As this country faces obesity crisis, we see so many information about what is good and what is bad. Carbohydrate has been moving back and forth between good and evil. However, it is not that clear cut. So if you ask me whether the carbohydrate is good or bad, my answer is "it depends".
Reason, it is depending on what goals you are working on accomplishing and what metabolic profile, such as blood chemistry, the body is currently going through.
If trainers or dietitians and gives you meal plan by just talking with you without proper assessment or question and discussion about your overall health, you should be questioning their plan.
Choice of Carbohydrate
Before going into detail, let me identify what carbohydrate is. Carbohydrate, unlike fat or protein, it is very broad and vague category. On the one end, you have pure sugar and the other side you have vegetables such as spinach and broccoli.
What is the difference? Carbohydrate that are closer to pure sugar (such as candies, juice, fruits, and so on), the insulin spike is more significant than those are closer to vegetables. Therefore, it is confusing to have candies and broccoli are in same category.
However, type of carbohydrate you should be consuming is not very complicated. Let's say that you want carbohydrate but want to stay healthy. Will you choose potatoes or jelly beans? Hopefully your answer is potatoes because it has more nutrients where as jelly beans has none.
I used to think, long time ago, that carbs are carbs and didn't really matter what source I get it from. Reason for this belief was I focused so much on calories and thought of food as just an energy. So, having bagel, donuts along with fruit juice in the morning felt ok. Funny thing is trainers I've worked with were doing the same so I thought I had the answer. Did I? No and extremely embarrassing past.
Choice of carbohydrate is critical whether you are wanting to lose fat or gain muscles.
Is Carbohydrate Important?
So is the carbohydrate important to our health? Answer again is "it depends".
Our body has a way to convert some amino acid (breakdown form of protein), into glucose (breakdown form of sugar) in the liver. Reason behind this is when we are fasting or lacking glucose in our system, our body need to a process to create glucose maintain blood sugar level. This process of liver creating new glucose from amino acid is called gluconeogenesis.
Because of that, consuming excess carbohydrate may not be needed. Only cells in our body that absolutely need glucose is red blood cells due to absence of the mitochondria which is energy warehouse that exists in majority of our cells.
If you are exercising to build muscles or have a physically demanding job, to bring more nutrients into the body to help the recovery process, you will need more carbohydrate. Benefit adding more carbohydrate to your meal, especially for the meal after your exercise, will help stimulate insulin so nutrients can enter the cell for the recovery and muscle building process.
However, person who has insulin resistance or diabetes will have issue with the process above. People who has insulin resistance or diabetes will have challenge of their cells not responding to the production of insulin. Analogy for this is when you go to your friends house for the party but nobody is answering the door. Same thing with your cells. Insulin resistance is not so much an issue with production of insulin but the issue with insulin receptors in the cells not wanting to respond to insulin.
So how can you use carbohydrate in your advantage?
Fat Loss First
To take advantage of carbohydrate you will need to focus on fat loss first for the reason mentioned above with insulin resistance. To do so, choice of carbohydrate should be more in vegetable based carbohydrates because they have more nutrients relative to amount of carbohydrate. Some of the examples are spinach, broccoli, kale, asparagus, onion, cabbage, and so on. These vegetables does have carbohydrate but in minimal amount and will stimulate insulin but not as much. Which means, insulin level may lowered within 1-2 hours.
Fruits does have rich antioxidants and other important nutrients as vegetables have but they are also high in sugar. So until your fat is under control, it is important to focus more on consumption of vegetables rather than fruits. Is fruits bad? No, but for the fat loss purpose, it is not ideal.
Muscle and Strength Gain
Even when the primary focus is in fat loss, you will still want to exercise to improve your insulin sensitivity. By exercising, you will need to recover from exercises you've done by feeding your body with proper nutrients. To bring in more nutrients, you will need insulin to to work for you. Of course you shouldn't choose any carbohydrate. The choice does not change much from fat loss process. Just because you exercise, that doesn't mean you deserve desserts such as chocolate, ice cream and so on. It's like giving kids a candy every time they brushed their teeth.
If your body needs faster recovery and/or your insulin sensitivity is improving (fat loss or weight loss is starting), then you can add in potatoes, rice, and fruits on the days you are exercising. Why rice? Because it is natural source compared with bread and pasta. If you are not sure, then just add more vegetables.
Carbohydrate will replenish your muscle glycogen faster, which help to recover the muscles you have worked on. If you lift heavy weights or vigorous physical activities, carbohydrate may help calm your central nervous system down to promote faster recovery.
Carbohydrate To Aid Your Sleep
Have you ever had a situation where you were so tired and wanted to eat more broccoli? No right? It's usually more faster responding carbohydrate like cookies, ice cream, chocolates and so on.
Our body figured out that in order to lower the stress hormone or cortisol level, it is best to consume fast responding carbohydrate. But what does trainers and dieticians suggest you especially when you are on weight loss program? Avoid them because it will raise your insulin level.
I have an issue with that. We know that lack of sleep is not very good to our health and not good at all to fat loss. If restricting carbohydrate is having a negative impact towards the sleep because of stress hormone being high, my common sense says, you should have some carbohydrate even if it is before you go to bed, if that will help you sleep. However, here is another suggestion. Make sure you are consuming less frequently if you are going to consume carbohydrate before you go to sleep.
Why will I make that suggestions? At the end of the day, fat loss happens when insulin secretion is less frequent. So even if you consume some carbohydrates before sleeping, you will be fasting for 4-8 hours (depending on sleeping duration). Yes, ideally you should sleep with empty stomach but if that is not helping you sleep, I much rather have you consume something and go to sleep. And throughout the day if you can keep your meal frequency to 1-3 meals per day including snack time, fat loss will happen.
There Is No Good Or Bad
When understanding how, what and why, we can learn that there is not such thing as good or bad when it comes to nutrition. It is all relative to what you are wanting to accomplish and what condition you are in. When it comes to nutrition, protein, fat, carbohydrate has its own role and they are equally important.
If I wanted to lower my body fat then I should lower carbohydrate intake and eat less frequent. However, if I want to build muscles or planning to play soccer, then I should be consuming carbohydrate especially afterwards for proper recovery.
Is there unhealthy choices carbohydrates? Yes. Overly processed food sources such bleached flour, added sugar, artificial sweeteners are some of the examples. Is that mean they are bad? No. Consuming them in smaller amount and less frequent will give more enjoyment and satisfaction. But consuming them in abundance and more frequent, then becomes an health issue.
Kota Shimada
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