Category Archives: Nutrition

I’m sure you’ve heard bad things about carbohydrates before right?

It seems that notion is pretty well accepted today with books like ” Wheat Belly” and “The Paleo Answer” demonizing carbs. They talk about how they make you fat, increase blood sugar, decrease insulin sensitivity, and how cutting them out make you lose weight.

All of those things can be true. Just like how lifting weights can lead to injury. But it rarely does, and usually only does lead to injury because people do not know how to lift properly.

However, carbs aren’t bad. Your body needs carbs and cannot function properly without them.

 The Function of Carbs in the Body

Carbohydrates are the human body’s primary way of storing and using energy. Once ingested, carbs undergo one of three enzyme mediated pathways: glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, or oxidative phosphorylation.

The end result of these metabolic processes is ATP, which our cells use for energy.

Carbs are very important however, their intake should be monitored and getting too much or too little can wreak havoc over the long term if you aren’t careful.

Which is Better: Low Carb or High Carb?

It depends. Lame answer right? But it’s true. There is no one size fits all solution to this, as with most things in life. It is highly dependent on your goals, activity level, and metabolism.

Higher carb intake is great for athletes or people that are very active. The high energy output they produce requires a lot of energy to be put in to restore the body.

This is why “carb loading” is a thing. This is when marathon runners or other athletes basically feast on carbs the day or two before their event. Essentially they are building up their glycogen stores and putting extra energy in because they know they will be expending a lot soon.

Conversely, low carb diets can be a great tool for someone looking to cut body fat who is most likely an advanced trainee. This is typically seen in the ketogenic and paleo lifestyles that are popular today.

Although low carb can work, cutting carbs out completely should never be a thought! I hear this all the time when people are talking about new diets they are going to try for their new year’s resolutions (which almost always fail-a post for another time). They claim they are following whatever diet plan that has them eliminate carbs and they lose weight super fast.

Well yes, you will lose weight very quickly if you cut carbs out. But, you will be starving your body of energy. And guess what, the 10 pounds you lose from cutting carbs for a week will come right back once your body gets too exhausted and you give in to eating carbs again. It’s not sustainable.

If you want to lose fat it’s very simple: burn more calories than you consume.

The Accounting of Fat Loss

The body and its energy balance comes down to some basic accounting. In accounting, debits = credits (or they should). The body and its energy is the same way.

Think of it like this,

To gain weight:

energy consumed > energy burned

To lose weight:

energy consumed < energy burned

To maintain weight:

energy consumed = energy burned

With this in mind, losing fat then becomes a numbers game. It comes down to consuming less calories than you burn off in a day. This puts the body in a negative energy balance and it is forced to get the energy from somewhere else i.e. fat reserves or protein. It prefers to use fat reserves for awhile after glycogen is used up because it is more energy dense and to preserve body muscle mass.

Conclusion

While it is important to keep track of how many carbs you consume, at the end of the day it matters most how many calories you are supplying your body with when concerned with body composition. If you are looking to lose excess body fat you need to have a caloric deficit and burn off more calories than you consume in a day. A balanced diet of carbs, fat, and protein along with all the essential micronutrients is the best for anyone. Carbs are an essential nutrient and they are not the sole reason people are fat.

What is your experience with carbs? Have you followed a high or low carb diet, and what were the results? Leave your thoughts below!

Photo credits:

http://chemistry.tutorvista.com/organic-chemistry/carbohydrate-metabolism.html

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20359383,00.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=accounting&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_4aTmn53TAhVL_WMKHbZKB6QQ_AUICSgC&biw=1366&bih=589#imgrc=k2b0sqJ0MzP3kM:

Ever wonder what the difference is between saturated and unsaturated fats? Are they healthy or unhealthy? Is one better than the other? What does omega-3 and omega-6 really mean? Well wonder no more my friends, in this post I am going to explain what saturated and unsaturated fats are and which you should be including in your diet.

What is Fat?

Fat refers to the nutrients known as lipids. This family of nutrient includes triglycerides, phospholipids, and sterols. Triglycerides are the most abundant lipid both in food and in the body, making up 95% of the total fat. Saturated and unsaturated fats are within the triglyceride umbrella so let’s define what they are.

Triglycerides

Triglycerides refer to a molecule of glycerol (an alchol) and three fatty acids that make up a chemical chain:

Chemistry, man.

So every single triglyceride has the same basic makeup. They always have a glycerol and three fatty acids. The glycerol never changes, but the makeup of the fatty acids does.

Fatty Acids

Fatty acids are composed of a chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms with an acid group (COOH) at one end of the molecule and a methyl group (CH3) at the other end. The fatty acids of a triglyceride molecule vary in length and in the number and location of their double bonds. Most fatty acids in our diet are 18 carbons long.

Stearic acid is an 18-carbon saturated fatty acid.

All you really need to know when it comes to these fatty acids is whether they are saturated or unsaturated. When a fat is saturated, it simply means that all the hydrogen atoms in the molecule are filled. If you look at the picture above, you see that all the chemical bonds are full. Simple right? All animal products contain saturated fat to some degree, and only a couple plant products contain them (coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil). Now let’s talk about unsaturated fats, which look like this:

Oleic acid is an example of a monounsaturated fat.

Unsaturated fats occur when there are a lack of hydrogen atoms in the chain. When this happens, the carbon atoms that would have bonded to hydrogen form a double bond and thus the molecule is not completely saturated anymore. The point where this double bond occurs is called the point of unsaturation. The number of points of unsaturation in a fatty acid determine its name. One double bond is a monounsaturated fatty acid; two or more is polyunsaturated.

Linoleic acid is a ployunsaturated fatty acid.

When it comes to polyunsaturated fats, the location of the bond is important to know as well. Chemists identify them based on how far away the point of unsaturation is from the CH3 end of the molecule. An omega-3 fatty acid has its double bond three carbons away from the end, omega-6 is six away, and omega-9 is nine carbons away from the CH3. Unsaturated fats are mainly found in plant based products such as olive oil, vegetable oil, seeds, nuts, and are also found in fish. So now that you’re super confused with all this chemistry I’ve thrown at you, let’s recap: triglycerides are the most abundant of dietary fats and are made up of a glycerol and three fatty acids. The makeup of the fatty acids varies, but they are made up of a long chain of carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen atoms with an acid group at one end and a methyl group at the other. If a fatty acid has all the carbons bonded to hydrogen, it is saturated. If there is an open space where hydrogen is missing, the carbons bond to each other and the molecule is unsaturated.

What does it all mean?

By this point you may be wondering what the point of all that chemistry was. Well I’ll tell you: it was to provide you with a basic understanding of how these fatty acids are named. Now that you are armed with that knowledge we can discuss which to consume and which to avoid. It is best to avoid saturated fats and consume unsaturated fats. So try to limit (or eliminate entirely) your intake of whole dairy products, fatty meats, and junk food. The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fat to 13 grams or less per day. Instead focus on including seeds, nuts, and plant based oils in your diet.