Carbs: Simple or More Complex Than You Thought?
Hello and welcome! I wanted this months’ blog post to be all about carbohydrates and their function within our bodies. For decades, carbohydrates have been getting a bad rap and I want to try to tackle the negative stigma behind them and explain why we should not be afraid to include them in our diets.
Even at a young age, I was told that I needed to stay away from carbs. This “knowledge”was obtained mainly through television commercials and magazines. However, it wasn’t until I started school at Palmer College of Chiropractic and took nutrition courses, that I really started to focus on my diet. I downloaded a fitness program app that helps track macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) to see what my body works better with: fats or carbs. Turns out, I consistently went over my carbohydrate goal and never quite hit my fats’ goal on a day-to-day basis. What does that mean? Nothing! Just that my body works on a different ratio of carbs and fats than other peoples’ bodies might. The app that I use to track my macros is called 1stphorm that has a monthly payment, but there is a free app called Cronometer that will track the nutrition of a food or meal as well. Once, I experimented and changed up my carb intake by going one week with eating barely any carbs to another week with the amount I should be eating for my fitness goals. The week I went with hardly eating carbs was the longest week of my life. I was sluggish, it was hard to think clearly, I didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning, I was dragging my feet during workouts and felt as though I didn’t have anything left in the tank. On the contrary, the week that I ate my goal number of carbs I felt alert, my brain didn’t feel as foggy, my workouts were better, and I had increased energy. I weighed myself weekly when doing that experiment and granted, I was down a few more pounds when I was cutting than I was when eating carbs, but how I felt was not worth it in my eyes.
Where things get tricky is the advertising that diet companies and influencers love to promote. For example: “everyone loses weight doing this or by taking that so try/buy this!”. The bottom line is everyone is different. No two bodies are built the same and no two bodies will respond the same way to a diet, a supplement, or even a workout. That is the beauty of the human race. But why, then, are carbohydrates the consistent bad guy among fad diets? I personally believe it’s because you will see a shift in your weight quicker after cutting carbs than you would eating them. However, that quick shift in weight is mainly due to losing water weight and those results quickly plateau. Cutting carbs provides instant gratification, which tends to be more motivating than utilizing weight loss techniques that provide slow, sustainable changes over time.
Carbohydrates are a form of starch or glucose (sugar) that is almost immediately available as energy for the body. Are all carbohydrates created equal? No, they are not! There are two types of carbohydrates to be aware of: simple vs. complex. Simple carbs are the processed, refined or added sugars that are found in snacks, candy, sodas, syrups, desserts, etc. This type of carb results in short bursts of energy and then the inevitable sugar crash, according to the American Heart Association. This type of carb is what diet culture is talking about when they tell us to stay away from carbs due to the limited nutritional value. Also known as our “empty calories”, simple carbs have little nutritional value and leave us feeling hungry within an hour, resulting in more eating and snacking.
On the other hand, there are complex carbs that do have nutritional value, do keep us feeling full longer, and are required for normal body functions. You can find this kind of carbohydrate in fruit, whole grain bread, quinoa, whole grain or chickpea pasta, oatmeal, beans, and starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, beets, and butternut squash (behavioral nutrition). Complex carbs help maintain healthy gut bacteria which is important for allowing essential hormones and neurotransmitters to be created. As you may know, hormones and neurotransmitters are responsible for our moods and more than half of those are created in our gut. So, eating the carbs that will help promote healthy gut bacteria plays a role in our mental health. This communication in the body is known as the gut-brain connection. To ensure that the gut-brain connection can operate optimally and efficiently, getting adjusted and clearing any potential interferences within the central nervous system (CNS) will be imperative. We need that clear pathway within our CNS to send the correct signals from the brain to the body, and from the body to the brain.
Once we break down the carbs into sugar, the sugar will travel through our blood stream making our blood sugar levels rise. When our sugar levels rise, our pancreas gets the signal to start releasing insulin into our body to help take the sugar from the blood and move it into cells to store for later use. Unfortunately, this process doesn’t always work due to either insulin resistant cells or trouble with the pancreas resulting in a different number of health issues. For example, hypoglycemia is a result of too much insulin being released and not leaving enough sugar in the blood, causing us to feel shaky, look pale, sweating, fatigue, lightheadedness/dizziness, and tingling/numbness of the lips, tongue, or cheeks. However, hyperglycemia is a result of not enough insulin being released and leaving too much sugar in the blood. Early signs of hyperglycemia are frequent urination, increased thirst, blurred vision, and feeling weak and unusually tired. Later symptoms are dry mouth, fruity-smelling breath, abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, confusion, shortness of breath, or loss of consciousness.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that you are born with, that attacks insulin producing cells for unknown reasons. This results in the body not having any method to bring down blood sugar after eating. Type 2 diabetes is known as the ‘acquired’ type that you can develop later in life. Type 2 is the one that can occur if hyperglycemia isn’t monitored or goes unchecked as stated above. The last type is type 3 diabetes, which happens from chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) damaging the insulin cells we do create and again not having enough to bring down blood sugar. Blood sugar is serious business and reading this can make a person never want to eat carbs again. A great way to manage health problems such as these is through movement! Movement helps our bodies be more sensitive to insulin and respond appropriately when it’s released. Physical activity will also aid in controlling our blood sugar levels and lowering the risk of heart disease and nerve damage as well as diabetes. Any movement that will get you off the couch and on your feet is helpful! It can be as simple as going for a 30-minute walk, gardening, running, biking, swimming, or lifting weights at the gym.
Does this mean you can’t eat anything unhealthy ever? Another good question with another answer of no! Moderation is key when it comes to balancing our diets. Eating a cookie after dinner or a bowl of ice cream is perfectly okay. However, if you find yourself consuming an entire tray of cookies or an entire tub of ice cream, that is where you will run into trouble with your health. We are complex creatures and if we restrict ourselves for too long from too many things we enjoy, it can lead us to binge the foods we restricted ourselves from. Which in turn, can potentially result in an eating disorder known as binge-eating disorder. Binge-eating is when a person consumes unusually large amounts of food in a short period of time and feel like they can’t stop themselves.
To sum up, carbohydrates are required for your body to run correctly, and it is the right kind of carbs that will help us remain healthy. Moderation is going to be the thing that helps maintain any health journey and lifestyle change. If you have any questions about any of the information in this blog, please call for a consultation or ask at your next appointment.
ADIO
Dr. Natalie Flaim
Resources:
https://behavioralnutrition.org/healthy-eating-with-carbohydrates/
https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/carbohydrates