August 4, 2016

Why do we crave carbohydrates?



Why is it every chance we get to stuff our face with carbohydrates of any form we typically indulge? Or why is it that the reason people can't lose weight is because they can't stop eating carbohydrates?

Our ancestors had to survive off the land and eat as much food as they could any chance they got, because they never knew when there would no longer be food. Carbohydrates have the ability to be stored as fat on our bodies, much more so than eating protein or fat. Since there were no refrigerators or ways to store food, the best way to store food would be directly on your body as fat. That way when there was no food for an extended period of time, you could use the fat on your body as an energy source.

This is why you see bears and squirrels scavenge and eat everything that they can before winter comes, they know that there is going to be a long stretch before food will be available again. During the winter they survive just fine because they use that extra fat on their bodies as energy.

Humans eat carbohydrates like there is always going to be a shortage of food, but the shortage never comes. That's why as a nation we are getting larger and larger. The only way to stop the weight gain is to stop or at least reduce the things that are causing us to gain weight, the carbohydrates.

It's not as easy as it sounds because of this innate survival mechanism we have. Our ancestors needed carbohydrates to live through food shortages, we don't.

The best way to get past this is to start on a moderate/low carbohydrate diet of 100 grams for women and 125 grams for men and to create a meal plan. All your meals should have healthy protein and fat, as they are the most satisfying thing you can eat. This will prevent you from binging on the processed carbohydrates.

1 comment:

  1. A daily struggle :/ I watched one of your live videos about a veggie pasta this week that was loaded with carbs. I have been really watching my intake (especially carbs) and yesterday I was in a rush and didn't have anything healthy with me for lunch. I was going to order a kale, mango, pineapple, avocado, spinach, banana smoothie - or something like that. But realized it had 48g of carbs!! I left.... Would that have been an ok choice for a meal, since some of the carbs would have been "good carbs"from the fruit?

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