Carbs Are Bad For You And Will Make You Fat!…Just Kidding

There is a pervasive myth out there that carbs are bad for you, or that they will make you overweight – or fat. Some may think this way due to having read books like Grain Brain, or Wheat Belly, and/or logically assume this since cutting out snack foods like cookies and chips – which they associate as carbs – has led to successful weight loss.

The answer to both why Carbs aren’t bad for you and why they don’t make you fat can be a little nuanced, so let’s unpack this a little more. Let’s first start with why they won’t make you fat.

Carbs Won’t Make You Fat

The first rule of weight loss is you need to achieve a calorie deficit whereby you expend more calories than you take in. You won’t lose weight if you don’t satisfy this rule. Now part of the reason Carbs tend to get a bad rap is that of the different types of macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat) they have the lowest satiation value, which is a fancy word to describe the feeling of fullness. To help you understand this, think of how full you feel from eating 10 Ritz Crackers vs. 4 oz. of chicken breast (about the size of a hockey puck), which both have similar calories. One is predominately carbs (Ritz Crackers), the other predominately protein (chicken breast). I guarantee the chicken breast will leave you feeling more full; it should make sense that you’ll eat more of something that doesn’t make you feel as full – at least without external regulation (consciously stopping eating even if you still feel hungry).

Given this what can tend to happen with carbs is you end up eating more, which can result in more calories. However, there are two things to consider:

1. What most people think are Carbs aren’t just Carbs. Many carbs also have fat, which can contribute a considerable amount of calories. Let’s look at cookies and potato chips as examples:

• 1 Subway cookie is 210 calories, 90 calories are from fat.
• 1 small bag of potato chips is 153 calories, 95 calories are from fat.

2. Poor Carbs choices. If you are eating more processed versions of carbs then you’re not going to feel as full from these foods. They won’t make you feel as full, and you will digest them faster resulting in your hunger signals getting triggered again. The combination effect of this is that you’ll likely have a higher caloric intake overall. If you instead choose carbs that contain fiber will make you feel much fuller, namely fruits and vegetables, pulses, and wholegrains.

Carbs Are Not Bad For You

People will provide some of the following combination of things that suggest about carbs: carbs spike insulin, cause inflammation, they are toxic, and/or other reasoning…

I’m not going to touch on these claims, rather I’m going to refer to the Blue Zone Study. For those of you that don’t know what that was, it was a study done to study analyze why there were certain places on earth with a high proportion of people living longer. In each of these “Blue Zones” there was a high population of centenarians – people 100+ years old.

What you need to know from the study is this: something consistent amongst all of those in these blue zones was that carbohydrate intake was generally quite high. They also weren’t eating cookies, chips, or processed and refined carbs as their carb sources.

It should be worth noting that there were many other things these “Blue Zone-ians” did right, like regular exercise, strong social networks, and plant-based diet – to name a few (there were 9 common lifestyle habits total). Regardless, the point i’m trying to make is that carbs are singly inherently bad –  the “Blue Zone-ians” are living proof.

There is no one diet that is right for everyone. For various reasons, a low carb diet might be best for you – and that’s great. But what remains true:

• When it comes to maintaining your weight, it’s calories that are the culprit and not carbs; theoretically you could diet by just eating doughnuts and still lose weight, provided you control your caloric intake – for many reasons this is not recommended.
• You’re better off, for health and weight maintenance, avoiding processed carbs and choosing carbs higher in fibre – like fruits and vegetables, pulses, and wholegrains.
• Carbs in and of themselves are not bad for you. They are only one variable related to your health, you also need to address other areas of your life to promote optimal health and wellness.

Some reading material you might want to check out if your curiosity has been sparked:

• https://www.self.com/story/this-is-what-eating-carbs-actually-does-to-your-body
• https://greatist.com/health/fitness-reborn-real-truth-about-carbs
• https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/carbohydrates#1
• https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/diet/good-carbs-bad-carbs/
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/carbohydrates–good-or-bad-for-you