Confused About Carbohydrates?

As a Certified Nutritionist, I take a moderate road concerning dietary recommendations. With regards to carbohydrates, the two dietary cultures that support the longest lived populations – Okinawan and Mediterranean – eat plenty of carbohydrates. For that reason, I support the inclusion of ample, healthy carbohydrates in a balanced diet for most people.

I’m biased, though. I admit that I have more than a professional opinion when it comes to questions about carbohydrates.

My mother was a short person - 4’11" - and later in life she tended to gain weight easily. She was not happy with this situation and, in her attempts to correct it, she adopted the Atkins diet and eliminated all types of grains and most high carb vegetables from her diet. This worked and she kept slim for many years eating this way.

I was opposed to what seemed to me a very unbalanced diet. But she had her own ideas and got the result she was looking for. When my mother was 62, she died of breast cancer.She had a lot of other risk factors as she was a smoker all of her life and she worked the night shift in a hospital for many years so I can’t fault the Atkins diet.

And professionally, I can’t say that it had anything to do with her untimely death. But emotionally, whenever someone proclaims the benefits of a low or no carbohydrate diet, I have to admit that I "feel" red flags all over the place.

I think the best approach to the "lots of carbs, low carb, no carb" question is to understand the importance of including ample carbodhydrates in your diet and learn to make good carbohydrate choices.

Understanding Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are needed to maintain a healthy brain and body. Carbohydrates are used by your body to maintain a minimum level of glucose in the blood. Glucose is used as the main source of fuel for the brain and central nervous system. The brain uses the most energy of any system in the body (as much as half of your energy requirement goes to your brain) and the only source of energy for the brain is glucose.

If you are not eating sufficient amounts of carbohydrates, the brain has to pull fuel from glycogen storage in the liver or the liver begins to synthesize glucose from non-carbohydrate stores - including muscle tissue. These are limited stores and are depleted quickly. If the brain does not get enough fuel in the form of glucose from carbohydrate metabolism, it negatively affects your mood and energy. You can get tired, crabby, dizzy, incoherent, lack coordination, attention and focus, and generally, you’ll feel bad.

No carbohydrate and low carbohydrate diets also result in other unhealthy reactions in the body:

The optimal level of carbohydrates in the diet should be as high as 65% of total daily calories or a more moderate 45% of energy. Anything between can meet daily energy and nutritional needs of the body while minimizing the risk for chronic disease. Both high and moderate levels of carbohydrate intakes are commensurate with good health.

An average person of average weight and height with average appetite and energy requirements will need to eat 225-275 grams of carbohydrates per day.

Bad carbohydrates

However, eating the wrong kind of carbohydrates can result in out of control glucose and insulin levels in the body.

Insulin is a hormone that is needed for carbohydrate metabolism as it helps regulate the glucose levels in the body. Insulin plays a part in how you metabolize food, helps determine how much fat or carbohydrate you burn for energy and how much fat you store in the body. Insulin and /or glucose levels that are too high are related to several chronic disease conditions such as increased heart disease, hypertension and obesity.

The Glycemic Index is a nutritional concept that helps sort out the misinformation about the pros and cons of carbohydrates. It is a comparative guide to the rise in insulin levels that occurs after eating carbohydrates. Low to moderate glycemic index carbs produce a small but steady rise in insulin levels (healthy) as opposed to high glycemic index carbs which produce a large and rapid rise in insulin levels (unhealthy).

Low to moderate glycemic index carbohydrates provide slow release of energy that helps to supply continuous fuel for the body and brain and for the working muscles. Their slow rate of digestion and absorption put less stress on the insulin producing cells in the pancreas.

It is hard to tell the glycemic effect of a carbohydrate without consulting a reputable resource. I favor The New Glucose Revolution

Healthy carbohydrate consumption