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Many people have the notion that carbohydrates are unhealthy and think eating them will cause them to gain weight. Let's get one thing straight, carbohydrates are the preferred fuel source for your body and are found in very nutritious foods like fruit, beans, whole grains, milk, and yogurt. Just in case the keto-warriors were distracting you, carbohydrates are the preferred fuel source for your body. Because of this, if you don’t eat enough carbohydrates, your body will use stored energy from your muscles or fat cells to fuel itself. A claim that many use is that if you don't eat carbohydrates, your body will switch to fat as it fuel source. Though this is true, it is not an overnight process. There is not a set time frame in which your body does make the switch but claims widely vary. This can be attributed to everybody being different as well as how strict your carbohydrate limitation is. Now we're not saying that a carbohydrate restricted diet can't work or doesn't work, but is it optimal for the average person? Let's talk about a few reasons why we think that it is not.
Health Benefits
Not all carbs are created equal. Some carbohydrate rich foods are also packed full of essential nutrients that your body needs to function properly. The carbohydrates that we are talking about are not the kind that are made in a factory somewhere, but are taken right out of nature. Things like sweet potatoes, whole grains, and fruits, all have benefits outside of their respective carbohydrate amounts. A carbohydrate restricted diet eliminates these “bad” sources of carbohydrates, which leads to weight loss in itself. However, it also eliminates the good sources as well which can help us live our best lives.
Cost
When beginning a “carb free” diet, you have to begin to eat a large amount of fat so your body can use it as fuel. However, like we’ve stated above, not all fats are created equal. You have to make sure that you are eating quality sources of fat, not pork rinds for every meal. These quality sources of fat often cost much more than their low cost, yet nutritious, carbohydrate counterparts. You are not going to get anything out of a low carbohydrate diet if you eat salami and cheese for every meal. You will just be substantially increasing your saturated fat intake which has potential negative effects on its own. You have to eat things like avocados, fatty grass fed beef, and oils. These are not always cost effective for the person looking for a long term solution to weight loss or even living their best life.
Long Term Success
A key reason that we believe that a low carbohydrate diet is not optimal is because it is hard to cut out an entire macronutrient for an extended period of time. A key point to consider is weight loss that lasts is usually from changes that you can live with for a long time, not a temporary diet. Something else to consider is the limited food options. A lot of people generally lose weight because they are eating less. This can be attributed to the limited number of options to choose from. However, once those food choices get old, what do they turn to? It’s often not other foods that are high in fat. Now, we're not here to say that carbohydrate restricted diets don’t have their place. However, we believe that these diets are not optimal for the average person to live a healthy, happy life. There are many different alternatives to a carbohydrate restricted diet that do not remove 33.3% of the macronutrients from your diet. A simple solution is to instead of avoiding carbohydrates, is to reduce your portion sizes and choose high-fiber carbohydrates. Eat more whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Avoid the junk that you don’t need like candy, chips, and white bread. The amount of carbohydrates a person should consume depends on a variety of factors such as their gender, size, and activity level. For an average person, we would suggest using the MyPlate model. Make half of your plate fruit and vegetables and the other half protein and whole grains. This will help you eat everything in moderation and live your best life!
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