows the rate at which carbohydrates break down to glucose in the bloodstream and turn to sugar). White bread is another example; it doesn’t taste sweet either. We may think it’s okay when it’s French or sourdough bread or a sesame bread stick—at least these forms of white flour have a more sophisticated image than a slice of plain white bread. There’s not much difference, however, between eating these breads and a sweet in terms of how quickly they turn to sugar when they are digested.

      Your body’s primary way of getting rid of sugar is to burn it. What your body can’t burn, it will store as glycogen. When glycogen stores are filled up, then it will get stored as fat.

      “Sugar is a turbo charger—a very hot burning fuel,” says Dr. Ron Rosedale. When you eat a lot of carbohydrates, and particularly simple carbs, your body will convert it quickly to sugar and burn it, and it will stop burning fat.¹ (This is the reason low carb diets are so effective—they promote fat burning.)

      With an emphasis on lots of carb servings every day, our bodies may not get around to fat burning at all. For instance, start the morning with a bowl of cornflakes, one-half cup skim milk, a small banana, and a glass of orange juice. How about a bran muffin for coffee break—that’s healthy right? Maybe you choose a sandwich with no mayo for lunch. How about pasta primavera and garlic bread for dinner? And you could end the day with a bowl of plain popcorn for an evening snack.

      This looks like a healthy-choice, low fat kind-of-day to many people across the U.S., but when we add up the carbs, it comes to over 200 grams. Guidelines for carbs on many low-carb weight-loss programs are usually around 30 grams per day. A bran muffin alone has about 28 carb grams.

      Is it any wonder that many people can’t lose weight, have blood sugar problems, and experience insulin resistance? Their entire day is filled with one high-carb meal after another, and blood sugar that is bouncing around like a yo-yo.

      As you maintain satisfactory blood glucose and insulin levels, the body will not easily store excess carbohydrates as fat, and it will burn existing fat stores faster. As you follow a healthful, low-carb food plan such as The Coconut Diet, you can achieve permanent fat loss and build more lean muscle.

       I have been taking a tablespoon of coconut oil three times daily with meals. Taking the oil with my meals seems to give me a “full feeling” a lot faster. My sweet tooth has practically vanished—and this is from someone who should have bought stock in Hersheys long ago! Ironically, facilitating weight loss was my main reason for trying the coconut oil diet, but with all the wonderful benefits I am experiencing, the weight loss aspect almost seems like an afterthought.

       About three days into the routine, I had an energy rush on a Saturday morning that kept me going until well after lunch. I can’t believe how much I got done that day! My mental state of mind seemed to be much sharper. I was able to focus on the tasks at hand without getting sidetracked. I was not exhausted at the end of running my errands, which included traipsing around a huge mall. It seemed like I was practically running, rather than the leisurely walking that was formerly my habit. In addition to my energy level, my mood has been very stable—no up and down mood swings—even with the onset of PMS!

       My husband commented yesterday on how soft and silky my skin felt, and I have not used any lotion since I started taking the oil. This program also seems to have given my libido a jumpstart.

       Theresa

       Complex Carbohydrates: The Good Ones

      The complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides) are condensed into molecules of starch, glycogen and cellulose. Starch molecules are rather large; a single starch molecule may contain 3,000 or more glucose units linked together. Starch is the stored form of glucose in a plant. Potatoes, rice and other grains, corn, and legumes are examples of starch. Glycogen is more complex than starch and is found in animal meats, to a limited extent. Cellulose is found primarily in plants and has long, branching chains that are not digestible by human enzymes. Cellulose is also known as insoluble fiber and it is very important in human nutrition, especially for colon health.

      Most plant foods have fiber and an abundance of nutrients particularly the brightly colored vegetables, fruit, sprouts, legumes, herbs, and sea vegetables. These are powerhouses of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals, and fiber. Even on a carb-restricted diet, we can eat large amounts of most vegetables, salad greens, and sprouts and never feel deprived, while maintaining a low-carb intake. The high-fiber content of these foods slows down the rate that sugars enter the bloodstream, thereby lowering insulin secretion. These vegetables, sprouts, herbs, and salad greens will be your primary source of carbohydrates during the first three weeks of the Coconut Diet.

      A few vegetables and fruits such as potatoes, parsnips, watermelon, pineapple, and bananas are not good-carb choices because they are higher on the Glycemic Index; they should be avoided especially in Phases I and II.

       Sweeteners: The Good, the Bad, and the Dangerous

      Sweeteners, no matter what we call them, are still sugars. Very few sugars are actually good for us such as fructooligosaccharides and other essential saccharides. But these sugars are rarely, if ever, found in snacks and treats; they are mostly used for medicinal purposes.

      Most natural sweeteners such as honey and pure maple sugar are a little better than refined sugars, in that they have some nutrients and they aren’t bleached and refined, however, they are not healthful in the quantities consumed by the average person. And some sweeteners, namely artificial, can even be dangerous.

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