Americans have been sold a bill of goods about which carbohydrates to eat and which to avoid. Our focus on meat and potatoes, dairy products, refined carbohydrates, and sugar addiction has made us the leaders in cancer, stroke, and heart problems. We can also lay claim to being the most overweight nation on the globe.
Whenever sugar increases insulin levels in the body, fats are also stored. This leads to obesity, even though caloric intake may not necessarily be excessive. A rice cake has about 45 calories and 0 grams of fat. Yet this dietary mainstay of millions of American women can make you fat. Rice cakes are quickly converted to sugar, because puffed rice has a very high glycemic index, making it pro-inflammatory. Eating a rice cake will generate the insulin response that causes us to store rather than burn fat.
Are the carbohydrates you’re eating helping or hurting your weight loss goals?
Oh thank goodness, I’ve been saying this to my clients for years (I’m a nutritionist) and they look at me like I’m crazy. They are a dieter’s disaster – they taste horrible and accelerate fat storage. Why would anyone eat them? The same goes for popcorn with or without butter.
I have an very overweight friend who snacks on air popped popcorn…. and she wonders why she can’t lose weight! Junk in disguise.
But what about unsalted wholegrain organic rice cakes?
I always avoided rice cakes because of this, but my personal trainer has recently been urging me to eat more complex carbohydrates–especially as snacks. So I’ll eat a wholegrain thin rice cake (21 calories) with a bit of omega seed spread (a product from the Food Doctor here in the UK: it’s a combination of sunflower, linseed, flaxseed, etc ground into a chunky butter. Tastes too much like sunflower seeds for me to love it, but is high in essential fatty acids so I’m getting used to the taste).
I prefer these as I find that oat biscuits, despite having a lower GI, actually make me feel hungrier and drive me to eat more.
Rice cakes have a high glycemic index. If you do eat them, make sure you have a healthy fat to slow down the rise in blood sugar. Best to have complex carbohydrates from vegetable sources or quinoa which also has protein.