Episode #14 Everything You Need to Know About Carbs
What are carbs? Should I be eating them? Do they make me fat? Why are carbs the villains? This week we talk about carbs, so you can be clear about them and know how they support your health or may be causing you some troubles.
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You are listening to weight a minute with Beth and Jessica, episode 14.
I think it is time we talk about carbs and break it down for our listeners. What do you think this podcast for some time
to learn about it? And then I'm like, there is a lot to discuss. There is. So I just, I thought I'd do it interview style and ask you these questions that I think our listeners would be interested in hearing, because I've learned so much from you over the last five years about carbs things that I didn't know.
And I think maybe we take this knowledge for granted and we do hear questions from our clients often. So let's just first start with what carbs actually are. Can you first explain the two types of carbs? I can, I will preface this for our listeners that. What I think here going to do is we're going to start with the science, right?
So it's going to be a science heavy at front, and then we're gonna. Put it into context of how it shows up in diets and stuff like that. I just want to forewarn everyone the first five minutes are going to be sciency. So if you want to just skip that, that's fine. We'll talk. I don't want you to skip ahead.
I want you to learn about we're going to do, we're going to take a intro to foods and nutrition macro class. We're going to condense it from several days into five minutes. Sound good. Perfect. So simple carbohydrates are the basic forms of carbohydrate molecules. So we have monosaccharides and dissect grinds.
So it's like single into, and those are our basic forms of sugar and how they get absorbed in the small intestine. And then we use glucose and fructose in the body for energy. So they have to get converted down into that. So we can use them, but we also have these simple carbohydrates naturally in nature, ensued or created in a food Blab to be these simple sugars.
So we've got sucrose. Glucose. This is in no particular order for tests, lactose, galactose and maltose. Those last two, no one ever really sees or hears about them, but they are, they're a part of our natural food such as in milk. And then in fruits and grains and stuff like that, it's very rare that you will just have just for chills or just glucose or just.
It's usually a combo of these simple sugars. And so, again, like I said, the simple sugars are single and double units of carbon. It's hydrogen auction, which is how we get the word carbohydrates, carbo, hydrates. So carbons that are hydrated. Yeah. I dunno why I confuse the simple and the complex. So thanks for re-explaining.
The other examples of simple sugars is sucrose table sugar. Fructose and we bind in fruit mostly, but it's other things as well, like honey and maple syrup. And then we have lactose, which is. Technically a simple sugar, but half the reason why most of us don't have that same glucose response to lactose is because they're usually the protein and or fat that's accompanied with the dairy product that it's in.
So lactose is only found in dairy products. So when you look like a plain yogurt and it still says it has eight grams of sugar in it, that's the lactose correct. When we tell people. For yogurt, it's look at the added sugar, right. Because that's the difference. So the total carb. Minus the added sugar is what's left of lactose, correct?
Yeah. So those are the simple ones. Cause a small units of carbohydrates. And then the complex ones are 10 to hundreds of carbon genes long. And the. Are still comprised of those monosaccharides and various forums, but since they are so long, they're often accompanied by fibers and then they take a longer time to absorb because you have to pull them away from the fibers and then make those chains foreign or until they're the ones, two units long and absorbed in the intestine.
And that's one of the main differences. There is usually the simple sugars have less fiber or other proteins that might be around to slow down how fast or see, I feel like with us backwards, what do you mean? Well, because. The simple sugars are the ones that are coming from whole foods. Right? Not always.
So if you think about fruit, yes. It's got fiber in it. So we like fruit. Then what happens if you have fruit juice? We take out all the fiber. Okay. So this is just fruit dose, right. But then if we take table sugar versus. Maple sugar or honey, same amount of simple sugar concentration. The only difference is that we get a little bit of mineral content, but the glucose response, like your blood glucose response would be the same table sugar, Tommy to maple syrup.
So they can be found in whole foods can be attached to fibers. So that's why fruit is better. Versus do mean polarizing even like applesauce has a tiny bit of cyber left, but not much. Can you give an example of the complex curb that's accompanied with fiber? Cause isn't that usually complex carbs are the more processed foods that have less.
Nope. So complex carbohydrates are also things like whole grains. So you got our. Oatmeal be considered a form of compost carbohydrate, all of those, all of our whole grains, or even like the grains that have been the outer hole has been reduced is still considered a complex carbohydrate because of. The number of chains wrong as well.
So simple or complex could be whole food or processed food. Correct. Okay. That just blew my mind. I don't know why. And so I think the complex component of it is that it's a multi structure and usually that multi structure includes fiber, but not always. Gotcha, because this is so confusing and has always been confusing to me, even since I took nutrition 1 0 1 and took it again.
And I did, my brain does refuses to understand this, but it's fine. So that's why I just referred to them as like fast energy versus slow energy. Because it's all just energy. So, so simple and complex carbs can be fast or slow energy. Yes. Okay. When we refer to slow energy foods, those are typically the whole foods, whether they are simple or complex, these are the things that have the fiber.
And then that are closest to nature that are usually still in their most holistic form. They're like minimally processed versus fast energy foods are things that. Or in some way, maybe pre digestible or whether that's a smoothie, all whole food ingredients, but it's still been somewhat processed. It makes it more easily digestible in the body.
So you're accessing that energy quickly, just maybe crackers or chips or whatever, that stuff that like our body. Absorbs pretty quickly. So can you give us an example of what are maybe like who is benefiting from fast energy? So slow and fast energy is a good way to remember and wrap your brain around it a little bit easier than thinking about some more complex carbohydrates, which I think is why people are confused because science public health talks about simple carbs and complex carbs are whole grains.
And that can be a little misleading, particularly when we talk about breads whole grain bread, but that's really a piece car. Yeah. So I do like this way of explaining it of slow ambass energy and it is nuanced to some degree, for example, a whole food that is technically a bass energy. Would be say, somebody wants to work out after work, but it's been awhile since lunch.
And then they know that it will be awhile before dinner. So they need a little something in between. So they have the energy to do their exercise and we're not starving right after they're done. So eating fruit would be a good option because it only takes about 30 to 60 minutes to digest down. Uh, piece of fruit because once it's removed from the fiber, your body doesn't have to continue to break down big carbohydrate chains.
It's already in these small forms. So then it can just absorb those smaller ones at the small intestine. Versus if I said here's some potatoes to eat right before you work out or some oatmeal, it won't take you longer. To break that down from a Viber breakdown that was fire those carbohydrate chains, and then get them down into those absorbable forms.
You would need to allot for at least 90 minutes for you to get the energy from a bowl of oatmeal or something like that. It's like a higher fiber, correct? Yeah. Cause like once that fiber is removed by it, isn't going to break it down. It's got those two chains, but. By and large, I think that fast energy, when we think about it for the general population, that fast energy mainly comes from things like sugar.
So actual sugar, honey syrup, things like that, foods that were once whole and polarized, and then formed back into a food product, which would be things like bread, bagels, pasta, something like. Certain types of race, which can be slow or fast because of how much of a pure type of carbon has in there. But all of those started out as whole wheat kernels had the fiber outer layer.
And the most case, not always. Cause then there's a whole wheat product things, but they're still removed some of the fiber, the outer layer out. There's also an omega rich fatty seed in the middle of this taken out. They no longer it's called an endo's burn. They take that out because then if they leave it and it's not a shelf stable, it becomes rancid.
So they kick that sucker out. So we miss those. And then there's all that starchy stuff that's put in between there. So then to make flour, you strip it all out and see it pulverize into a flower. And then you turn that into a product. And then we eat that. And then we, when we eat it, we break it all down really quick because it's basically in the smaller, in this different structure.
And so then it raises our blood sugar quickly and easily. So that's the same with fruit when we put fruit in smoothies, the fiber's there, but it's all pulverized, correct? Yeah, because the blender has done the job of your stomach. Into your mouth, right. Shui. So an important part of your projection process, because we know that there are, there's honestly, even like sematic benefits to chewing, but then you're also creating enzymes that are coming from your mouth that help you digest.
Yeah. We are doing mechanical and chemical digestion in your mouth. The stomach has also doing mechanical and chemical digestion. So you don't feel it, but your stomach is literally like gyrating. And they're happy dance. Yeah. To like attempt to break up the food and get those enzymes in between all those molecules of PSAT and proteins, because the proteins, like we eat those that will digress just a bit here.
They're all wound up. You've got to get them somewhat broken apart. And that is what the gyration, and then also the stomach acid comes down and can get those enzymes in there to unfold the proteins. But again, like for the carbohydrates, they get broken down well in the stomach because of the acid movement in them.
So it all works together. So smoothies are typically faster and synergy. Yeah. I think the difference would be. That if you had just a fat and a protein, which is not typical for most people that have, it would basically be something like just coconut milk, the kind from the can and protein powder. It would be intense, just basically a fabric.
It's not really something that might be medically necessary for a song, but I can't imagine most people on the average, so, right. So usually when you're adding fruit to it, which I'm totally not opposed to it, if you are, body's able to handle that. There are some people that are able to have that load of.
That quickly and be able to handle it and process it without a spike in the, but a lot of people are starting their day often with a huge fruit smoothie. Sometimes I used to do that and when I stopped doing that, my body totally changed. Well, I think it's one of those interesting things where we, we think we're doing something that's quote, unquote healthy for us because we've been told that smoothies are like, Life-giving tree.
You don't have to give up to smoothing, but you need to be aware of how much fruit's going into it because of that response. And that's why particularly doing berries can be more beneficial because there are technically less natural sugars and berries versus. It's like a banana have them. We just got to be conscious and aware of that.
How much in the timing, maybe. So maybe don't drink, chug it right before you go sit down at your desk for eight hours, because potentially yeah. Cause then yeah. So you can use it and then also make sure there's some fat in there. Whether that's from something like a nut butter, a seed butter, coconut milk, dairy, like traditional dairy, and then.
I think it can be helpful to add the protein in there because the protein is what helps us feel full and stateful. And I think that's the other struggle with some of these things that are quick energy. So we get that spike. We use that energy and then we're down and then we get another signal for hunger.
And if the spike was too elevated for us, then function will come down faster. You have too much of a dip. So then you get that more intense hunger feeling. But really sometimes what will happen is your body will be able to readjust and get you back up to a normal level, but you already had the signal for hunger typically eating by then.
So that can be the challenge there. So I like adding the protein of some sort. Whatever makes sense for you. So that way you can feel that's that satiation and stay for longer. In fact, the same, the fat will slow down how fast it's absorbed to some degree. Okay. Before we move on to the more fun topics, I want you to cover a little bit more about complex carbs since we've been talking about.
Energy carbs. What I think is also really interesting about carbohydrates, these complex carbs that are turned into fiber is how they're structured and that determines how they're broken down in the body. And then that structure is mimicked in the body and how it gets stored and reuse your energy. So, for example, Complex carbohydrates are composed of amylose and amylopectin, there will not be a test which are basically large cart, long carved chains that are put together differently.
So amylose is a spiral light shape, and only has two ends. And then amylopectin looks more like coral or deer horns or something that has many small branches coming off of a big bridge and this different. Determines how fast we break it down, because if the amylose can only have the enzymes, it has to have enzymes to break it apart.
It doesn't just fall apart because it gets too mushy and has to have enzymes. So if those enzymes only have two entry points, it takes a lot longer to break that down. So versus amylopectin has all the many points of entry. The enzymes can break it down at a time at any one time, which means it will get absorbed faster.
An example, short grain rice tends to be higher in amylopectin. So like more entry points for breakdown compared to long grain rice, like Jasmine basmati have lower amounts of it. It's still there just less. So therefore you tend to have a lower rise in glucose with short grain rice versus long grain.
Which is wild, because if you just look at the nutrition facts, it just tells you like, here's the number of carbs and they look very similar. But it is different. Yeah. So we all should have taken nutrition. And then of course, flower products are higher and the amylopectin as well. And that's because of the restructuring, but if they were whole, there would be an interesting mix of amylose and amylopectin depending on the grain itself.
And so I just say flower in general, but. And that again is nuanced in the type of grain. So we versus oats, we would have more amylopectin versus hopes would have more amylose. So are we good there? Yes. Okay. So when the carb chains farm back up a break them all down, you absorb them and they're in those little small, they're in the one and to carve change, you absorb them, but then your body will use what it can, what it needs at that time of those glucose and fructose molecules, then anything it can't use for energy.
Right. Then we'll get stored. As glycogen, but glycogen is another big, huge carb chain and it looks like amylopectin. And the reason is because when you are in between meals, you need to get to that energy quickly. Or if you start exercising or something like that, you need to use that energy quickly. So then you can break down those chains as needed very quickly, rather than packaging them up as like a spiral shape.
And it would take longer. So it's very fascinating to me that the nature we have amylopectin, which is easy to digest. And then in our body, we can store it. Similarly, we can only store so much like agenda as a capacity for that. And then anything beyond that is, gets converted into a triglyceride, which is a fat and a carb like structure.
So those roles, which is carby, but not. Straight parts. And again, it's also branched, so it can be broken down, easily converted back into energy. And this is this the same triglycerides that comes up on your cholesterol labs? Correct. So when we look at cholesterol panels and I see triglycerides, I'm looking for a particular number, I know that you're functioning with carb metabolism for the most part really well, if your triglycerides.
Fasting are below 85. So I like them between 75 and 85 when it starts rising above that, I know that your body is having a hard time using all the carbohydrates. So triglycerides ride with carbs. So good. Okay. So I've heard you also talk about resistant starch with clients in the past. Tell us what resistance starches, what the heck are they.
Yeah, those are the starts, the starches that define the odds and digestive system and don't get absorbed. So they go through. Untouched, essentially, basically I remember it as starch that stayed stuck to the fiber and passed through to the colon and helps feed the microbiome. They really do help create nice food source for our beneficial bacteria that aren't available.
Probiotics. You have to cultivate and then feed these 'cause. I know that our listeners are going to ask us. So does that mean that these don't count these carbs don't count. Well, so there's no food that is straight resistant and carbohydrate, but you wouldn't absorb any of it. It says I'm much. Yeah. It has a much higher amount of starches that you would fully absorb.
Gotcha. And I think there potentially could be. Some companies that have figured this out and put it on a label to be like net. This might be where some of the net carbs come from. Cause they'll take out fiber and they know they have resistance searches, but I don't really know. I try not to get all bogged down in that.
Yeah. So just kinda think about resistance, starches. Okay. So what foods have resistant. Unripened bananas. It still has that green tint to it as the U-turns from green to yellow, there is a sense of. Um, regular starch and fructose potatoes and rice that have been cooked and then cooled, you can reheat them so you can eat them, but you can only reheat them to just warm or retain the resistant starch.
If you like, get them really hot, then that virus. Breaks down a little differently. And so they're no longer resistant starch. I suggest potato salad as a helpful option. People are like, what? Yeah. And it is, it's a good source of resistant starch. Yeah. All right. Yeah. You can even buy resistant starch as a powder.
Bob's red mill makes it and it's just potato flour basically. Yeah. So I don't recommend just getting it from food now. We have it. Yeah. Not many people would eat corn rice. Would you? I wouldn't. I tried it once. I don't have a cold rice leftover fried rice from Chinese takeout. I'll eat that cold. I don't like the texture, but all the rest of it now I'm just not going to do it.
So there's other ways I can get resist a search. Right. So then, yeah. So you would just barely reheat that resistance. Tiger nuts. Never heard of them and hard to find, but they're out there. There's some other weird nuts. But my husband orders resistant starch in them. They're called, they're not very tasty.
He loves them. Leave it to build a fund. The nuts nobody's heard of there are interesting. I'll eat one. And then I'm like, that's enough. It's just got a texture, love beans. Do have resistance starch, particularly white beans, like great Northern and or cannellini beans. Love of being loved. And that's the thing is I feel like beans got really demonized in the anti carb.
Lentils, some whole grains like oats, but the amount of risk resistant starch does go down as make it faster to cook, which means like still cut first quick cook oats. So the quick cook oats would have less of that. Which is what you give. I give my baby when he started to it's just like something that's slightly more easily digestible, correct?
Yeah. Cause he's still working on developing all of us on that. Not any more. Now he eats like a full human, but so does that cover all of the molecular structure? I'm good. My add can only handle so much lines in one setting. I tell you it is. I agree. Maybe I think this is why I avoided one because. I know all of it.
They're living in a folder in your brain that is living in a hole in my brain. And I have to be able to be like, okay, you gotta go in this folder and we gotta summarize it in a way that makes sense outside of your brain. Yeah, which can be tricky. My main takeaway from this is when we talked about this last week with opposing beliefs, but just the all or nothing thinking and how our brain wants to categorize things as good or bad.
And it's, it literally is so much more complex with that. And we can see this as an example, just by learning about the structure of carbohydrates that like, it doesn't have to be good or bad. It's just, these are what they are. Of course I simplified it. So that way we can all wrap our head around it.
There's much more to it, but I think as long as you can just get the gist of fastens, low carbs, you eat things whole as much as you can, would be good. So try to avoid sugar and things that were once whole, and then pulverized into a new shape, that would be the best. And they can, all of course be included in our diet.
Generally as a society, we've asked if we just turned the dial back. So I realized why, you know, the sugar and the flour creates such a blood sugar spike is because you have both. Amylopectin amylopectin from the flower and the simple sugars. So it just breaks down and it's absorbed so fast. That's all we're trying to manage.
It's just, we just want to have a healthy level of blood sugar, the combo there of that flour, sugar. There is what also lights up. It's a double whammy. It's physical and it's mental, emotional for sure. Correct. Okay. Okay. Let's switch gears a bit and let's talk about carbs and tight-knit culture. I am dragging you through the mud on this, but I can't wait to hear what people do.
Do you have any pretense white diets teach us that carbs should be reduced upon avoided altogether? Yeah. By and large, what I think it is that we should not be avoiding carbs altogether. There's very few instances where that might not be the case, but what we need to focus on is what is the kind of carbohydrates that we're eating and the, how much of them, and then take that.
And put it into the context of your life or example the type and amount of movement that you do. What is your general metabolic health? What is the type of fuel that you need to feel good on? For example, if you lift heavy weights or trying to gain muscle, you need carbs for that function, those carbs, fuel that source or fuel that type of.
Exercise. We use carbohydrates for what's called anaerobic exercises, which is lifting heavy weights, doing sprinting type activities of those, um, short, quick bursts of movement versus slow endurance type of. Exercise is more of the aerobic and it primarily uses fat. At some point for energy, we still do use carbohydrates.
Don't get me wrong, but we are able to utilize fat resources for slow aerobic, endurance type exercise. The other thing is if you're trying to gain muscle mass, you need the cars because you need insulin to increase because that helps to signal the increase in creating muscle. So insulin makes things grow and it can make muscle grow, or it can make fat tissue.
Just depends on how you're utilizing your energy that you're bringing in. Right. Which is interesting, right? Because we know the bodybuilders know this, which is why they go through growth periods and then like shred periods, because it can be actually challenging for your body to be burning fat while lifting heavy weights while you're increasing.
It's like, When you're growing muscle, you're also adding slight amounts of fat with, correct? Yes. So they will go through periods where they are gaining muscle and they're also gaining some fat and that signaling. And then if they have say they have a competition or. And their own personal reasons. Like maybe they don't even compete.
They do, they'll go through like a cutting phase, which then they do take out their heavy carb intakes, and then they're using the fat for fuel. And then you, they, you can get that. Then you can see all that muscle. Can you share a quick example of if we look at athletes, how are they different? Yeah. Okay.
So the best example I can think of is an runners. This is just how my brain works. So we used to be runner sprinters being about what their body looks like versus long distance runners. So the sprinters are very muscular. I have huge power muscles. And then you look at long distance runners who are buried, then they have muscles, but it's very thin and lean.
And so they definitely look like different types of people. And so that's because they're using different energy sources, the sprinters need that power. So they have that higher muscle mass and they are using carbs differently than the long distance runner. Okay. So since we've talked about these in carbs and insulin, can you tell us a little bit about insulin resistance?
Yeah. It's essentially that yourself no longer recognizes that the insulin signal at the cell wall to it, won't let glucose and. So the cells like it's somebody there and I don't really see you. So that key is turned off and then glucose doesn't get in. And so then the mitochondria is not getting the glucose that it needs to make ATP.
So it says I'm still hungry. Can you please feed me? And then you eat more food, which usually pooped my carbohydrates. And then your glucose goes up. Insulin goes up. So still not responding. So it's this whole feed forward loop of glucose and insulin growing up in the cells, not getting fully what they need.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's, and it's not diabetes, right? It's just a different function. Can be, it can often insulin resistance will precede diabetes. Because you've got both because you're not able to ever bring that blood sugar down. And so now it's there so often insulin resistance precedes. So in these cases, we are looking at carbs and reducing carbs, but you have to take them away.
I don't take them away. And insulin-resistant clients or. My type two diabetes patients, either we just take some down, I really work on the types and amounts and base it around their day of activity. And I really encourage people to increase activity, particularly things like weight bearing activities, so they can increase their insulin sensitivity and use the glucose that is there.
So when we do weight bearing activity, we're actually. Reconditioning the receptors to function again, and we'll hear the mat start hearing the message again and having insulin be heard and let's move those in. Cool. I love that. Okay. So what are the things that can happen if you were over restricting carbs lung?
Yeah. You and I have always have seen clients that have come to us after doing. T-to are very low carb diets. And we'll say that they've walked, they lost hair. They have what they call like post-traumatic Kito diet and because they've lost hair or they had, their hormones were crazy. And again, it's hard to say what really happens.
We weren't there with them on that part of their journey. But as I mentioned before, we. Carbs for exercise. Our brain uses it as well. So the brain can switch between glucose and ketone, but it's, it will, it's preferential is actually glucose, but again, we have metabolic flexibility in our brains. We can use both, uh, hormones, like serotonin is largely regulated by carbohydrate intake.
So oftentimes particularly in emails, when they go low carb, they can have. More depressed feelings, dealing more sad because serotonin is regulated a lot by carbohydrates. If it goes too low for a long period of time, it can alter thyroid function, which is where you might start to see that hair loss. And then also when people take carves out, it seems like a good.
Uh, vegetables so out with it too. So it just seems like all sources of carbs go, I don't know, those foods will get lost or things like beans or lentils. All those foods are great sources of fiber vitamins minerals. And so we're not getting those and we need to function optimally, whether we're using fats Ricards for as our energy source.
And I'm not anti ketones for energy. We use them, so they're not bad. And some people do, as I mentioned before, really well on them, the ketogenic diet really came about from epileptic patients. And so, because the brain is very fatty and so it was able to use ketones as efficiently to cut down on, on the number of epileptic episodes.
I have heard of a few. That did really well on kenogenic that tended to be more depressed. And so it really helped their neurotransmitter function. But what I think gets lost in all of this is of the debate of what's the best diet for everyone is that we really need to go back to, we need to be a metabolic.
And you stop demonizing whole groups of food, because we do need to be able to switch back and forth between carbs and fat for energy and reduce our processed foods. It's really the bottom line here is let's stop demonizing, whole groups of foods. We can eat a little bit of everything, but our real problem.
How much of the processed foods we eat. Amen. What about protein? Has protein ever been demonized? Not in my life. Yes. Because types like maybe yes, yes. There have been. I'm sure I can circle back to that. But when we talk about protein for energy, Do we can use protein for energy, but it's very expensive in terms of, it takes a lot of energy to convert protein into glucose and use that for energy creation.
So it's a last resort for the body in Quito. There is a belief that it's high, fat and high protein, but it's not. It's actually moderate, low, moderate forms of calories from proteins about 10 to 15%. Of your calorie needs should come from protein, 75% ish to come from fat. And then the rest can be from carbs, which I hope we're all vegetable carbs.
And so if you are getting too much protein, it will convert it to glucose to use for energy. And so you aren't going to stay into the keto range as often. As you think you are or trying to, and you using the ketones slash fat for energy. So that's, we talk about all the time. People will think they're doing keto, but, but most people are not.
So we think about what is pudo really because we just, again, just do a quick, oh, that sounds great. High fat, blah, blah. And then, then, but. Think about the true logistics of it. So, yeah, but I would say that the protein gets demonized in certain plant based diets. So for example, it's mostly like animal proteins get, do you and I, is that so.
There's a couple of books that I have that are very plant focused and they are very high carbohydrate diets and people do get well on them. But again, the focus is on. Even on those books are high carb is that it's plants Right it's mostly whole foods.Whole foods. and plants And so then it's, again, people can, we just eat as many whole foods as possible.
What is the Michael Pollan? quote Eat food Not too much, mostly plants. So simple. I personally don't like diet math. It's just numbers. And we don't necessarily don't really make people count calories or macros or anything like that. But we had to put a number that someone could walk away with of total consumed carbs.
Just like for the average woman, who's mild to moderately active. I don't know. Where do you think is a good starting point just to explore and see if that's helpful or not? Great. I think a hundred grams really. That's a good place to start. And then you can go up and down from there and it's all based on your needs, your energy levels.
And when I say hundred grams that does not include vegetables, including starchy vegetables, but it does not include oh, so then really it's 150 with your vegetables. Yes on her 30 to 150. Cause if you're actually eating six to eight cups of vegetables, that's somewhere between 30 to 50. So I say start at a hundred grams of starchy things and play around with that.
And that includes fruit. Root vegetables, grains beans, even that Cincy nuts and seeds have some, a lot. So it includes all of that. It just does not include your true protein only in stores and vegetables like broccoli green beans are. They are carbs. Correct. Great segue to the next question. This is actual a question.
Um, I've heard from more than one client. Really? What it's like. So what about foods that are carb substitutes? Like. Or even just food substitutes where, for example, cauliflower chips, are they corrupts or are they vegetable chips? Are they a vegetable Ricardo look at the ingredients. So the ingredients to most of the cauliflower chips, the first ingredient is cassava flour.
Not cauliflower. If the first ingredient is cauliflower and then a little bit of some seizing or whatever, then sure. I eat those cauliflower tortilla, sens or sandwich sens or whatever they are. I don't consider them a source of vegetable for the day. Yes, they are very low in carbohydrates and USA are tortillas.
To me that doesn't count as getting my vegetables and I eat them. Not because I'm trying to avoid carbohydrates. It's just, I like to change things up and actually like the taste of them, but I've put cars with them. Beans and eggs and sound dreams and stuff like that. It's all part of my breakfast. Okay.
So then, yeah. What about things like almond flour tortillas or lentil? Pasta? Yeah, there are carbs, but what are the benefits of the types of foods over the traditional versions of them? And is it quote unquote worth it or are these just diet foods in disguise? What is your take on that? I do encourage people to use.
Things like the almond flour tortillas or the cost for the customer ones are closer to flour, but almond tortillas for example, is 13 grams. 15 grams somewhere in that neighborhood of carbs for two tortillas, versus if you did a flour tortilla of the same size, it would be about 15 to 18 grams of carbohydrates for one.
So it is technically less carbohydrates, but again, it was an almond that you pulverized and then did that. So you're still going to digest and absorb it. Faster than you wrote if you just ate some moments. So I like to think of them as they are helpful when we need to be concerned about how our body responds to trigger spikes, and also for people that cannot.
That need to have gluten free foods because they have sensitivities or intolerances. In my husband's case, we're like a court and free family sometimes was visiting for that. And I really do to recommend lentil red lentil pasta for people, because it does have 20 grams of protein in it. And literally the ingredients are.
Red lentil, pasta and water as red lentils and water, it does have still a good amount of carbohydrates in it, but it still has fiber in it. And it's still, and it does have a good amount of protein. I think it's 20 grams or something like that. So you do eat less of it because you do feel more satiated and it does help to lower that inset glucose spike.
So then it is a better metabolic response to, and say bringing their process. We use it mostly it, we started because it was all because it was gluten free. And once we were cause before it was only the brown rice pasta, which is essentially just it's the same at absorbs just quickly. Which is awesome that some people don't realize this just because something is gluten free doesn't mean that it's correct.
There's oodles amounts of things. There's a lot of
regular or whatever. So. The earlier we were talking about the cauliflower chips, because you were reading the ingredients and you were like, this is like greenwashing because the marketing really, this is like why people are confused pretzels, which we buy because my daughter loves pretzels. She is. So we buy them, but it's cost of a flower.
It's most, it's a carb. And it's just the only reason why I'm when's cause it was just get tired of buying the Butan. So we just changed the brands up. So we're still, I'm still buying her best carbs. Right? I don't pretend that like she can eat them. A lot of them. And that it's healthy for her notice somewhere, like not talking about whether these things are good or bad or healthy or unhealthy, it's just, these are different types of carbohydrate foods.
We can incorporate them all. And we definitely just want you to focus mostly on those whole foods, mostly veggies. And in order to maintain optimal health, we do have to keep an eye on some of this. It doesn't mean that we have to over restrict or count calories or count carbs. It's just finding that balance, which I know.
I don't know if balance is even a real thing, but that's, my job is helping my clients figure out, like, how do I include some of these things, but then also include all the other things. I agree. What is the context of your life? How's your body functioning now and how do you want it to function? And I just want people to just eat more real food.
And it's like in the process, we try to take the drama out of it. So we don't have to make up stories about ourselves. Poor our character. That's why I wanted to finally explain what carves are for you to actually know what carbohydrates are. So you can think for yourself. And if you see a diet or you see an eating plan, you can be quite start to use your own brain to question.
Is this really healthy or is this just diet culture wrapped up? And a new label.
each week we keep our eyes chilled for things in the media or in real life that come from diet culture. These are often the subtle things you might not notice, which is why we're sharing it with you, Beth, what do you have for us? I have an ad for a meal as a meal delivery company. And I get many different same company, but I'll get different ads.
So the meals are based for people that are very into fitness and it almost looks like they're targeting the CrossFit culture. Also, it looks like to me and the one Adelaide religion was, there was a woman who was probably in her early thirties, potentially. And she was wearing her those clothes that you typically see of CrossFit at CrossFit, small shorts type stuff, anyways, really cute and move all that stuff.
And then, so she was using, you know, heating up her meal and then. On the floor was her young child who was sitting up and playing on the floor right there. And it was, to me, it didn't sit well because it perpetuates this thinking that. We should have our bodies back to this very fit within a year or less after having children as if my body looks like that before
bodies like that before. Yes. Yes. I think it's definitely promoting snapback culture and snap culture. Have you heard that? No, but how I like it.
I know, but I like it has a snappy. I don't like the meaning behind it. Let me be real clear. But I like that it has people have created something around it. Like we've created a diet culture. I don't like diet culture. When I talk about. Same thing. Yeah. Snack is okay. You better snap your body back, right.
It was like two weeks after you give birth, which is just so interesting. And even you get the clear at what, six weeks to start moving your body. But for most women at six weeks, like you may. Be there mentally, emotionally, physically could take four months, six months a year. I feel like I'm a year postpartum now.
And I'm just now starting to like, really be able to put that as a priority. I don't think it's not even a matter of whether or not you can do that. It's like physically, do you even have the. And do you have the desire? Maybe you don't have the desire and that's okay. So I don't know. I say screw, screw. I agree.
I don't take it. Yeah, you do need time. I wish that I had saved it, but I did not, but I follow a yoga person who I love very much and she had posted. On hers, which was in obviously in defensive snapback culture, about what, where bodies are in this healing process. And I believe actually it was really more about family hate family leave, um, in response to something that's up about that.
And, but it was like, this is what your body is doing for this amount of time. And so why are we expected to go back to work within six weeks? Because we're not, we haven't even fully healed. We're still massively, whether you've had a C-section or natural, still healing on the inside, we just don't see it.
So it's just was like, if you had that same wind on your back, people would be like, oh my gosh, you need to rest and all this other stuff, because we can't see it. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, some people can do it quickly. Yes. It's rare, but yes, yes. Yeah, no, I'm not here to be against the people that can do it.
It's just, I don't think it should be the norm or the expectation that we should. It just perpetuates the idea of, oh, this is maybe what I should be doing or what I should be doing. Like at this point in my life, when there is no short, correct. I will say in defense of it, they look good. I was like, oh, I don't actually eat that.
It's balanced. It's got all the things. I don't know what it actually tastes like, but I was, I didn't like the message of the very fit. It's not aspirational. It's at what point is aspirational really inspirational or is it damaging? Because the ad would have been just fine with her by herself. We didn't need the kid on the floor or make the kid two or three.
And it was just very subtle and it's, most people wouldn't even notice. And that's the thing is that it's so tricky and so subtle that we don't notice that is the message that we aren't given. And so that's why I want to talk about it. Thank you for sharing. I sure hope we gave you something new to think about today and helped you take one more step on your path to freeing yourself from diet culture.
Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at path underscore nutrition, we are taking a little holiday break and we'll see you back here. January 4th. However, holiday season, happy holidays and happy new year.
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