Good Carbs and Bad Carbs

 
 

"Carb" has become a bad word today. People try to avoid "carbs" because they think carbs are harmful. It is true, there are many detrimental effects of carbs. However, we cannot completely eliminate them from our diet and expect to remain healthy. It is important, then, to understand the difference between carbs that are harmful (bad carbs) and carbs that promote healthy cellular function (good carbs).

 
 

It also helps when we can boil this down to a simple way to eat that emphasizes the good carbs.

 
 

Before we get into that, however, let's understand a little bit about how carbs, or sugars, affect our physiology.

 
 

How carbs affect the body

  
 

When carbs are ingested, in whatever form, they are broken down into glucose for use by the cells. As blood glucose levels rise, the brain tells the pancreas to secrete insulin. When cells receive this insulin via the bloodstream, they know it is time to ingest the sugar. Without the insulin, the cells would have no way to detect the sugar, and it would just stay in the bloodstream.

 
 

This is a prime example of how intricate our bodies are, that cells are constantly communicating with each other, and one of the primary ways they communicate is via hormones.

 
 

The important thing to keep in mind here is that insulin is a hormone. And, just like any other hormone, it has powerful effects. And, because all cells require glucose, it affects cellular growth, division, and metabolism in EVERY SINGLE TYPE OF CELL in the body. This means it affects immune cells, reproductive cells, muscle cells, brain cells, bone cells, you name it.

 
 

And, an excess of ANY hormone always causes imbalance. I could go into a laundry list of the imbalances caused by excess insulin, but that would take forever. Two of the most important, and ones that get the point across are that insulin causes are:

 
 

1. Increased activity of the stress / adrenal system.

2. Increased blood pressure (to get as much blood to the extremities as possible so those cells can ingest the sugar).

 
 

Neither of these effects, over the long term, are beneficial. Chronic stress is a proven source of cardiovascular disease, cancer, mood disorders, fatigue, autoimmune issues, and other problems. High blood pressure, over the long term, can cause significant damage to the brain, heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys.

 
 

None of this information is meant to scare you, I just want you to be informed about what insulin does. Now that you know something about it, you can do something about it.

 
 

The real problem

 
 

We discussed carbs earlier. A carb, or carbohydrate, is a form of sugar. Some are complex, others are simple. Complex carbs take the body longer to break down into glucose. So, the sugar is released slowly over time. Simple carbs are immediately absorbed into the bloodstream and quickly broken down into glucose, so the sugar is rapidly available to the cells.

 
 

Processed foods like flour, bread, and white sugar are LOADED with simple sugars. In fact, these concentrations of sugar are found nowhere else in nature. When we consume these highly concentrated simple sugars, our bodies respond by secreting extremely large amounts of insulin.

 
 

So, the problem isn't really the sugar itself. After all, we need sugar and it is very beneficial and useful to our cells. The problem is insulin overdose, just like it would be a problem if you took too much estrogen, testosterone, or thyroid hormone. Over the long term, this excess insulin leads to chronic stress, obesity (due to growth of fat cells), heart disease, reproductive disorders, low libido (due to insulin's indirect effects on estrogen and testosterone), and other undesirable situations.

 
 

The solution

 
 

Now that we know that the problem is really insulin, and not sugar, all we have to do is consume less of the sugars that cause oversecretion of insulin. This, coupled with an increase in fiber (which slows down the absorption of sugar even more), helps prevent spikes in insulin, preventing ourselves from overdosing on our own insulin.

 
 

Other things that help are increasing the amount of protein we eat, and drinking more water. Protein does can be converted into sugar, but it takes a long time to do this, and it takes energy to do it. Your body will burn fat to supply this energy. Reduction in body fat ALSO reduces the amount of insulin in the blood between meals. Drinking water ensures that your body has the fluids it needs to detoxify the insulin when it is finished using it.

 
 

Food for thought...

 
 

Another interesting phenomenon is that sweet sugars, such as sucrose and fructose, actually elicit the release of endorphins, or pleasure hormones. This, I believe, is a genetically programmed response to make us like sugar because it is so essential.

 
 

Ten thousand years ago, this programming was beneficial because it allowed us to easily gravitate towards the foods that would provide us with the most energy. Berries, fruits, and other foods in the wild were precious resources that did not keep for long and hence we needed to eat them as they were available.

 
 

With modern technology like refrigeration, and modern processing techniques that produce things like flour, white sugar, and bread, that genetic programming has become a problem. And, this is where our "sugar addiction" starts to become a serious problem, as we continually overdose ourselves on insulin and end up with problems down the road.