More and more people are discovering the benefits of going low carb. Some of us have genetic, health, or gut related issues that pretty much have forced us to eat a lower carb diet. Others just want to lose weight and be healthier.

Benefits of a low carbohydrate diet

• Lower blood sugar and better insulin control
• Improves metabolic syndrome
• Reduced inflammation
• Less hunger,
• Better digestion
• Fast weight loss and increased fat burning
• Lower heart disease risk
• Improved cognitive ability and mood
• Improved hormone regulation
• Less cancer risk  (1)(2)(3)(4)

If you are someone who can eat anything you want and have no problems with weight, blood glucose control, or issues like IBS or inflammation, this information may not be helpful to you. If you feel good on a high carbohydrate diet and beginning your day with a high carbohydrate meal gives you lasting energy, a low carbohydrate diet may not be for you. There are some people who do very well eating rice with vegetables for all meals. Certain ethnic groups thrive on this type of eating and were built genetically to eat that way. Other ethnic groups especially people of color, need animal protein and fat to feel full and reduce cravings. Rice with their meals causes inflammation, high blood sugar and cravings for more carbs.

This page is meant to help those who struggle with food-related issues that require a lower carbohydrate diet.

Hopefully, this post will help you decide if a low carbohydrate diet is worth a try. For some of us, a low carb diet may be life-changing. We are all unique and there are good reasons why not every food is for everyone.

Carbs = Sugar

The carbohydrates you eat break down to sugar (technically glucose), in your body. Glucose is a primary source of energy but free fatty acids in our diet are a good source of energy too. I will go into detail in another post about making changes in your diet by adding fats (yes fats!) instead of carbohydrates to help with weight loss and other health issues.

Glucose is used as:

• Fuel for your cells, muscles, and brain
• It is stored in your muscles to give you energy and in your liver to come to the rescue when you need extra energy, for example when your blood sugar drops.
• It is turned into fat and stored as fat in your body. 

The problem is that too much glucose can build up in your body and cause a number of problems that can quickly become complicated. Fats in your diet do all of the above but it is not as easily stored as fat on your body.

What types of carbohydrates should you eat?

What the “experts” have told us in the past about what we should eat, has in many cases turned out to be all wrong.

Most of the grocery store shelves are stocked with processed carbohydrates in the form of breads, cereals, pastas, cookies, crackers, grains and snacks. These types of starches and sugars are responsible for many of the high rates of diabetes and inflammatory diseases that we face. Most of these foods have little nutritional value, energy, or fiber. They only make us feel satiated for a short amount of time. People will keep eating carbohydrates to satisfy the body’s ongoing cravings, not realizing that what it really hungers for is protein and nutrients. Protein makes us feel satisfied. They are the building blocks of our bodies.

How many carbs should we eat a day?

• Medical establishment tells us:                225 to 325 grams a day
• Average American intake:                         250 to 400 grams a day
• Low carbohydrate diet:                              less than 130 grams a day
• Ketogenic diet:                                             20 to 50 grams a day
• Our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate:        10 to 124 grams a day

Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in percentages

When following a low carbohydrate diet, keep in mind that you will have to increase your intake of either fats or proteins, or both, to meet your nutritional needs. A certain percentage of each group must be eaten daily. If you eat say 50% carbohydrates then the other 50% must be in the form of fats and proteins. A good balance to shoot for some people would be 30% carbohydrates, 40% fats, and 30% protein.

A ketogenic diet requires that you add more healthy fats in place of carbohydrates. Your intake should be lower in carbohydrates, about 20% total, higher fat, 50 to 70%, and approximately 20 to 30% protein.

Since you are eating fewer carbohydrates and sugars, a ketogenic diet forces your body to burn fat for energy. This results in faster weight loss. Some good fats to eat daily are olive oil and coconut oil. Try to eliminate cheap oils that are most often GMO’s like soybean, corn, and canola oil. These oils have all been known to cause inflammation. Read labels, any oil that says vegetable is probably 100% soybean, which is the worst trigger of inflammation.

When trying a new diet ease into it. Again, we are all different and we react to foods and changes in our diets differently.

Can eating lower carbohydrates make that much of a difference?

The answer to this question depends again on your genetics and the health of your intestinal tract. What we do know is that highly processed foods and sugars are the worst things we can eat and that includes sweet drinks of any kind. Beans, wheat products, grains, are all high carbohydrate and should be eaten in moderation. They also contain anti-nutrients that cause an intestinal reaction and actually may block absorption of important nutrients.

Potatoes, corn, and rice are high carbohydrate foods but they are also high glycemic causing a spike in blood glucose levels. Some people do well eating these foods but for many people, these foods trigger unwanted reactions. Milk and milk products all have sugars that you should eliminate for this diet to work. Did you know that approximately 70% or more of the world’s population does not digest milk well?   

Foods we should eat are grass fed, and when possible, organic meats like lamb, goat, beef, and venison. Poultry and cage free or organic eggs are also good choices. Fatty fish like salmon and mackerel are the best choices along with other fatty fish.

The best carbohydrates are vegetables. You are getting nutrition and fiber when you eat them. When eating vegetables those lowest in carbohydrates are greens, romaine lettuce, and vegetables from the cabbage family like broccoli and Brussel sprouts. Avocados are always a good choice since they are high fat and high fiber.

What does genetics have to do with it?

Humans and their ancestors have lived on earth for thousands of years. We know that civilization went through floods that may have caused migration to cooler, higher elevations. This changed the availability of foods they ate. Then there was the ice age that also limited food supplies. Civilization adapted to those changes by eating meat, fish, and seasonal foods that could be grown in short growing seasons. They learned to eat when they could, often going without food for days. They ate what few foods they could store until they could hunt or find the next meal. The food our ancestors ate was totally dependent on the environment.

If you are A or B blood type,  you may be able to tolerate a higher carbohydrate and grain diet. If you are European your ancestors may have farmed for thousands of years, resulting in the ability to adapt to a vegetarian or high carbohydrate diet. If you are from mixed heritage, the ancestor that you got your most dominant genes from will pretty much determine how you should eat.

If your genetics are from indigenous people or people of color, your ancestors probably ate a lower carbohydrate diet. They may not have developed the ability to digest certain carbohydrates well and they probably don’t do well with milk. If your ancestors went through feast or famine for centuries, as most of our ancient ancestors did, you may have “thrifty genes” in your DNA. For those who inherited “thrifty genes” a high carbohydrate, high calorie, diet can be problematic. High carbohydrate intake for them will almost certainly cause insulin resistance and lead to Type 2 diabetes. Overeating carbohydrates, sugars, and starches for them is a recipe for disaster. You don’t tolerate them well because your ancestors did not eat these foods, especially in such high amounts. 

Why are carbohydrates so bad for so many of us?

When you eat too many carbohydrates, especially if you are not very active, your muscles are overloaded and at some point, they stop accepting sugar. The cells then become resistant to insulin that would normally lower the sugar levels in your body. This is how insulin resistance develops.

Some of us are missing certain enzymes to help us metabolize carbohydrates. Others may have damage to the intestinal lining that creates our problems and allows anti-nutrients in our food to do further damage. We may not be digesting the proteins in many foods efficiently and they attack our own cells. This happens with celiac disease, an autoimmune disease, where proteins do physical damage to our intestinal tract. These are just a few of the reasons why not every carbohydrate is for everyone.

As tempting as those breads, grains, pastas, and cereals are, you will feel much better eating foods from the produce, meat and fish section, especially so if a high carbohydrate diet was not the diet of your ancestors. 

Why do we feel bad when we eat too many carbohydrates? 

The answer to this is very individualized but more than likely has to do with available enzymes and the anti-nutrients in foods. For instance, gluten could have done damage to your gut lining.  If you have certain genetic traits or leaky gut damage those genes can be turned on by undigested proteins. Autoimmunity then develops and your body starts attacking your own body cells. If your gut has been damaged, or you are a non-secretor, it is possible that you do not produce some enzymes that help you break down certain foods and carbohydrates.

We are hearing more and more about people that believe that they have no other choice but to eat only meat. Everything else makes them feel bad. Something is more than likely out of balance in the body.

In some instances, undigested proteins, especially grains, in the body can cause problems. For others, oxalates can be an issue. Some people that react to so many foods could very well have a problem with oxalates. Oxalates are in almost everything but meat. They can build up in the body due to damage to the gut or nutritional deficiencies. This causes you to feel pain all over when you eat wheat or spinach or other high oxalate foods, but you have only figured out that you feel better just eating meat. 

What is the deal with carbohydrates and blood type?

Our cells have carbohydrates on their surfaces. Our blood type determines which carbohydrate chains are present. Some of the carbohydrates like oligosaccharides are involved in cell to cell recognition. It is much like a hidden language that determines if a food, bacteria or pathogen is ok or if it should be attacked. More work and studies need to be done to understand exactly how this works. Many people believe that the blood type diet has improved their health. It may be worth a try if you have any food-related issues. See my page on the Blood Type Diet here.

Diseases related to a high carbohydrate diet

• Type 2 diabetes
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Coronary artery disease
• Obesity
• Cancer of certain kinds
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Peripheral vascular disease
• High cholesterol
• Osteoporosis
• Acne
• Diverticulitis

Nutrient Deficiencies

If you are on a carnivore, ketogenic or low carbohydrate diet, be aware that eating a limited variety of foods can cause nutrient deficiencies. Here are some deficiencies to be aware of.

• Fiber intake should be 25 to 38 grams a day for adults. If you are eating only meat, you are not getting any fiber at all. There are some low carb fiber supplements on the market that work great. you can also add fiber in your diet by eating a number of different food that are high in fiber.

• Vitamin C, meat has no vitamin c so a supplement is needed.

• Fish oil is important. Your good fat intake must be increased. This is crucial if you are not eating enough fish, because it may counteract the oxidative effects of animal fats

More information on this topic will be added at a later date.

References:

(1) Wlodarek, D 2019, Role of Ketogenic Diets in Neurodegenerative Diseases (Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease), Nutrients, 2019 Jan 15;11(1). pii: E169

(2) Barnes, J, Joyner, M, 2012, Sugar highs and lows: the impact of diet on cognitive function, Journal of  Physiology,  2012 Jun 14.

(3) McClernon, FJ, Yancy WS Jr, Eberstein JA, Atkins RC, Westman EC. 2007, The effects of a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet and a low-fat diet on mood, hunger, and other self-reported symptoms, Obesity, 2007 Jan;15(1):182-7.

(4) Gibson A,  Seimon RV, Lee CM, Ayre J, Franklin J, Markovic TP, Caterson ID, Sainsbury A. 2015, Do ketogenic diets really suppress appetite? A systematic review and meta-analysis, Obesity Review, 2015 Jan;16(1):64-76

(5) Boden, G,  Sargrad K, Homko C, Mozzoli M, Stein TP, 2005, Effect of a low-carbohydrate diet on appetite, blood glucose levels, and insulin resistance in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Annals of internal medicine, 2005 Mar 15;142(6):403-11.