 Good Carbs Bad Carbs
How many times have you heard this?: "Carbs are bad!" Really? Both broccoli and coca cola are bad? Pasta is bad but whole wheat bread is ok? This current trendy diet cheer is the latest in a line of short claims without substance or science.
Remember These?
'Fat is bad! It makes you fat!'
How about 'Low Fat!'
Oh, 'Margarine is better than butter.' Really?
'Sugar Free'...eat all you want!
'Fat-Free' ..but loaded with sugar.
Now we have: 'Gluten-free', 'Lowers Cholesterol', and 'No Trans Fats' hitting the parade. All of these short quips on how to eat are pretty much worthless, short-lived, AND obviously making us fatter.
The Hypocrisy runs rampant. You're told to eat grains for fiber, but at the same time keep your blood sugar low, when they do just the opposite. You're told to limit your fat intake, but salad dressings, baked goods, and grain-fed meats are all loaded with horrible inflammatory vegetable oils. You're told foods with sugar-free substitutes are fine but many times they're still loaded with rapid-digestible carbohydrates. You're told fruit is great, but it too is loaded with sugars, and excess fructose can get converted to VLDL cholesterol.
How confused are you now?
It is a given that the Standard American Diet is inundated with cheap refined easily digestible carbohydrates but remember, food companies and marketing departments should not be in charge of your health. You do have a choice so lets take a look at the facts.
The Lowdown on Macronutrients
So there are three: Protein, Fat, and Carbohydrates. Protein and Fat are essential, Carbohydrates, not so much. The human body has no requirements for carbohydrates folks, (tell that to your doctor or dietician), but we eat them for vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and fiber. SO, if your Carb does not contain the above 4 elements, why eat them?....don't eat them. And, without a degree in Biochemistry, you probably figured out that vegetables and fruit fit the bill, the others, like grains, starches, and sugars do not.
The Short List
Good Carbs: Vegetables & and a little Fruit
Bad Carbs: Grains, which includes all wheat products: (bread, pasta, etc.) and corn, barley, oats, rye, rice.
Sugar in the Blood
It is important to realize that all carbohydrates get converted to glucose. Fructose, the sugar from fruit, (or the infamous high fructose corn syrup), goes to the liver first and gets repackaged. Some glucose for energy or storage for energy isn't bad. Too much too often, or continual inundation of blood sugar inducing foods, you've got a problem. Something else to consider is how rapidly the Carb hits the bloodstream: is it packaged in a sugary drink like coca cola or with fiber, vitamins, enzymes, and minerals like broccoli?
Houston, We Have a Problem
How bad is too much blood sugar swimming around your veins?
What if liver and muscle stores of glycogen are full?
Where does the excess glucose go?
What is the effect of too much Insulin production?
Robb Wolf in his book The Paleo Solution describes these problems as a chain of events:
Defcon 1: Leptin Resistance: you never get full, remain hungry, and crave more. Brain chemistry is altered.
Defcon 2: Insulin Resistance: blood glucose levels drive higher because your muscle tissue and liver lose the ability to sense and respond. (Diabetes)
Defcon 3: Glucose gets converted to fats and cholesterol at such a high rate that it cannot escape into circulation and you get a Fatty Liver.
The China Syndrome/Full System Meltdown:
Muscle tissue breakdown, record fat cell growth, excess cortisol, AGE's. The stage is now set for disease: obesity, diabetes, accelerated aging, cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's.
All of this from eating too many carbohydrates. You've been told a bagel with cream cheese or some cereal for breakfast is ideal. A trip to Subway for a sandwich on whole wheat bread with some chips for lunch will trim you down like Jared. And since the Mediterranean diet is awesome, a dish of whole wheat pasta with a little bread for dinner is the way to go. But despite the little bit of protein you may have eaten, over 70% of your daily meals were Carbohydrates and now you know the story.
Always strive for 'The Six':
1) Wild, Pastures, Grass-Fed Meats
2) Vegetables
3) Fruit
4) Eggs
5) Nut & Seeds
6) Healthy Oils
Knowing the facts about what raises blood sugar, avoiding sugary-addictive products that alter brain chemistry, and which Carbs are seemingly healthy but are not, is truly taking control of your fountain of youth.
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