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[entremet]

It seems that in many diet related threads, carbs are treated like poisons. I'm not talking about refined carbs like sugars, but stuff like rice and potatoes. Refined carbs deserve their bad reputation.

But starchy carbs are foods that fed civilizations and were consumed by many populations that remained lean and healthy. Think China pre modernization, where the common citizen ate more than 90 percent of calories from rice and obesity was rare.

I'm not anti low carb. I've used low carb style diets in the past to great success. And ketogenic diets can be amazing for mental clarity. I'm familiar with the work of Dom D'Agastino and his research with ketogenic diets.

I just don't get vilifying these foods that have powered the human species since the dawn of civilization.

They're also cheap, tasty, store for ages, and are very satisfying. Personally, I perform better on eating moderate about of whole grains, potatoes, sweet potatoes, legumes. When I did low carb, my gym sessions were harder to complete.

I do agree that fat plus carbs is a terrible combination for health. Think french fries, pizza, ice cream, etc. But high carb and low fat, the staple of many healthy regional diets, appears to be health promoting. The traditional Japanese diet is also high in starchy carbs--rice--and they remain slim.

Why the carbophobia?

 

[ViewtifulJC]

I think its just goes in phases. It used to be fats were the devil, until they came back around to "actually, fats can be good". I think the next trend is gonna be that protein is secretly killing everyone.

Personally, I eat a moderate amount of carbs/fats with higher than average protein, cuz I mean...there's no way I'm going the rest of my life without pasta or bread, b.

 

[entremet]

I think its just goes in phases. It used to be fats were the devil, until they came back around to "actually, fats can be good". I think the next trend is gonna be that protein is secretly killing everyone.

Personally, I eat a moderate amount of carbs/fats with higher than average protein, cuz I mean...there's no way I'm going the rest of my life without pasta or bread, b.

Neither am I.

I also find traditional low carb very expensive. Meat and colorful non starchy veggies aren't cheap.

Rice, potatoes, pasta, legumes as cheap AF.

 

[katsubento]

Lots of the wheat grown today here is not the same wheat grown in the past. It isn't poison, but it isn't that good either. Hence, the decline in people's health eating the same things.

Or something like that.

 

[AndrewPL]

Civilization in the past didn't have enough food to eat, not as much as we do today anyway, which is why it was a sign of wealth if you were fat.

There is also no way they had a high carb diet like it is popular these days. Look at any takeaway meal. It is 90% sugar and carbs because it tastes good and is incredibly cheap to produce.

There are corporations that made billions vilifying fat and creating the food pyramid.

 

[entremet]

Civilization in the past didn't have enough food to eat, not as much as we do today anyway, which is why it was a sign of wealth if you were fat.

There is also no way they had a high carb diet like it is popular these days. Look at any takeaway meal. It is 90% sugar and carbs because it tastes good and is incredibly cheap to produce.

There are corporations that made billions vilifying fat and creating the food pyramid.

What do you mean? Most humans were eating potatoes, wheat, barley, rice, corn, legumes, etc. We had animal foods, but those couldn't make the amount of calories we eat today.

This was before factory farming and fattening livestock took time. And those were mostly used for feasting. It wasn't an everyday affair. You think the average peasant was eating meat every meal?

 

[Morgan Blackhand]

Wheat will kill me so fuck wheat

 

[Makai]

Obesity was rare becaues 10s of millions of people were starving to death.

 

[entremet]

Obesity was rare becaues 10s of millions of people were starving to death.

Ok, what about modern Japan? China? Big starchy carb eaters. Still relatively slim, although gaining weigh on Western diets.

Also if we're talking about civilizations, those would not be possible without a sustainable population. Yes, there were famines, but we were able to sustain millions relatively long ago--2000 plus years ago.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

Think about it this way, there are three macro nutriets; carbs, fats, proteins, all three of which the body can use as a source of energy.

1. Proteins are important since they're needed to build and maintain muscle.
2. Fats are important because they promote satiety and are necessary for the absorption of certain vitamins.
3. Carbs are... less expensive?

So from a dieting perspective, you can do just fine on fats and proteins. And if you're trying to account for every calorie you consume, carbs are the ones you'll likely need to cut.

 

[Jonm1010]

What do you mean? Most humans were eating potatoes, wheat, barley, rice, corn, legumes, etc. We had animal foods, but those couldn't make the amount of calories we eat today.

This was before factory farming and fattening livestock took time. And those were mostly used for feasting. It wasn't an everyday affair. You think the average peasant was eating meat every meal?

Yes people ate lots of carbs. People were also more active generally and overall ate fewer calories.

In America, up until last century, food was one of the greatest expenses. I think it was a New Yorker piece that I first read about this. But basically farming was a disjointed thing. Yields were lower, supply was mismatched to market demands and there were no subsidies.

We basically set up a program where experts went around the country and maximized peoples farm lands by introducing new methods of farming to people and then began subsidizing things like corn. Slowly food went from being the main expense of a person to a fairly cheap expense.

Now you can basically get thousands of calories a day for less then 10 bucks. Not to mention we have loaded foods with sugars due to the fat scare a couple decades ago.

 

[entremet]

Think about it this way, there are three macro nutriets; carbs, fats, proteins, all three of which the body can use as a source of energy.

1. Proteins are important since they're needed to build and maintain muscle.
2. Fats are important because they promote satiety and are necessary for the absorption of certain vitamins.
3. Carbs are... less expensive?

So from a dieting perspective, you can do just fine on fats and proteins. And if you're trying to account for every calorie you consume, carbs are the ones you'll likely need to cut.

But fats are also calorie dense, so you can't go overboard on them when you're dieting. I don't think fats are too blame for heart disease, but you will get fat eating too many avocados and nuts.

Carbs also help refuel glycogen stores. Glucose is still the preferred energy source for the body and that is broken down from carbs.

Heck, it stars in mouths via salivary amylase, showing a huge evolutionary preference there.

 

[Korey]

A food's history has zero to do with its healthiness, so it's completely irrelevant.

I think its just goes in phases. It used to be fats were the devil, until they came back around to "actually, fats can be good". I think the next trend is gonna be that protein is secretly killing everyone.

Personally, I eat a moderate amount of carbs/fats with higher than average protein, cuz I mean...there's no way I'm going the rest of my life without pasta or bread, b.

It's not a phase. Carbs are why fat is stored in your body. It is literally the mechanic of why you get fat.

It's also the reason your blood sugar rises. It's basically toxic to your body but humans are able to deal with/tolerate an amount of it.

Guess what diabetics aren't supposed to eat? Carbs.

Sugar and carbs are the exact same thing. They are literally the same thing. Most people want to overlook this fact because all their favorite food staples contain carbs. So for some reason it's intuitive for them to avoid sugar but not carbs... Even though they are both equally toxic to your body.

 

[Noirulus]

Look up the Blood type diet, OP. Some people's bodies are much more responsive to carbs than others.

 

[entremet]

A food's history has zero to do with its healthiness, so it's completely irrelevant.



It's not a phase. Carbs are why fat is stored in your body. It's also the reason your blood sugar rises. It's basically toxic to your body but humans are able to deal with/tolerate an amount of it.

Guess what diabetics aren't supposed to eat? Carbs.

Sugar and carbs are the exact same thing. They are literally the same thing. Most people want to overlook this fact because all their favorite food staples contain carbs. So for some reason it's intuitive for them to avoid sugar but not carbs... Even though they are both equally toxic to your body.

You're talking about de novo lipogenesis--storing carbs as fat. It's actually not that common in humans. It's more common in other mammals, including lab mice and rats.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10365981

Why were Chinese peasant pre Nixon eating most of the calories from carbs slim?

Again, if low carb works for you. Great!

But it seems we're falling into another dogmatic trap on the other end.

 

[Jonm1010]

You're talking about de novo lipogenesis--storing carbs as fat. It's actually not that common in humans. It's more common in other mammals, including lab mice and rats.

Why were Chinese peasant pre Nixon eating most of the calories from carbs slim?

Honestly was this thread just made so you could argue your feelings on how you think the human body digests and stores food?

Frankly both of you are not sourcing your arguments and just making assertions. Though at least the guy you are responding to is presenting arguments that can be analyzed on their factual basis and seem to show a confidence in understanding.

You seem just as dogmatic as anyone you are accusing.

 

[entremet]

Honestly was this thread just made so you could argue your feelings on how you think the human body digests and stores food?

Frankly both of you are not sourcing your arguments and just making assertions.

You seem just as dogmatic as anyone you are accusing.

I said I'm fine low carb. I think they can work.

I'm trying to find the conclusive evidence that carbs are these evil things that many believe.

I never accused low carb diets of being ineffective.

 

[The Lamp]

To precisely answer your original question, starch is immediately broken into sugar in your body. So functionally, it's a lot like a refined/simple carb or sugar on its own. Amylase is the enzyme that snips up starches into sugars and its in your saliva so the process begins as soon as you eat a starch. Starch is listed on a nutrition label as a carb and not a sugar, but for all intents and purposes, it's basically a pile of sugar because of how quickly and readily your body breaks starch down into available sugars.

Sugar and carbs are the exact same thing. They are literally the same thing. Most people want to overlook this fact because all their favorite food staples contain carbs. So for some reason it's intuitive for them to avoid sugar but not carbs... Even though they are both equally toxic to your body.

They are neither chemically nor nutritionally the same thing. There are several types of sugar, and each is a type of carbohydrate, and since they have different atoms involved, they are not identical in their effects.

 

[SecretDan]

You're talking about de novo lipogenesis--storing carbs as fat. It's actually not that common in humans. It's more common in other mammals, including lab mice and rats.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10365981

Why were Chinese peasant pre Nixon eating most of the calories from carbs slim?

Again, if low carb works for you. Great!

But it seems we're falling into another dogmatic trap on the other end.

Slim doesn't mean healthy.

If I eat 1200 colories a day but it is all rice I am going to be slim.

 

[entremet]

To precisely answer your original question, starch is immediately broken into sugar in your body. So functionally, it's a lot like a refined/simple carb or sugar on its own. Amylase is the enzyme that snips up starches into sugars and its in your saliva so the process begins as soon as you eat a starch. Starch is listed on a nutrition label as a carb and not a sugar, but for all intents and purposes, it's basically a pile of sugar because of how quickly readily your body breaks starch down into available sugars.

I get that. But being broken down into glucose isn't a bad thing. That's our body's preferred fuel.

I'm trying to get the logic leap that says starchy carbs are unhealthy.

The Okinawan people, one of the longest lived people, eat a majority of their calories in sweet potatoes. They're not overweight in any significant margin.

But those sweet potatoes are getting broken down as glucose (sugar) as well.

 

[Meliora]

A food's history has zero to do with its healthiness, so it's completely irrelevant.



It's not a phase. Carbs are why fat is stored in your body. It's also the reason your blood sugar rises. It's basically toxic to your body but humans are able to deal with/tolerate an amount of it.

Guess what diabetics aren't supposed to eat? Carbs.

Sugar and carbs are the exact same thing. They are literally the same thing. Most people want to overlook this fact because all their favorite food staples contain carbs. So for some reason it's intuitive for them to avoid sugar but not carbs... Even though they are both equally toxic to your body.

You can absolutely eat carbs as type one diabetic, you just gotta cover it with insulin and plan ahead and it's not any worse for you than for a non-diabetic person. Getting the insulin dosage right can be a tricky with some types of carbs though, and the more refined the carbs are, the harder. Wich is why diabetics often will avoid sugar simply because it's hard to cover it with insulin. Eat sugar and your blood sugar will start rising after 10 minutes while your "fast" acting insulin is gonna start working in 20 and peak after 2 hours. Then of course, the sugar you ate is far gone and you will end up with low blood sugar. So more refined carbs = trickier to handle, but can be done. Carbs mixed with fibers or fat will not raise your blood sugar as fast and will match the insulin you inject better and is easier to handle.

Having unstable blood sugar levels is just as bad for non diabetics as it is for diabetics. Difference is that diabetics doesn't produce insulin themselves (type 1 diabetes) to deal with the carbs, so you gotta do it manually with injections and therefor it's more likely that their blood sugar wont be as stable. For type 2 diabetics it's a different story though, as their problem is that they are insulin resistant and/or not producing enough insulin.

 

[SecretDan]

I get that. But being broken down into glucose isn't a bad thing. That's our body's preferred fuel.

I'm trying to get the logic leap that says starchy carbs are unhealthy.

The Okinawan people, one of the longest lived people, eat a majority of their calories in sweet potatoes. They're not overweight in any significant margin.

But those sweet potatoes are getting broken down as glucose (sugar) as well.

Why do you keep using being slim as your evidence that carb based diet is healthy.

 

[The Lamp]

I get that. But being broken down into glucose isn't a bad thing. That's our body's preferred fuel.

I'm trying to get the logic leap that says starchy carbs are unhealthy.

The Okinawan people, one o the longest lived people, eat a majority of their calories in sweet potatoes. They're not overweight in any significant margin.

But those sweet potatoes are getting broken down as glucose (sugar) as well.

Nothing is as simple as bad/good.

Sugars spike your insulin response and can be metabolically damaging long term if you eat them too much and too often, and can cause weight gain. On another note, fructose is a sugar that is toxic to the body's metabolism because it doesn't process it very well. But it's not the same as glucose.

Genetics can also play a big factor. No one in my family is type 2 diabetic, we are all quite slim, and we have always eaten lots of carbs in our diet. Not soda or candy, but potatoes, rice, legumes, and baked goods and juices. I'd say my risk factors for diabetes or other sugar related metabolic disease is very low genetically.

I'm on a high carb high calorie bulking diet right now combined with weight lifting, and my bloodwork consistently shows that my blood sugar is fine. Other people may have different experiences.

 

[entremet]

Why do you keep using being slim as your evidence that carb based diet is healthy.

That's not the only marker--they also have low cancer rates, low diabetes rates, low heart disease rates, and low autoimmune disease.

 

[Makai]

Ok, what about modern Japan? China? Big starchy carb eaters. Still relatively slim, although gaining weigh on Western diets.

Also if we're talking about civilizations, those would not be possible without a sustainable population. Yes, there were famines, but we were able to sustain millions relatively long ago--2000 plus years ago.

Famines aren't a minor detail. You're right, people can subsist on bread alone, but do you think malnourished people are healthier than fat Westerners?

 

[entremet]

Famines aren't a minor detail. You're right, people can subsist on bread alone, but do you think malnourished people are healthier than fat Westerners?

Kinda a non factor since we can't compare directly. We can look at long lived healthy populations still alive today and compare.

And this was done, these long lived and healthy populations were terrmed Blue Zones.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...k-100-longevity-diet-tips-from-the-blue-zones

These people ate carbs of all types and don't seem harmful. Again, these are not refined type of carbs, but bread, rice, legumes, potatoes.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Sweet Potatos are very expensive in my country and it's a shame because if they weren't I'd love to eat an entire pan every day. Just putting them in the oven with siracha and paprika and they become as good as McD french fries.



My experience is that bread- White bread, baguettes, and even a lot of breads containing whole grain, makes me insane. I know I'm not alergic to gluten, but I think I might be sensitive to it. If I eat a bagel with cream cheese, chicken, salad, dressing, I start sweating. I swole up. And I am instantly more hungry. Immediately afterwards I don't feel full or satisfied and want 2-3 more bagels.
So to me, bread is like chips. It just makes me more hungry and leaves me not satisfied.
I feel similarly with pasta and spagetti. I can eat endless amounts of that stuff. It just doesn't make me full.

I miss those foods, but in a way I don't, because the things I put on are way to high in calories. When I put peanut butter on it, its half a jar. there is 100 calories right there in side that one sandwich.

Brown Rice, lentis and beans help. Makes me full. I make cuscus and I make hummus and I eat 5-10 eggs every day. That makes me feel full. We have fantastic rye bread in scandinavia, and putting it on the toaster with hot pate is amazing as well.
This sort of ryebread doesn't feel like bread. it just feels like seeds and corns stitched together. It's grainy and dense and feels like biting into a mix blend of it.




Eating lots of fat is what leaves me the most satisfied. When I pour cheddar all over my omelette I feel good and I feel full. When I spray my meal with mayonaise or pesto or something like that, it feels amazing. I feel happy. But I gain a lot of weight from it. But also a lot of energy. I was able to bulk up to 250-260 quite easily, and I just got so much energy. I was also eating a lot of makeral and tuna, and those are high in fat too.

So I believe if you're working your body to complete death, high fat really can help it. Fish oil pills don't give any of the same kick as two packs of makeral on rye bread with avocado and dijon on top. It goes right in my blood vessels and I get so much energy. Wake up in the middle of the night and have to go out and run along the highway. endurance a lot better.
Friends who have gotten on the bulletproof coffee diet also speak highly of high fats. one of my friends would put MCT oil right in his coffee. Gross, but he said it was fantastic. I'm wondering if the support and love for coconut oil will hold up. I've heard the oils be called out for giving bad cholesterol, but some people say that the cononut oil is absorbed differently in the gut?



Right now I have one epic cheat day, every 3th month, the rock style, and that is so much fun. 24 hour window where you eat like a maniac. You look forward to it like xmas, and you get all your indulgences and cravings concentrated into one meal.

It's basically an entire weekend where you need to be home and by yourself and to recover. the shits you take afterwards are something vicious and obviously you feel bad on the following days. But I really like the psychological off stress of going about it this way. I heard Tim Ferris talk about it like, the body cannot gain 20 pounds in one eating window. he argues that its better to have one epic cheat day than having more frequent cheat days, because the calorie overload just make the body throw out all the excess calories. True or not? I dunno but its interesting.

 

[Stinkles]

Sweet Potatos are very expensive in my country and it's a shame because if they weren't I'd love to eat an entire pan every day. Just putting them in the oven with siracha and paprika and they become as good as McD french fries.



My experience is that bread- White bread, baguettes, and even a lot of breads containing whole grain, makes me insane. I know I'm not alergic to gluten, but I think I might be sensitive to it. If I eat a bagel with cream cheese, chicken, salad, dressing, I start sweating. I swole up. And I am instantly more hungry. Immediately afterwards I don't feel full or satisfied and want 2-3 more bagels.
So to me, bread is like chips. It just makes me more hungry and leaves me not satisfied.
I feel similarly with pasta and spagetti. I can eat endless amounts of that stuff. It just doesn't make me full.

I miss those foods, but in a way I don't, because the things I put on are way to high in calories. When I put peanut butter on it, its half a jar. there is 100 calories right there in side that one sandwich.

Brown Rice, lentis and beans help. Makes me full. I make cuscus and I make hummus and I eat 5-10 eggs every day. That makes me feel full. We have fantastic rye bread in scandinavia, and putting it on the toaster with hot pate is amazing as well.
This sort of ryebread doesn't feel like bread. it just feels like seeds and corns stitched together. It's grainy and dense and feels like biting into a mix blend of it.




Eating lots of fat is what leaves me the most satisfied. When I pour cheddar all over my omelette I feel good and I feel full. When I spray my meal with mayonaise or pesto or something like that, it feels amazing. I feel happy. But I gain a lot of weight from it. But also a lot of energy. I was able to bulk up to 250-260 quite easily, and I just got so much energy. I was also eating a lot of makeral and tuna, and those are high in fat too.

So I believe if you're working your body to complete death, high fat really can help it. Fish oil pills don't give any of the same kick as two packs of makeral on rye bread with avocado and dijon on top. It goes right in my blood vessels and I get so much energy. Wake up in the middle of the night and have to go out and run along the highway. endurance a lot better.
Friends who have gotten on the bulletproof coffee diet also speak highly of high fats. one of my friends would put MCT oil right in his coffee. Gross, but he said it was fantastic. I'm wondering if the support and love for coconut oil will hold up. I've heard the oils be called out for giving bad cholesterol, but some people say that the cononut oil is absorbed differently in the gut?



Right now I have one epic cheat day, every 3th month, the rock style, and that is so much fun. 24 hour window where you eat like a maniac. You look forward to it like xmas, and you get all your indulgences and cravings concentrated into one meal.

It's basically an entire weekend where you need to be home and by yourself and to recover. the shits you take afterwards are something vicious and obviously you feel bad on the following days. But I really like the psychological off stress of going about it this way. I heard Tim Ferris talk about it like, the body cannot gain 20 pounds in one eating window. he argues that its better to have one epic cheat day than having more frequent cheat days, because the calorie overload just make the body throw out all the excess calories. True or not? I dunno but its interesting.

Dude. Balance.

 

[Korey]

That's not the only marker--they also have low cancer rates, low diabetes rates, and low autoimmune disease.

Genetics is a large component of why people get diabetes, if not the only component.

So low diabetes rates where people eat carbs doesn't tell you anything.

And carbs and cancer are unrelated so I don't know what that has to do with anything.

 

[entremet]

Genetics is a large component of why people get diabetes, if not the only component.

So low diabetes rates where people eat carbs doesn't tell you anything.

And carbs and cancer are unrelated so I don't know what that has to do with anything.

I'm just saying these people eat carbs and still maintain great health throughout life.

Again, I'm not talking about refined sugar garbage.

 

[seanoff]

Why is carbohydrate important?

Carbohydrate is a key fuel source for exercise, especially during prolonged continuous or high-intensity exercise. The body stores carbohydrate as glycogen in the muscles and liver, however its storage capacity is limited. When these carbohydrate stores are inadequate to meet the fuel needs of an athlete’s training program, the results include fatigue -, reduced ability to train hard, impaired competition performance, and a reduction in immune system function. For these reasons, athletes are encouraged to plan carbohydrate intake around key training sessions and over the whole day according to their carbohydrate requirements as an exercise fuel.

Carbohydrate intake after exercise is essential for optimum recovery of glycogen stores. Often athletic performance is dependent upon the ability to recover from one session and do it all again in the next session. Incomplete or slow restoration of muscle glycogen stores between training sessions can lead to a reduced ability to train well and a general feeling of fatigue.

Daily Needs for Fuel and Recovery:


Situation Carbohydrate Targets
Light Low-intensity or skill-based activities 3–5 g per kg BM
Moderate Moderate exercise programme (~1 hr / day) 5-7 g per kg BM
High Endurance programme (i.e. moderate-to-high intensity exercise of 1-3 hr / day) 6-10 g per kg BM
Very High Extreme commitment (i.e. moderate-to-high intensity exercise of >4-5 hr / day). 8-12 g per kg BM

Louise Burke OAM - Head of Sports Nutrition
OAM, PhD, BSc, Grad Dip Diet, FSMA, FACSM

http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/factsheets/basics/carbohydrate__how_much

If you go to that link and look left. There is an immense amount of information available.

 

[Korey]

I'm just saying these people eat carbs and still maintain great health throughout life.

Again, I'm not talking about refined sugar garbage.

There are people in the USA that eat carbs and are healthy too. That doesn't make carbs HEALTHY though.

Like everything in life, there are multiple factors that determine how healthy you are. It's possible that "those people" have lifestyles or genetics that offset the toxicity that are carbs. Or they eat smaller portions of carbs than you'd think.

It's not as simple as "SEE! They eat carbs and are healthy!"

 

[LosDaddie]

Some Low Carbers get crazy, IMO. They will tell you that drinking diet soda is perfectly fine since it doesn't have carbs. Soda will always be junk for your body, regardless if it has carbs or not. Fanatic low carbers will also tell you that all fruit is horrible for you. I tend to love a good banana or orange after some exercise.

Low Carb diet simply works for me. When i want to lose weight, it's my go-to diet, but i tend to think it's because i eat more natural foods that way. Meats and veggies. Only drink water and coffee.

But I don't feel bad when the wife makes spaghetti & meatballs for dinner once a week because it's an easy meal. Or when we have some brown rice with some chicken, or whatever.

I'm rarely ever hungry when doing Low Carb, but still, my weekly Cheat Day is my ticket to sanity. Usually Saturdays for college football. Just a day to drink beer and gorge on junk food.

 

[marzlapin]

Because it's really easy to overeat starchy carbs. It's much harder to eat huge quantities of protein, fat, or fibrous veggies. Also, traditional societies in East Asia that ate a ton of rice also burned a ton of calories in their daily lives, and ate very little refined sugar. IIRC most, if not all, of Asia is getting fatter in recent years.

 

[Korey]

Some Low Carbers get crazy, IMO. They will tell you that drinking diet soda is perfectly fine since it doesn't have carbs. Soda will always be junk for your body, regardless if it has carbs or not. Fanatic low carbers will also tell you that all fruit is horrible for you. I tend to love a good banana or orange after some exercise.

Yea, these are opinions you have based on how you emotionally feel and not based on any fact or science.

"They tell me all fruit is horrible for you but I love fruit."

 

[Famassu]

I think the next trend is gonna be that protein is secretly killing everyone.
.

While protein itself might not be killing anyone who doesn't go completely overboard with their protein intake (which can possibly damage the liver and/or kidneys and thus also cause brain damage if not treated well), the current obsession with protein & western cultures' glorification of meat means that a lot of people eat too much meat (especially red meat) since they think that these dumb new fashionable low carb high protein diets mean that eating some huge steak everyday is what is considered healthy, when that kind of diet can actually be unhealthy. Excessive protein intake might also have other adverse effects in the long term (there's indication high protein intake might increase the risk of certain cancers, though longer term studies are probably needed to verify it), even if in the short term it can be a quicker way of dropping weight (though losing weight should not be used as some kind of measuring stick on the healthiness of a diet).

As with everything, moderation is the key. The best way to eat is to not put too much emphasis on any single thing (except vegetables, you almost can't have too much vegetables) because that can often lead to having too much of something or the other and too little of something else.

 

[Hypron]

If carbs are really that bad for you then I'm fucked because I must eat like 300g of it per day (none of it processed, it's mostly from beans and the likes).

 

[n0razi]

I'm trying to get the logic leap that says starchy carbs are unhealthy.

Its not unhealthy, its just less preferred over other forms of calories. If you are trying to hit a target caloric intake, then you want to fill up with preferred types of calories. If you're just eating for survival, then it doesn't matter.

 

[LosDaddie]

Yea, these are opinions you have based on how you emotionally feel and not based on any fact or science.

"They tell me all fruit is horrible for you but I love fruit."

Please share all these facts & science that prove fruit is horrible for you.

 

[Deleted member 12837]

I don't think these civilizations that get 90% of their calories from carbs are eating many calories overall. That's why they're healthy. It's doubtful that the Japanese eat 2000 calories of pure rice daily, yet it's super easy to hit that in America with bread and pasta.

 

[SeanR1221]

Entremet fighting the good fight.

I like to eat a good 200-300g of carbs a day. Mostly rice.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Some Low Carbers get crazy, IMO. They will tell you that drinking diet soda is perfectly fine since it doesn't have carbs. Soda will always be junk for your body, regardless if it has carbs or not. Fanatic low carbers will also tell you that all fruit is horrible for you. I tend to love a good banana or orange after some exercise.

Low Carb diet simply works for me. When i want to lose weight, it's my go-to diet, but i tend to think it's because i eat more natural foods that way. Meats and veggies. Only drink water and coffee.

But I don't feel bad when the wife makes spaghetti & meatballs for dinner once a week because it's an easy meal. Or when we have some brown rice with some chicken, or whatever.

I'm rarely ever hungry when doing Low Carb, but still, my weekly Cheat Day is my ticket to sanity. Usually Saturdays for college football. Just a day to drink beer and gorge on junk food.

My understanding is that diet soda is harmless. the artifical sweetner is a simple additive and not harmful. the rest of it is water the body pisses off. I've heard fizzy water can impact athletic performance in the short term, but that's otherwise harmless?
What in diet soda is bad for you?



And what does bad for you mean? does a healthy lifestyle negate diet soda use?

 

[Cerity]

It's easier to blanket everything carbs if you're on a LCHF diet but it unfortunately leads to wrong turns in discussion when people just say 'oi nah, just drop carbs' without explaining anything.

 

[7DollarHagane]

there's a difference in fruit too, modern fruits are engineered to be sweeter and have higher sugar content than they did hundreds of years ago.

 

[elrechazado]

It's all glucose bro. When your insulin and blood sugar are a problem, as they are for the large population of obese people, it's very damaging to continually feed more glucose into your body.

 

[entremet]

I don't think these civilizations that get 90% of their calories from carbs are eating many calories overall. That's why they're healthy. It's doubtful that the Japanese eat 2000 calories of pure rice daily, yet it's super easy to hit that in America with bread and pasta.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_56f08cc4e4b084c6722139ca

It's a lot of carbs though.

50 to 65 percent of calories.

 

[tokkun]

My understanding is that diet soda is harmless. the artifical sweetner is a simple additive and not harmful. the rest of it is water the body pisses off. I've heard fizzy water can impact athletic performance in the short term, but that's otherwise harmless?
What in diet soda is bad for you?



And what does bad for you mean? does a healthy lifestyle negate diet soda use?

Diet soda appears to lead to more weight gain than non-diet soda in rats according to the scientific literature. It is not clear this also occurs with humans, but it's not unreasonable to worry that it does.

The mechanism is not completely understood, but the general theory is that triggering the body to think it is consuming something sweet but not actually delivering causes it to overcompensate by consuming more.

 

[Korey]

Please share all these facts & science that prove fruit is horrible for you.

Fruit is horrible for you because of its excessive sugar content. Having some vitamins doesn't negate the fact that you're eating/drinking large amounts of sugar. That's like adding vitamins to coke.

 

[entremet]

Fruit is horrible for you because of its excessive sugar content. Having some vitamins doesn't negate the fact that you're eating/drinking large amounts of sugar. That's like adding vitamins to coke.

It does have sugar but the fiber slows down its absorption.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Because carbs are filler, give me a fatty cut of meat any day. But seriously, this feels like blowback due to carbs being held in such high regard for so many years as exhibited in food pyramids. The general mindset is that they're not only a staple in a diet but held above fats and protein.