Imagine you live in a home that is heated by a wood stove. Now imagine there is a pile of newspapers, a pile of twigs and a pile of logs near the stove.
You wake up early in the morning and it is very cold. You look over at the heavy logs and think to yourself “too much work”, so you build a fire out of newspapers and twigs.
The fire roars, the heat spreads and fills the room and you sit back basking in the heat. However, the fire is very short-lived, it burns out within a few minutes and you find yourself “feeding” it again.
Still too lazy to put a log on the fire, you again burn twigs and newspapers. You repeat this process over and over until all the newspapers and twigs are gone.
Now you have no choice, you go over to the pile of logs, select one and place it in the stove. However, it is very hard to ignite since you no longer have any kindling to start it. The log just sits in the stove. You sit in the cold, thinking that maybe you should have burned the log sooner.
Many people make this mistake when it comes to eating. Far too many people start their day with toast (or muffins or bagels or a dough nut), juice, fruit and cereal. These items may be whole, grain, gluten free, organic et., but they are all carbohydrates. Carbohydrates burn very rapidly especially when eaten without any other type of food. These people suffer from rising and falling blood sugars. This situation can lead to fatigue, emotional disturbances (like anxiety or depression), difficulty concentrating and many other symptoms.
Therefore, it is very important to “put a log on the metabolic fire” at every meal. What is the “metabolic log”? Protein and fat are the metabolic logs of your diet. They are slow burning fuels. They will smooth out the roller coaster ride of rising and crashing blood sugars that a person eating a high carbohydrate diet experiences.
