For the most part, it has become common knowledge that if you want to lose weight, you need to cut your carb intake. This is a fool-proof way to reduce unwanted body fat. But what if you are already at your desired weight? Does that mean a low carb way of life doesn’t apply to thin people? The short answer: Nope. Here are just a few of the things we learned while making the documentary film, Carb-Loaded: A Culture Dying to Eat (Click here to see it on iTunes, Amazon, and many others)
One of the first things I learned after I was diagnosed with diabetes was the role that carbs (read sugar) play in inflammation. All of that swelling causes damage to our vascular system. The logical result is that our bodies try to patch up the damage. Can you guess what our bodies use to plug all of the leaks? A nifty little precursor molecule we affectionately call cholesterol! Yup, all of those “heart healthy” grains we ate in the 80’s and 90’s are one of the main reasons so many people are taking cholesterol lowering meds today. Have you ever wondered why you hear about so many athletes keeling over from heart attacks? Wonder no more. All that “Carb-Loading” is fatal.
I was 5’ 11” and weighed 165 lbs when I was diagnosed with diabetes (my blood sugar was a jaw dropping 320 mg). I’m living proof that diabetes isn’t a “fat person” disease. I wasn’t much of a sweets eater, but I loved bread and other carbs. I was eating what I thought was a healthy diet. I almost never ate at fast food restaurants. But it turns out that for years, I was over-loading my pancreas with a huge work load. It eventually gave up. If you want to avoid pre-diabetes or full blown diabetes…skip the carbs.
Diabetes is your body’s inability to remove sugar from your blood. That sugar build up clogs your arteries and totally trashes your body at that point. It turns out that the same thing happens in our brains. Experts call them advanced glycosylated end products. While the details are still being worked out, it’s clear that carbs are also trashing our brains.
This is one of my favorite effects from eating a LCHF diet. I’m not hungry all the time. When I was eating lots of carbs I was forcing my body to produce mass quantities of insulin. Insulin famously increases appetite. Have you eaten chips that you “just can’t stop eating”…well you can thank Mr. Insulin for that phenomena. On the flip side, the healthy fats found in LCHF diets tend to produce higher levels of leptin. The hormone leptin is directly linked to the feeling of “fullness” or “satiation” (that’s a great word). This makes sense as I point out in #5.
Fat is a fantastic fuel! I’m talking about natural omega 3 rich fat. The efficiency of fat has become very popular among healthy eaters and performance athletes alike. Pound for pound, you need less fat when compared to carbs. It’s kind of like the biological version of driving a Prius instead of an SUV. World renowned sports doctor, Tim Noakes, discovered this several years back (watch a lecture here). He now advises performance athletes such as marathoners and Iron Man athletes to live by a LCHF diet. They can eat less and go farther. Sami and Meredith at Fat Chance Row are a perfect example of this
For some easy tips on how to cut your carbs, check out the article The 5 Steps To Eating Fewer Carbs
As I mentioned, these are only a few things we learned during the course of producing the film Carb-Loaded: A Culture Dying to Eat. If you want to learn more, please support the independent film community and watch the film by visiting here.
