The hard truth of diet and nutrition part 2.2 - Carbohydrates!! Firstly my sincerest apologies at how long its taken to get this article out in the series but I hope you find it interesting, helpful and "enjoyable", without further ado, here we go! CARBOHYDRATES NOT PUBLIC ENEMY NO 1. Let’s be honest here, Carbs have gotten a horrible rep, particularly in the “dieting” community recently. Particularly if one looks at so many modern carb “free” diets, and diets proclaiming the damnation of all grains, breads, potatoes, sugars, fruits and you name it. Are the weight loss benefits of low carb dieting unfounded? No not at all there is a very, very clear and obvious loss of weight associated with low or no carb intake eating methods. Does this mean it’s healthy not to eat carbs? Absolutely NOT. Carbs are a very necessary part of proper human functioning, particularly if one is active or trying to build muscle. What must be controlled is the amount and to a certain degree the type of carb we consume. WHAT IS A CARBOHYDRATE?? *Sciencey stuff warning* Carbohydrates are chemical compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. A biochemical synonym is the term saccharide (also known as …. Sugar!! Cool huh? ;) ). Within this definition we have various types of saccharides, we have monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. To a large degree it’s these saccharide compound combinations and structuring that determine if a carb is simple or complex *end of sciencey stuff for now* For our purposes we have two types of carbohydrates: simple and complex. Generally (and please bear in mind this isn’t always the case, simple carbs are digested or metabolized very rapidly and used for energy while complex carbs are metabolized more slowly. What do I mean by this? I mean simple carbs (generally) will spike blood sugar quickly while complex carbs will cause a more gradual elevation of blood sugars. This is known as the glycemic index (or GI of foods … see this is where it comes from). From a GI perspective Low GI foods cause a gradual slow rise in blood sugar and High GI will cause a rapid spike up. Which of these is good or bad is very much contextual but as a rule of thumb for body transformation purposes, try keep carbohydrates as generally Low GI as possible. (I will do a separate article on high and low gi foods if there is a demand for it). It must be noted that no carbohydrate is an essential nutrient in humans. Carbohydrates are not essential for the synthesis of other molecules. Humans are able to obtain 100% of their energy requirement from protein and fats. Where carbs excel as an energy source is in their speed of digestion, Carbohydrates contain 4kcal (4 calories) of energy just like protein but are by far the fastest digesting nutrient meaning food is very rapidly turned to energy. SO THEN WHY HAVE CARBS BECOME A PROBLEM? Carbs have basically got a bad rap through modern over processing and abundance of food. Because carbs tend to be easier and cheaper to process and refine than the other food groups they are laid out copiously and consumed with fervor by the populace. They also happen to be delicious and eye catching, think burgers, pizza’s, biscuits, sweets, chocolates, cakes, ice creams and the list goes on and on. Because of the relative availability and density of these types of foods we tend to eat far too many carbs and specifically far too many over refined high gi carbs leading to never before seen levels of obesity and obesity related diseases in the populace. This becomes a problem because (particularly a lot of people in western societies) when this type of diet is followed one tends to become hyperinsulinemic. Which is basically a fancy was of saying there is too much insulin (or blood sugar) in our blood. Now forgive my lack of full on scientific explanation here but it’s more important to illustrate the point than write an academic textbook right now. Basically the situation is this, you have two hormones which work together but opposite each other in the metabolizing of carbs and fats, these are insulin and glucagon. Now, insulin is a storage hormone, so what happens is when you eat that delicious high gi treat insulin is released to quickly shuttle and store the energy from the food, the problem is if you don’t have an energy deficiency (for example from a workout which drains the glycogen in your muscles) the insulin wont store the ingested carbs as glycogen in the muscle it will store the energy as fat to use at a later stage. Glucagon on the other hand is a mobilizing hormone, with glucagon if there is an energy demand but no incoming food (particularly sugar or high gi carb for immediate energy) glucagon will break down stored fat to release as sugar in the bloodstream to replenish stored energy (glycogen) used in the muscles during exercise. *I really hope this is making sense* So now the situation when one is hyperinsulinemic and we have a constant release of insulin in the body is that the body is constantly in storage mode and never in “fat burning” or fat breakdown mode, leading to a greatly exaggerated fat storage and obesity. 10 DAY RESET The reasoning behind the 10 day ketogenic reset in the 180 program is exactly this, to reprogram your metabolism but shifting the bodies high blood sugar/hyperinsulinemic state to one in which glucagon is released to burn fat for energy (cool huh?) this is exactly why it work s so well (its also why there are excellent short term / immediate results with diets like the dukan diet and the paleo way of eating which involves very few high gi carbs ) the problem with these types of diets over the long term are their extremeness and sustainability. INSULIN SPIKING There are times when it is beneficial to spike your insulin for storage. The best times for this are pre and post workout when your muscles use and burn energy. Particularly in the post workout phase when your muscles are depleted, carb intake to spike your insulin is highly beneficial to shuttle nutrients to the exhausted muscles and help store nutrients for them to grow (carb intake also aids in post workout protein synthesis of muscles but only by about 5% but hey we are looking for optimization right?) WHERE DO I GET MY CARBS? As discussed earlier all types of sugars are carbs, however these are high gi highly refined carb sources. When choosing a healthy carb try look for foods as close to their natural state as possible such as: Fruits Vegetables Beans/Legumes Nuts Certain cereal grains (e.g. Rice, Oats and Quinoa) Potatoes Sweet Potatoes Dairy Try as best as possible to avoid highly processed carbs such as: Breads Cakes Sweets Chocolates Pastas Sugary Cereals I hope this introduction has been informative, I realize there are many advanced concepts introduced here which could each have their own articles but hey it’s a start;) Let me know any questions you have in the comments section and we can all learn together. Keep Moving, Keep Fit, Keep Healthy Peace and Love
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 19:10:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015