Click to listen to the audio…
How to put bread and pasta back on the menu
You know you should cut back on your carb consumption, but you love them. You can have your carbs and avoid sugar spikes, if you play with the timing.
If you’ve got metabolic issues………
Cutting carbs is a good place to start.
Both in terms of actual quantity and in terms of quality.
But it’s not always EASY….
The sugar flood
The reason, to “pick” on carbs, is they can be quite tricky to handle.
A sudden flood of glucose, into the liver, needs to be processed quickly, or sugar levels will rise. These high sugar levels, even if they last for a relatively short period of time, can cause damage.
At the molecular level, the damage involves sugar molecules getting jammed onto proteins….
Glycation
The official term for this phenomenon is glycation. It’s perfectly natural. And the body does have contingency plans, to deal with the problem.
But…………. as with most maintenance plans.
They work well, when the problem is a trickle, but when the trickle, turns into a flood, overwhelm happens. And continued overwhelm, can and does, lead to catastrophic failure.
In the case of the body, pipe failures manifest as disease.
Catastrophic failures
The nature of the related dis-ease, depends on which pipe fails. It can be the big pipes – think heart attack or smaller pipes, think retinopathy, nephrophathy etc.
The point is, high sugar levels, even for short periods of time, are rather damaging.
Which brings us to what happens when you eat ……
Your favourite carb
By definition, your favourite carb is full of sugar, even if it doesn’t taste sweet, biochemically speaking, it’s made up of lots of sugar molecules, glued together.
Of course…………….. it tastes good.
And hits the spot, fueling your brain up for business.
But, the decision does have consequences.
Within a short period of time, the sugar levels rise, beyond what is needed to address the energy crisis, that prompted you to hunt down………………. your favourite carb.
This leaves you, with a happy brain and blood vessels in crisis.
Experts, will tell you, the solution is to…………
Go no or very low carb
By “eliminating” the carbs – you will live happily ever after !
This is a philosophy adopted by many folks, it’s called a ketogenic diet, but it is a BIG adjustment and truth be told, it doesn’t work for everyone. Especially long term.
So can you still have some carbs, but do it safely ?
Slow versus fast carbs
It’s what Mother Nature intended……………..she is NOT anti-carbs, per se. But she prefers you to have them, NATURAL.
Translated, this means, they’re part of more complex structures.
The benefit of this arrangement, your body has to “work” to release them………… so they arrive in your system, SLOWLY. Slow enough “to process”.
This doesn’t happen when you buy “processed” carbs…..
Fast carbs fly in
The process of “processing”, means the food manufacturer has done a lot of the work for you, so as soon as the food hits your stomach, it’s GOOD TO GO.
And the sugars RUSH OFF into the liver………….
It’s the flood that is STRESSFUL.
And if you’re metabolically challenged, it’s potentially disastrous.
No pasta, bread or cookies
So carbs per se, are not taboo, if you are going to have carbs – you want to go NATURAL, i.e. minimize your consumption of “refined” carbs e.g. flour and sugar.
You mean NO bread ? No pasta ?
Basically…………
IMPOSSIBLE !
I can’t LIVE without bread
It is at this point, many people throw their hands in the air, in despair.
They want to be healthy, but the price is TOO HIGH !
Well, there is a way to have your bread, pasta and even sugar laden beverages, and not gum up your proteins, this is what a team of researchers from Weil Cornell Medicine have discovered.
It’s all about timing………..
Eat your carbs last
To minimize sugar and insulin spikes.
This is what happened to the sugar and insulin levels in 11 type 2 diabetics, when they were served dinner, on two different occasions, a week a part, by the research team.
Table showing insulin and sugar levels of a mixed meal dinner. Copyright 2015 American Diabetes Association
NOTE : The people in this study were all taking metformin, to manage their diabetes.
Dinner details…
The dinner was the same, on both occasions – it included a carb component and a protein / fat component.
The carb part, was not particularly healthy, it included a slice of ciabatta bread and a glass of orange juice. The protein/fat component included a piece of skinless grilled chicken breast, a lettuce and tomato salad with a low fat dressing and steamed broccoli with butter.
The difference between the dinners, was when the carbs were eaten.
Bad carbs aren’t that bad
When the protein/fat component preceded the carb component, by 15 minutes…………. the bad carbs, weren’t THAT BAD.
So……………. if you want to indulge in “bad” carbs aka. fast carbs.
TIME IT RIGHT !
It’s NOT magic, it’s biology
By consuming them after proteins and fats, have gone in, the arrival of the sugars into the systemic circulation is significantly slower, thanks to the hormonal responses to fat, and protein, digestion.
Slowing the carbs, helps create BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY and better health.
Further reading
Finally a way to have your coke and be “healthy”
Drinking sugar laden beverages is not a health move. BUT, they taste GOOD. So, can you enjoy them, without the consequences ? Maybe. It is all in the timing.
Vinegar’s acidic bite, kicks sugar into muscle, stopping sugar spikes
Vinegar manages to move more sugar into skeletal muscle, this increased uptake of sugar, means less sugar is circulating, stopping pesky sugar spikes.
Getting personal about sugar spikes
The sugar spike caused by the food you eat, has very little to do with the food per se, it’s got more to do with you and who you’re living with.