Carbohydrates: Hello, Old Friend
Anyone who lived through the 90’s knows of diet culture's ultimate evil: fat. Fast forward 10? 15? 20? years and we find the new culprit: carbs. Enter the Atkins, Paleo, and Keto diets, and the list goes on. And because research shows time and time again that diets and weight loss are not sustainable except for a single digit percentage of the population, diet culture must reveal more of its tricks, history repeating itself, until we are made to believe we have somehow failed the program.
Elimination or some form of restriction of carbohydrates is one of those tricks. It is true that if you attempt to cut out carbs for a period of time you may notice weight loss. This is because carbohydrates are a water-attracting compound, so the losses are primarily water. After a period of time, the body adjusts and is less effective at releasing weight. This makes sense as our body was designed to resist weight loss due to its primal design for survival. This is when we become captivated with looking for more restrictive methods or “blow” the diet and have a field day with foods we previously swore off.
Carbohydrates are our body's number one preferred fuel source. The brain requires a certain amount of grams per day just to sustain vital function. Carbohydrates are utilized in a wealth of chemical processes in the body, including the production of serotonin (your feel-good neurotransmitter). Anyone remember feeling crankier when eliminating carbs? Your body also needs consistent amounts of carbs throughout the day to sustain all those chemical processes and energy levels. Carbs are metabolized, or broken down, into glucose, which is then used as the energy source to sustain all of our daily tasks.
We recommend consuming glucose consistently throughout the day, generally a source of carbs every 2-3 hrs as part of a balanced meal or snack (meals or snacks that include a combination or variety of protein, fat, and fiber in addition to carbs). Some may wonder why we can’t just get our energy from protein or fat, and while it’s true that your body can convert protein and fat to glucose, this is an energy taxing process as your body is attempting to conserve precious resources. Forcing your body to run off protein and fat is not how our metabolic process was designed and will prove unsustainable for most.
Photo courtesy of Nicole Groman Nutrition
Lastly, let’s talk about what glucose is in layman's terms - sugar! Yep, that demonized “S” word. There are different types of carbohydrates, coming from multiple glucose “sugar” chains, and they all break down into identical glucose molecules, being used as identical fuel for the body processes. So we can leave the fear mongering of sugar behind, because all carbohydrates, at the chemical level, are sugar (glucose). Of course sources of carbohydrate will differ in their nutrient density (how many vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. is included in addition to glucose) but the important thing to remember is that, at the chemical level, all glucose is used the same - your body doesn’t discriminate glucose based on what source they come from! And neither do we need to discriminate or fear carbohydrates by giving in to the diet mentality, but instead enjoy them and appreciate the way they fuel our bodies!
