NextCredit Suisse Research Institute
Dietary Carbohydrates
Dietary Guidelines Assume that:
There are no detrimental effects on health outcomes from eating carbohydrates.
The public agree that a low fat high carbohydrate diet is good.
67% recommend a low fat high carbohydrate diet.
60% think carbohydrates are healthy.
However:
Excess sugar can stimulate obesity, type two diabetes and mild cognitive impairment of the brain.
There is increasing evidence that fructose, which metabolises differently, may be especially harmful.
All carbohydrates become glucose in your system. Sugar is just more immediate.
Even with a starchy diet, carbohydrate intolerance can develop over 20-30 years.
Sugars
Table sugar is sucrose. It's a compound of glucose and fructose in equal parts.
Some fruits are very high in sugars, dates, grapes and bananas stand out.
Fructose is processed differently to glucose. Fructose is directed to the liver, and there most of it is converted into glucose.
It's argued that fructose is the direct cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, but that case is not proven.
Breads and Grains
Bread, flour and grains all convert to glucose after digestion.
These carbohydrates deliver the energy more slowly than sugars, but the effect is still to increase glucose in the blood.
The effect is still to turn insulin on and to keep it controlling your energy system, preventing fatty-acid burning from turning on. (Normalisation of blood sugars must come first.)
Banting Diet
When Banting, you make a conscious effort to eat in a way that keeps your insulin levels low, most of the day if you just need to lose weight. All day every day if you want to be in ketosis.
