Around 20 years ago the comedian Lewis Black had a bit about eggs. Allow me to paraphrase:
First, eggs were good for you.
Then they were bad.
Then they were good. Then bad.
Then good.
Then bad.
Then good.
[Sputtering] Just make up your mind! It’s breakfast and I wanna eat!
That’s the way I feel about carbs. I’ve run the gamut over my adult life. I’ve eaten them freely (see my blog on fats and the low fat craze of the 90s), and I’ve limited them, even to extreme degrees. Around 2010 I went on a rather severe elimination diet. The carb flu is real. That’s where your body starts running out of stored carbs and has to switch over to fats for energy. Before that switch is fully made life totally sucks. Low energy, everything is an effort, and brain fog. Mine was so bad I forgot my pin number for my debit card at Home Depot. This was despite having just used that same card and pin number 15 minutes earlier at the gas station. I had to call Samantha to tell me what it was.
I’m not here to tell you whether you should eat carbs or not, and if you do how much you should eat. I will share my experience and then encourage you to play around and find out what works best for you.
I eat carbs. They’re delicious. I eat bread, pasta, potatoes and even sugar. But I do not center my diet on carbs. At this point I should remind you that carbohydrates come in two forms: simple and complex. Simple carbs are easy to digest and convert into sugar. That sugar gets into your bloodstream relatively quickly and causes those blood sugar spikes we’ve all be warned against. The "evil" carbs, bread, pasta, potatoes, sugar, all fall into this category. Complex carbs are the ones we don’t like so much, most vegetables, like leafy greens, broccoli, celery, peppers, etc.. These also tend to come with a lot of fiber, which is a good thing, as the fiber is slow to break down and so the accompanying sugars are slower to get into your bloodstream.
I eat what I consider to be a healthy mix of the two. As I’ve said before, I center my meals around protein. Fats come from the fat inherent in my protein source (dairy and animal products) and in cooking (olive oil or rendered animal fat). Then come the carbs. Supper is my biggest meal of the day. Depending on the protein it’s usually accompanied with potatoes or rice. Once a week I’ll make a pasta based dish. In addition to that starchy carb I’ll have a salad or some other green vegetable, often blanched green beans or broccoli that’s often seasoned and stir fried in the same pan I cooked my protein in.
What’s often not talked about is that many of the nutrients found in vegetables are fat soluble. That means they need an accompanying fat to be absorbed by your body. That’s why we have salad dressings and why steamed vegetables are so much more preferable with a pat of butter or a drizzle of olive oil. What’s also not talked about is how the vegetables we get in the grocery store today are nutritionally deficient compared to what we got 50 or 60 years ago. To that end I recommend a supplemental greens powder or multi-vitamin. Here’s what I take. (Use promo code: squatch to save 20% if you want to get some for yourself.)
I also eat sweets. I love ice cream, cookies, cake, all of it. I also know, however, that I have to be smart about how I consume them. Not because I’m worried about fat gain (even though that is a real concern.) No, for me, too many sugars trigger an acid reflux or indigestion, especially in the absence of fats or protein. That’s why I generally eat those kinds of treats at the end of the day after a good meal, preferably one with lots of fiber.
So, should you eat carbs? Yes. They’re a vital ingredient, especially for those of us engaged in sports and activities that require explosivity or bursts of power. Keto, extremely low carb, and carnivore type diets lend themselves more towards slow, steady state activities like endurance sports. Think ultra marathons and the like.
Find out what works best for you. Pay attention to your food and how you feel after. It’s really pretty simple. Eat a meal. Note what that meal consists of. Notice how you feel after. An hour after a meal, do you feel light, energetic, good? That’s probably a meal/foods you should eat more of. Feel heavy, slow, lethargic? Maybe that’s something you should limit. It’s not rocket science, despite our best efforts to make it complicated.
And most of all, enjoy your food. It’s one of life’s great pleasures, especially when shared with good company. It’s more than just fuel.
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