A recent study found that half of women experience feelings of guilt every time they consume carbs but stressed that not all carbs are bad.
The study which involved 3,000 people showed that many believe removing carbohydrates from their diet is an effective weight to get rid of unwanted pounds. Jane Ogden, professor in health psychology at the University of Surrey and author of the new study said this mindset is quite dangerous because carbohydrates are an essential part of everyone's diet. "If they realize that carbohydrates have an essential part in their diets, not only for energy but also for building long-term sustainable eating habits, then carbohydrates can resume their place as a central part of how they eat."
Professor Ogden suggests that rather than cutting out all carbohydrates, people should try to steer away from sugary or 'bad carbs'. She stresses that another problem with eliminating carbohydrates from a person's diet is the fact that doing so can may them hungrier. As a result, people are encouraged to snack on fatty, sugary foods. This then results to an unhealthy vicious cycle.
It was also revealed in the study that women are twice as likely as men to feel guilty about their carbohydrate consumption despite the fact that they are less likely to become overweight. One in every ten women say they constantly feel bad about their carb consumption while a quarter said they try to avoid eating them during the week so they can indulge on weekends. The study also confirmed that most people do not know just how much carbohydrates they actually consume on a daily basis.
At present, the government recommends that about half of a person's daily calorie intake should consist of carbohydrates but most of the people surveyed underestimated the amount of food that would amount to.
