Yesterday, I killed my calorie counting–hitting all my goals for protein, fat, and carb intake. I even drank 10 glasses of water (80 oz total).
I’ve been skimming an interesting book lately. In Good Calories, Bad Calories,
Gary Taubes argues that the obesity epidemic is not caused by the fact that we’re eating too many calories, but eating the wrong kind–namely refined carbs, sugars, and simple starches. There’s a lot of historical anecdotes in the book that I find interesting, but I’d rather just get to the science.
I’m currently wading through Part II: The Carbohydrate Hypothesis. I found the opening quote really profound:
The world is gradually going carbohydrate. That is because there are more people than there have ever been before…so there must be more food. You can get about eight times as many calories from an acre of corn as you can from the flesh of pigs fed on this same corn. Because of population pressure, certain sections of the world are progressively using more of the vegetable and less of animal materials. This means that the carbohydrates, from sugar and cerals particularly, are increasing steadily in quantity…Not that starches and sugars are harmful, but they are low in the essentials we must have for good health. If the proportion of carbohydrates is high then the amount of something else of greater importance is low. Nutrition is a six-way teeter-totter. Have you ever tried to balance such a device?—-From Man, Bread & Destiny: The Story of Man and his Food by C.C. Furnas and S.M. Furnas in 1937.
I’ve known for a long time that my own carbohydrate intake is too high. My trainer thinks so too. I eat too many breads, pastas, crackers, tortillas, and cereals. And since our initial consult, I’ve really been concentrating on reducing the amounts of those things in my diet. I’m still eating carbs: fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are still allowed, but I’m drastically reducing those aforementioned bad carbs.
The carbohydrate hypothesis postulates that many diseases of Western civilizations, especially cancer, diabetes and obesity, can be directly attributed to the excess consumption of simple carbohydrates.
One piece of evidence that is commonly used to support this stems from the fact that many non-western societies don’t suffer from these diseases. Very shortly after being introduced to western cultures and their diets, these diseases start cropping up. Examples cited in the book include populations of Eskimos, Native Americans, and some populations in Western Africa.
I haven’t finished reading this section, but I do find it very interesting so far. I’ll be writing more about it as I find time.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I know for myself that my eating goes all wonky when I allow bread into my diet. It just doesn’t suit me even though I love it. Whenever I cut it out though I feel so much better. I will have to read this book too.
This topic is such a minefield.
I’m curious, though. In an earlier post, about your meeting with your personal trainer, you said this:
“We came up with some strategies to get my carbohydrate intake down to around 40%, my protein up to about 30% and my fat to stay the same at 30%.”
What are those strategies? How are you measuring these percentages? How did you establish the percentages of your existing intake?
When you’ve finished Taubes’ book — or at any point between now and then — I’d like for you to educate me about something: from the perspective of a sustainably healthy lifestyle, what’s the difference between eating 2000 calories that are high in carbohydrates and 2000 calories that are low in carbohydrates?
Dan–I agree this subject is a minefield. I also realize that I’m no expert when it comes to subjects as this and that I’m trying to learn all I can. It’s just taking me forever to get it done.
Regarding your questions about strategies for reducing carbs and increasing protein: We were able to determine my ~ percentages of carbs and proteins from my calorie counts. The dailyburn does a pretty good job of giving you a breakdown of what you eat. Basically, we went over my intake and talked about alternatives to what I’ve been eating that would accomplish the goal of reducing my carbs. So by cutting out white flours, crackers, and sugars, and replacing them with multi grain breads, and high fiber tortilla wraps, I’m still able eat some of the carbs that I like. I’m also eating more foods higher in protein such as hummus and protein shakes. So far, it seems to be working pretty well and I’m not really craving those starchy white floury products that I’m not really eating very much of anymore–except I did have pizza and cake with 8 crazy little girls at a birthday party today!
It makes sense about the carbs and the gradual increase in diseases and such. We love our carbs. I was reading in a magazine the other day that it was acceptable 50 years ago to have the big bellies and such. The doctors used the reasoning that these obese people just didn’t have the properly functional body to get rid of the weight. It was accepted. Now, we just have half of the nation that is overweight/obese that have accepted that same reasoning when it has been proven erroneous, and in turn have lots of lazy people consuming all of the carbs and not letting them work in their body.
I think the idea behind having the 40% carbs in the diet is to make sure that your metabolism will be fully functional. It’s not suppose to be all at one time. After you read more though…please inform and correct us!!
.-= seth´s last blog ..January 22nd & Processed Vs. Fresh =-.
Dan, et al.~
MInefield indeed — meanwhile the US is enjoying its highest life expectancy ever, even as our appetite for corn, HFCS, and other simple sugars remains unabated. That’s the paradox.
I admit that I am playing devil’s advocate here. But perhaps our collective good health has afforded us the opportunity to concentrate more on the minutia.
.-= Matt Brundage´s last blog ..Adult Onset Pescetarianism =-.
I just stumbled on this blog from the One Hundred Pushups site. I really, really want to commit myself to that goal of 100 good-form (military style, not on my knees) pushups. I could easily do 100 in a set when I was in the Navy. Then again, I was 70 pounds lighter and before 2 kids.
I found out I have type 2 diabetes about 3 years ago, and went through the same educational process. I strongly recommend The Insulin-Resistance Diet and The GI Factor. They are two excellent books that explain the carbohydrate problem clearly. I have so many skinny friends who spend their days consuming about 80-90% of their calories from refined starches, and while they aren’t gaining weight, they don’t understand what they are doing to their systems.
While I am trying to lose these pesky 30 pounds (if I lose them, my insulin resistance will drop dramatically), I have to restrict carb intake to fewer than 80 g a day. That’s whole grain or “natural” carbs (low- and medium- GI fruits and vegetables included) and I always take my protein or acids before I eat any carbs.
Just being sure to “work off” carbs you take in isn’t going to solve the problem. It’s understand the proportion of what we eat to how much we do. If the average woman consumes 300 g of carbohydrate a day (which is average), if your pancreas is a little slow, or you’re just a little insulin resistant, you’re still going to be hyperinsulinemic and that’s what causes the weight gain. If I consumed 1500 calories a day, but maintained 200-300 g of carbs, no matter how much I exercised (a reasonable amount, at least), I would still gain weight.
It is a daunting topic, for sure. But cutting out the refined stuff is the best thing for anyone to do. Like my nutritionist friend told me when I found out I was sick, “It’s not a ‘diabetic diet.’ It’s the diet EVERYONE should be eating, but doesn’t.”
Sorry to ramble!
Sarah–thanks for the comment! And welcome to get fit slowly. We hope you stay a while. I’ll have to check out those books. I can’t imagine 80 grams of carbs per day. That’s hardly any. I’m doing a pretty good job of staying in my targets, but my carb intake is hard, especially in the morning. But I’m working on it.
Thanks for the post! I’m definitely trying to cut back on carbs. I’m Chinese, and so much of my carbs come from rice. So lately i’ve been eating brown rice, which is actually very good
I think just saying ‘carbs’ is the problem here. Wholegrain, wholewheat carbs are great for us, especially those of us who exercise more than the average Joe. The problem as I see it is the word, carbs, it’s gotten a bad rap. Heck vegetables are carbs but you won’t stop me eating them!!! The problem is the processed starches, the white rice, white bread, white pasta etc. When we switch to the wholegrains we eat less because they are more filling, more nutritious overall compared to the processed carbs.
That said I’ve done the ‘carb’ restricting and discovered that when I restrict my bread intake I felt MUCH better! I seem to have an intolerance of some sort to bread that leaves me sluggish and generally feeling like crap. Over the holidays I started eating bread again and almost immediately found my body rebelling. Now I am back to my regular diet and workout routine my energy is through the roof again.
I also recommend looking at the GI diet, I discovered this way of eating 15+ years ago and everything clicked. Basically though in the end like most things it’s common sense. Not all carbs are created equal. Eat the colored ones and stay away from the white processed crap. Eat real food, as close to nature as possible, with as few ingredients as possible