And the answer is … - food and health related questions

Vegetarian Times, Dec, 1999 by Jane Shiyen Chou

Get the lowdown on common nutritional quandaries, from the best soy protein to why you gain weight in winter

You can't pick up a paper, turn on the television, to the radio or surf the net without hearing about some new diet, supplement or health claim. While all this information can help us tailor more healthful lifestyles, sometimes the more we hear, the greater the confusion. The following are five of the most common questions we get from our readers, answered by four leading nutrition experts.

Q 1. I eat the same foods and exercise the same amount in the winter as I do the rest of the year, but somehow I always put on 5 pounds. What s going on? Does my metabolism naturally slow down in winter?

Bears hibernate in winter, but people do not. "There's really no data to support the idea that one's metabolic rate automatically decreases in cold weather," says Kathy McManus, M.S., R.D., manager of clinical nutrition at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. What's more likely is that you're eating a little more and exercising a little less without realizing it. Most people spend more time indoors when the weather turns cold. So although you may be sticking to your regular workout schedule, you may also be spending your Sunday afternoons curled up on the sofa reading a book rather than puttering outside in the yard. And even if you're diligent about eating healthful meals at home, it's easy to overlook a few indulgences at holiday parties, including alcohol, and they do add up.

"You should also ask yourself if you're eating those same foods in the same form," says Joseph Pizzorno, N.D., president of Bastyr University in Bothell, Wash. People tend to eat more raw foods in the summer and cooked foods in the winter. "While cooking doesn't change the calorie count, it does make food easier to digest," says Pizzorno. "And the faster a food is digested, the more insulin your body produces, which in turn increases the likelihood that calories will be stored as fat instead of burned off for energy."

Finally, while the season itself doesn't affect your metabolism, even minor changes in eating and exercise habits do. Think about it. A slightly more sedentary winter lifestyle may cause you to lose a pound of muscle and a few holiday indulgences plus more cooked foods could result in an extra pound of fat. At this point your weight hasn't changed--you've lost a pound of muscle and gained a pound of fat--but your metabolism has. "One pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day compared with just 5 calories a day per pound of fat," explains Pizzorno. This means you're burning 45 fewer calories each day, which adds up to an extra 315 unburned calories a week, or 1,350 excess calories a month--even though your diet and exercise routine hasn't changed.

So if you tend to put on winter pounds, be extra vigilant about holiday treats and activity levels and consider making fresh salads a part of your menu all year-round.

Q 2. I'm still confused about carbohydrates. What's the difference between "simple" and "complex"? And can a carb also contain protein, like beans?

A carbohydrate is basically a bunch of sugar molecules stuck together. When the molecules form a simple structure, it's called--yup, you guessed it--a simple carb. When the configuration is more complicated, it's known as a complex carb. Simple carbs are also called sugars. Examples include sucrose (table sugar), fructose (the sugar in fruit) and lactose (the sugar in milk). Complex carbs are often thought of as starch (as in bread, pasta and potatoes), although they are also found in most vegetables and grains.

When you eat carbs, simple or complex, your body breaks them down into glucose, the type of sugar your body burns for energy. But while simple carbs are easy to break down and absorb, complex carbs take longer to digest and therefore lead to a longer feeling of satiety.

"A majority of the foods we eat actually contain a mix of both simple and complex carbs--along with protein and fat, the two other major building blocks of food," explains Suzanne Havala, R.D., nutrition advisor for the Vegetarian Resource Group and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Being Vegetarian (Macmillan, 1999). For example, vegetables and grains consist mostly of complex carbs with a small percentage of simple carbs and protein. Fruits (with all that sweet fructose) are mostly simple carbs with some complex carbs. Beans contain significant amounts of both complex carbs and protein and are therefore considered both carb and protein, because, says Havala, "we tend to categorize foods depending on what they contain the most of."

So which is better? Havala would rather people think in terms of "nutrient-dense" than of simple versus complex. While it's true that foods rich in complex carbs tend to be more healthful than those high in simple carbs, there are notable exceptions. Potato chips pack complex carbs but come with lots of fat and salt. Fruits, on the other hand, are high in simple carbs and loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber. The bottom line: The best carbs for your body are found in fruits, vegetables, legumes (like peas and beans) and whole grains (like brown rice and whole-wheat bread and pasta).