Welcome to Day 4 of the Clean up Your Diet Challenge!
Here’s what we’ve done up until now.
Don’t forget to join the Facebook Group HERE.
5 Day Diet Challenge: DAY 4 – Eat Less Sugar and Processed Foods
Carbs get a bad rep but they are fuel for our muscles and brain. The problem is that many times, we are eating carbs (processed foods and refined sugars) that don’t offer much nutritional value to our bodies. There are “good” carbs and “bad” carbs.
Processed foods are pre-packaged items you typically find in the grocery store. Preservatives have been added to them and the original natural food has gone through some kind of process to make it last longer and/or taste better. These are the boxed/bagged “quick” meals you will see in the grocery store.
Whole foods provide nutritional value (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, water), are naturally occurring, and are free from additives or other artificial substances. These are the raw ingredients that you use to cook meals with.
Whole vs. Processed Foods: https://www.facebook.com/insidePN/videos/414473755322928/
PRO TIP: When shopping, look for foods with 5 ingredients or less AND you can pronounce all the ingredients! Better yet get foods that don’t have an ingredients list (think the perimeter of the store, fruits, veggies, meats, fish, etc.)
Sugar is a type of carbohydrate and is easy to digest.
Sugar is a fundamental molecule in biology and the human body needs sugar (sugar makes up DNA, we use sugar for energy, and store sugar for fuel later).
But sugar is not a “health” food. It doesn’t add much nutritional value (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, water) and it doesn’t make our bodies stronger, faster, or more functional.
