Why I love Carbs

Carbs: most people have a love/hate relationship with this misunderstood source of nutrients. High performance athletes love carbs for the easily accessible energy carbohydrates provide. But for the overweight and/or obese person, carbs can feel like a like a curse from hell. So which approach is right? The answer is…it depends. Whether or not carbs are good for a person is dependent on multiple factors: amount consumed per day, the source of the carbs, and the reason for consuming them. Carbs have been so demonized by the fitness industry that some people are afraid of touching a banana, much less actually eating one. However, once the health benefits and proper usage of carbs is understood, carbs are no longer a four-letter word. They become one more weapon in the arsenal of good health.

The reason for consuming carbs is straight forward: carbs are more easily and quickly digested by the body, making them more readily available to provide energy for the body. Energy is kind of important if the body is going to move. The more movement that occurs and the more intense the movement; the more energy is needed to support the activity. For this reason, athletes drink Gatorade instead of stopping to eat a steak with peanut butter in middle of competition. Those can be a healthy food options but the body does readily digest and make use of protein and fats during exercise. No fuel, no performance. For this reason, sports drinks are appropriate for athletes during competition or practice; the couch potato, not so much.

The source of carbs, I would argue, is more important than how many are consumed. A person can eat three bananas before consuming the same amount of sugar that is in a donut. With the added bonus of the naturally occurring B vitamins and potassium, two nutrients most people inadequately consume, in bananas. Vegetables contain more Vitamin C than ice cream; oatmeal has more fiber than a candy bar; rice will sustain a person while chips will cause a crash. The simple way to distinguish a healthy source of carbs versus unhealthy is the farm test. Carbs should look like they came off of a farm, not out of a factory.

Low carb diets have long been the go to fat loss recommendation from fitness professionals and doctors alike. It may be an appropriate method for some people: diabetics, inactive overweight and obese people, and sugar addicts may benefit from following a low-carb nutrition program. This is assuming that a person want to lose weight without strenuously exercising. For the person wanting high performance and endurance, a low carb approach is a mistake. The harder the training the more carbs needed.

So how does a person determine an appropriate amount carbohydrate intake? I would suggest basing needs on body weight; consuming one gram of carbohydrates per pound of body weight would be moderate carb consumption. This would be appropriate for someone that has a job being on his or her feet all day but does not exercise. A low carb diet would be consuming less than one gram of carbs per pound of body weight. This would be for the diabetic or obese person who does not exercise. Consuming up to two grams of carbs per pound of weight would be a moderately high carb diet. Consuming more than two grams per pound of weight per day would be a high carb diet. Only people who exercise regularly are the only ones who should toy with a moderately high or high carbohydrate diet.

Grams PerPound of Bodyweight Per Day	Appropriate Circumstances
<1	Diabetic, Obese, Non Exerciser
1	Daily Activity, Non Exerciser
1-1.5	Daily Activity, Exercises 2-3x/week less than an hour
1.5-2	Daily Activity, Exercise 4-5x/week for an hour
2+	Daily Activity, Exercises 5+/week for more than an hour

Beyond basic nutrition, carbs serve a few lesser known, but just as important functions regarding health. Carbohydrates play a vital role in proper thyroid function. The thyroid regulates almost all of the hormones within the human body. It needs carbohydrates to properly manage the creation and circulation of healthy hormone levels. One of the dangers of following a long term low carbohydrate diet, particularly for women, is a disruption in healthy hormone levels. This can disrupt everything from metabolism, to sleep cycles, body temperature, and for women, menstrual cycles. If and when a low carb diet program is employed, it should be done with a short-term approach with a specific end date in mind. Typically lasting eight weeks or less.

The word hydrate is a part of carbohydrate. Carbs love water; they are more easily digested, and put to better use within the body in the presence of adequate hydration. In the body, carbs are converted to glucose and stored. When stored in the muscles, carbs are stored as glycogen, the primary source of fuel for the muscles. High carbohydrate stores within the muscles make them appear bigger and fuller because of the water drawn into the muscle when the glycogen is stored.

Despite the evils of insulin in the presence of diabetes; it does play a healthy role in the body. It is responsible for storing nutrients, particularly glycogen within the muscles. Carbohydrates, the healthy ones from the farm, help insulin function properly and promote health in the body. The junk carbs that come from boxes, bags, and wrappers cause insulin to function improperly, potentially resulting in diabetes. No one ever developed diabetes eating apples.

Perhaps the most important function of carbs, from a fitness stand point is the avoidance of gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis occurs when glycogen levels within the muscles have gotten too low, usually from a combination of high activity and inadequate carb intake. The muscles need something to fuel increased demands for activity. Through gluconeogenesis, the body breaks down protein from the muscle tissue and converts it into glycogen to be used as fuel for the activity. This state often results from a prolonged low carb diet combined with attempts to maintain intense exercise. It may cause weight loss, however, if the weight loss is coming from muscle tissue instead of body fat, health has not improved and performance will most definitely decrease. Gluconeogenesis is the reason low carb diets are not for high performance athletes.

When a person understands how and where the sources of healthy carbs should be consumed, learns to consume carbs in appropriate amounts, and consumes them for the right reasons; the health benefits will be reaped. That is why I love carbs. Carbs are not evil, avoiding carbs to be healthy is unnecessary. Put in the effort to learn to eat the right carbs in the right amounts for the right reason and you can learn to love them too.