Why is it that a candy bar gives you a fast spurt of energy during a vigorous sprint, but shortly after eating it, you experience a dramatic drop in your energy level and you feel more fatigued than before you ate the candy bar?
And why isit that a fitness coach will counsel you to eat a banana or a baked sweet potato just prior to engaging in sustained vigorous exercise? Is it because these foods give you a longer lasting supply of energy?
The answer is simple: it's a matter of supply and demand. We might use the analogy of the difference between a short torrential rainfall and a long steady rainfall upon dry soil. When we receive too much all at once (as in a downpour), the excess runs off; and the soil benefits much less than when the rain comes down in a steady, soaking drench. The same amount of rain has two entirely different effects. One goes a long way to enhance the land, the other too brief to make much difference over time.
When you eat a candy bar, you are giving your body a spike of energy that is more thanit can manage to use effectively at the time. When you eat the low glycemic food,such as a banana or a baked sweet potato, you are giving your body a source of energy that paces its release more slowly to suit the demand or use the body will have for it.
Understanding how the body produces and uses energy will shed some light on an important factor of energy supply and demand. With energy, we can more easily pursue and achieve some of the major goals of exercise--muscle tone, strength, and endurance. Without energy, we collapse into that armed chair and settle for lifting the remote, rather lifting weights or walking on the "dread" mill. You may notice that it can even effect your sunny disposition---and can turn it into a cloudy day! Here's why:
Glucose is the body's main source of energy. Carbohydrates are broken down by our body metabolism to provide that glucose. Simple carbohydrates such as refined sugars and those high glycemic candy bars, break down more easily and therefore, on average, more quickly. So, when you eat high glycemic foods your body is getting a flood of glucose in short period of time. That produces a spike in your blood sugar. What goes up quickly also comes down quickly leaving you listless and fatigued and ravenous for more food. Constant ups and downs take their toll on various bodily systems. We have spoken more about this in previous reports.
Complex carbohydrates, such as those found in a slightly green banana (Glycemic Index score of 42, glycoload of 10) or a baked sweet potato (Glycemic Index score of46, glycoload of 7), take longer to break down. They therefore supply the body with a longer lasting storehouse of energy.
So, sugar,in itself, is not bad--we need the energy that sugar contains. It's only excess sugar, consumed in unhelpful forms such as corn syrup and white sugar that prove harmful over time.
Our bodies have so many interconnected wonderfully marvelous systems. When we increase our knowledge, we improve our ability to be a partner in the universes' grand design for healthy living Now, that's sweet!
