Carbohydrate is such a complicated subject. First, category of carbohydrate is so broad. Second, depending on what your goal is and what your current blood chemistry is, amount of certain carbohydrate you should consume will be different. Lastly, depending on your ethnic and genetic back ground how certain carbohydrate work for your body will be different.
Wide Variety of Carbohydrate
Unlike protein or fat, carbohydrate is very vague in its definition and because of the food source will range from pure sugar to broccoli. Majority of time when we hear carbohydrates or carbs, we think of rice, pasta, bread, potatoes. Although they are carbohydrates, however, fruits, vegetables, candies can all categorized into carbohydrates. Textbook definition is any food sources that has sugar, starch, and cellulose (fiber), would consider carbohydrates.
Because of this definition people, including health "experts" are confused about what advice to give and usually provide what advice is popular rather than what it actually is. Yet, there are certain differences in how you can choose more healthier carbohydrate.
Any carbohydrate will spike the insulin level, however, it should be minimal. Insulin spiking carbohydrates are usually packed with sugar and flours. Commonly, white bread, candies, ice cream, majority of fruits can spike insulin level more than spinach, broccoli, and carrots.
How about the artificial sweeteners? Just because it says sugar free, it does not mean that they won't spike your insulin level. In fact if you have an insulin resistant condition or your body does not handle carbohydrate very well, artificial sweetener can also be your enemy.
Does Your Body Need Carbohydrates?
So the question comes does our body need carbohydrates? This is actually a tough question. The answer is it depends. Depending on your blood chemistry and how your body respond to carbohydrate, will determine whether or not your body needs carbs or not.
For example, if your fasted blood sugar level is over 100 (ideally below 90), then clearly you should minimize your carbohydrate intake because you may have over eaten or not able to handle carbohydrate at your current state. Even if your fasted blood sugar level is low, but your insulin level (HbA1C) is high, they you should be eliminating carbohydrate until the HbA1C level drops and stabilize.
These two metrics can be elevated without one being obese or any health impairment. Even with those who look healthy and exercising all the time, these two variables can be high because their body may not be able to handle carbohydrate especially sugar.
Keep in mind that the carbohydrate is neither good nor bad. It is more of how the body handles it just like some people are allergic to eggs or nuts although they are considered healthy.
Ethnic Background and Genetics for Carbohydrates
This is very controversial topic, however, it is important to understand. In the United States there are 5 main racial categories. Which means there are at least five different groups of people with different nutritional background came into the United States. Whether you were born here or elsewhere is not the point. Point is where you (or your family) are originally from.
There is an interesting study done with Japanese who live in Japan, Hawaii, and California to see how their health were different depending on where they lived. They monitored the events of coronary heart disease in each locations where the Japanese lived. Evidently Japanese who lived in California had highest rate of coronary heart disease, then Hawaii had second. There may have been an environmental differences, however, it is more likely their dietary pattern had changed from what they were used to, to what they are foreign to. This is not to criticize how people eat in California or Hawaii, however, to realize that dietary change may have caused alteration in the health profile.
If this does happen in Japanese, how about other people from other countries? How come some people do well with just fruits and vegetables and some do terrible with it? How come some people do very well with rice and pasta, but for others are bad news? There is more to how our body utilize carbohydrate than just a simple good or bad.
How To Determine Carbohydrate is for You?
Simple form of test is fasted blood glucose and HbA1C. Understanding of your blood chemistry is the first thing you will need to check to see how your body is doing now. You cannot do this at home so will need to contact your physician to schedule the test. For fasted blood glucose, you want the number to be in between 65-99. For HbA1C 5.7-6.5 will be the goal.
Here is something to consider. After this test and you have re-introduced the sugar and flour based carbohydrates (rice, pasta, bread, fruits, etc.) and if those two numbers creep up again (especially HbA1C), then most likely your body cannot handle sugar and flour based carbohydrates very well. So you will need to limit how much you can have in a week or a month.
Carbohydrate requirement seems to be more personalized than other macro-nutrients (protein and fat). It can give rapid energy but may have consequence when the body is not capable of handling well.
Kota Shimada
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