Do we need carbohydrates

Personal Trainer Glenn Hill talking about Carbs and the fact we dont need them! (2-60)

This is a contentious one, and to be healthy its probably a good idea to have some carbohydrates(fibrous vegetables).  But as the micronutrient (vits & minerals) density in carbs are so poor these days I would probably say its just about getting a little fibre.

There are increasing number of gym users using a high fat, medium protein and low carb diet (keto) and for a lot of them it works really well.  They keep increasing muscle without putting on too much fat.

I hear this pretty often “but I need carbs for energy”

In our evolution as a hunter gatherer we would have surived on around 80g of carbs a day and been able to walk miles hunting for food, run and escape wolves and carry water back to our homes, all this on very low carbs.  I can just imagine now all the veggies saying “oh no thats not true we ate nuts, seeds and plants”, bull shit as our hormones including testosterone wouldnt have developed, we wouldnt have been strong and evolved.  If our ancestors survived purely on berries and nuts we wouldnt be here now.....sorry but true.

Its all in the word essential:

1. We need essential fatty acids to survive:  EFAs such as omega 3 & 6
2. We need essential proteins to survive, there are 9 and of that there are 3 BCAAs branch chain amino acids... isoleucine, valine and leucine which is our trigger 
3. There are no essential carbohydrates (zero)

​Its widely recognised that our minimum limit of carbs to survive is zero.

Now that being said our brain uses a type of carb/sugar as fuel called glucose, for all you oldies the original lucozade which was a medicine made by a pharmaceutical company is high in glucose. We dont need it because our body naturally breaks down fat to make its own glucose....its amazing.

A friend of mine “no names” worked for that pharmaceutical comapany and he suggested that lucozade was initially designed to create more diabetics which in turn would make more money for the pharma companies.  Wether it was intentional or not the outcome is the same. 

So what on earth are carbs, energy provided by plants and typically stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen.

• monosaccharides-simple sugars (avoid)
• disaccharides-fructose+sucrose (fruit)
• polysaccharides-complex

Sugary carbs, cakes, fruit fizzy drinks,alcohol etc are extremely bad for us and I beleive the biggest problem regarding in health in western countries because:

1. Sugar has been proven to adversely effect the immune system (just two innocent smoothies) can wreck the immune system for hours.  So sugar stops our ability to fight disease.
2. Because sugar stops us fighting disease, research has proven that sugar actually fuels cancer growth & when fats replace sugar the growths reduce.  Study provided by Dr Thomas Seyfeid.  Intertestingly one of my clients and good friends Charles has been dealing with bowel cancer & we reduced sugars drastically. 
3. We have known for years now that sugary diets cause type 2 diabetes and when a diabetic stops sugar and eats healthy or tries a keto diet the symptoms cab be reversed.
4. Sugar is at the top of the glycaemic index(which just means its utilized as energy super fast) and is the worse kind of energy that provides an energy spike and then a dip which can lead to snacking and poor food choices.

We could say our body is designed to eat more fats and proteins, even our energy storage gives us a clue into this...

• Around 84% of our stored energy comes from fat.
• Around 14-15% of our stored energy comes from protein.
• Only 1% of our stored energy comes form carbs (stored in liver and muscles).

Now for an athlete or people that train hard for an event or optimum results, then it’s a total story.  their nutrition macros (amounts) and  timing are way different than most of us.

What I would recomend for my clients is more good fats(essential) & proteins(essential) and less carbs(non essential), firstly it works great for weight loss. “to lose fat - eat fat”.
And from those carbs I would avoid sugar for all of the reasons above and chose my carbs from dark fibrous vegetables and the odd fruit. I also get my micronutrients by supplementing with vits, minerals and a superfood shot.

But be realistic

I drink every weekend and have the odd curry etc also, I am still very fit for a 42 year old and have a perma six pack.  If it works for me it can work for you.

I hope you enjoyed my blog on carbs...

Glenn Hill holistic health coach
07983570574
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