Carbohydrates aren't all good or all bad. Some kinds promote health while others, when eaten often and in large quantities, may increase risk for diabetes and coronary heart disease.

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates come from a wide array of foods - bread, fruit, vegetables, rice, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, corn, and cherry pie. They also come in a variety of forms. The most common and abundant ones are sugars, fibers, and starches. The basic building blocks of all carbohydrates are sugar molecules.

The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much same way - it breaks them down (or tries to break them down) into single sugar molecules, since only these are small enough to absorb into bloodstream. It also converts most digestible carbohydrates into glucose (also known as blood sugar), because cells are designed to use this as a universal energy source. This is why carbohydrates can make us feel energetic. Carbohydrates fuel our body. Your body stores glucose reserves in muscles in form of glycogen ready to be used when we exert ourselves.

Carbohydrates are highest octane - most desirable fuel source for your body's energy requirements. If you don't have an adequate source of carbohydrate your body may scavenge from dietary protein and fat to supply glucose. The problem is when you've depleted your stores of glycogen (stored glucose in muscle and lean tissue) your body turns to burning muscles or organs (lean muscle tissue) and dietary protein or fat to provide blood glucose to supply energy needs. When this happens, your basal metabolic rate drops because you have less lean muscle tissue burning calories and your body thinks its starving and cuts back on energy requirements.

So you should continue to eat carbohydrates discriminately selecting those which have greatest health benefits.

According to Dr David Heber in "The LA Shape Diet", women who are on a weight loss program need about 100 grams of protein per day to fight against hunger and to build their best personal lean muscle shape whilst still losing weight. Without appropriate level of protein in a low calorie diet, people and women in particular, risk losing 1 pound of muscle for every 4 pounds of weight lost! This potential muscle loss can be very dangerous as it can cause a weakening of heart and other vital organs.

Dr Heber recommends soy-protein shakes or soy-protein fruit smoothies as a safe and healthy way to achieve fast and permanent weight loss. Apart from some absolutely wonderful health advantages, soy is a safe protein source - without unwanted cholesterol and saturated fats that accompany animal protein sources. Soy will support and does not sabotage a low calorie weight loss program.

Read on to discover some other wonderful health benefits of this incredible this food source.

1. Soy contains health enhancing isoflavones. Isoflavones are compounds found only in plants which have strong antioxidant properties. These compounds repair, and help prevent damage to cells caused by pollution, sunlight, and normal body processes. Free radicals can easily cause harm to immune system, whose cells divide often. They may also be responsible for some of changes of aging.