In Defense Of Carbs

March 21, 2011

After reading the article “Carbs: the ultimate enemy?” I feel compelled to step into the discussion and stand up in defense of carbohydrates.
Let’s start by saying that I do strongly believe that not all carbohydrates are bad for you, actually some (the complex ones) are good for you. We cannot rag this important macronutrient.
Truth is that following an hyperproteic diet can be very dangerous for your body and you’ll figure that out after some years.
Certainly in 4 weeks your body will be slim and tonic but what about your general health?
These are some of the side effects of an hyperproteic diet: kidney failure, concentration of high levels of free radicals, alteration of the gut flora, spike in cholesterol and last but not least what about all the toxins, antibiotics and hormones that you can find in the meat?


My advice is always to have a balanced diet, which has to be predominantly vegetarian.
An healthy diet needs to have a complete balance of all the macronutrients: carbs, proteins and fats.
Of course there are some carbohydrates that are unhealthy and we should avoid them!
Those are the refined sugar carbs that you can find in: cookies, sweets, cakes, carbonated soft drinks, ice-cream, syrups and so on...

We don't need to eat any of these refined carbohydrate foods.
But we do NEED whole carbohydrates: they’re the body’s gasoline and they should be a crucial part of your diet!

It doesn’t matter if you’re an athlete or just the average Joe, carbs provide the energy that fuels muscle contractions and are also vital in the brain activity.
So what kind of carbs we can and should include in our diet?
We have to focus on the good carbs: fruits, vegetables and whole carbs.
Even if those are classified as sugars, they are unrefined and quite different from the non-nutritious carb sugars found in manufactured/processed food.

Fresh fruit and vegetables contain the best carbs! In fact they carry vital phyto-chemicals and other micro-nutrients that help protect us against serious diseases like heart disease and cancer and chronic diseases.
On the other side whole carbs such as oats, whole wheat, brown rice and the like are an important source of soluble fiber that is so important to lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels.

So, what do you think? Have I convinced you about the importance of carbs?
I guess that we should leave the discussion open for debate...

by Margherita Bisoglio

3 comments:

  1. hello Margherita.
    I reasoned with a friend who is a holistic doctor about this.
    His opinion is the result of an analysis of the dietary habits of ethnic groups.
    Ad example, we note that the vegetable oil has been a huge contribution to the African people. Thanks to the squeezing, their diet has improved, leading to a longer average life.
    We also found that people in central Europe, having a high and unbalanced consumption of cereals has clear chronic degenerative diseases.
    My idea is inspired by the thought of a famous connoisseur of natural fact.
    There are no good and evil in nature.
    The variety of foods on Earth for the survival of man is huge.
    The food that fishermen and farmers have collected locally for thousands of years are a wonderful example of a diet in accordance with the laws of nature.
    Today we need two elements to feed as it was originally designed.
    1) A change of mentality.
    2) An ecosystem: The ecosystem must express functional autonomy, inside dynamic balance and must be restricted respect to adjacent ones.
    Imagining a graphical representation of edible food, you get a line that branches off in many directions, taking up your A4 paper. Every 2 cm a food.
    Unfortunately a balanced diet is not easily accessible.
    There are no known more wild edible herbs. The exquisite taste of pond snails, freshwater or sea. Basically you can eat everything, including the leaves of cherry trees, the leaves of khai or peaches.
    I conclude by saying that a natural diet is to eat a random food that can be obtained from the ecosystem with a non-discriminatory attitude.
    Till then there will not be a global an complete sucess in people food & health.
    Thanks for the attention. All the best. C.

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  2. Thank you for this C., It's really interesting!

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  3. It's an important part of diet to refuel up energy.

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