All macros are special

jgnatca
jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
edited November 8 in Food and Nutrition
The macros are carbohydrate, protein and fat. We need them all. As a former type 2 diabetic, I was educated to try and get all three in every meal, minimal fat. And here's why:

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Diabetics have trouble regulating their blood sugar. Type 2's don't produce enough insulin for their needs, and type 1's don't produce any insulin at all. So a balanced meal with all the food macros are the best guarantee at supplying just enough energy when we need it. We can limit fats because they are so easy to come by and they are such a dense package of energy; twice as much as proteins and carbs.

This is also handy for dieters who want to stave off hunger. Eat a variety, and you are giving your body new energy when it needs it.

Give your body credit though. If you don't have a condition like diabetes, the body adjusts with insulin, storing the extra energy as fat stores when you most need it.
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Replies

  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Fiber is a carb and is digested very slowly.

    People rave about fats and protein keeping them full and always forget about our good friend Fiber.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Fiber is roughage and has little or no nutritional value (other than trace elements and minerals along for the ride). Guess where fiber comes out?

    I find fibrous complex carbohydrates to be very helpful as yes, the digestion is slower...closer to the 5 hour range.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    jgnatca keep in mind Fats and Protein are required for humans to live but carbs are optional. That does not make them bad but just not required.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    We are omnivores, GaleHawkins, pretty good at getting energy however we can find it. Cutting out carbs, one of the macros, however, makes our job that much harder. A diet very low in carbohydrates would be a ketogenic diet, correct?
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  • wkwebby
    wkwebby Posts: 807 Member
    edited December 2014
    Great post and visual for the macros. Just remember that Type 2 diabetes doesn't just go away. If you return to the condition that brought on insulin resistance (i.e. going back to being overweight, overeating simple carbs, low activity level on a regular basis), your blood sugars will sky rocket again and your body won't be able to handle it.

    Also, this chart is good information for any medical conditions that mimic insulin resistance.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    jgnatca keep in mind Fats and Protein are required for humans to live but carbs are optional. That does not make them bad but just not required.

    Carbs are not "optional." While it's true a human can survive without carbs, you can also survive without arms and legs, so are arms and legs optional?
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    wkwebby, my doctor told me to consider my diabetes "in remission". Yay! I think I will always eat this way as I've been doing it for so many years.

    I got to thinking about this as a poster told me that protein spikes insulin. That was news to me, because it had been drilled in to me and I have personally experienced that protein has a much slower uptake than carbohydrates.

    Looking further, I found out that insulin also binds itself to amino acids (protein). But the chart explains why diabetics don't worry about that. If a diabetic were experiencing a low sugar moment, they would not grab a protein. They'd grab something sweet. Nothing else would metabolise fast enough.
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  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    [
    tigersword wrote: »
    jgnatca keep in mind Fats and Protein are required for humans to live but carbs are optional. That does not make them bad but just not required.

    Carbs are not "optional." While it's true a human can survive without carbs, you can also survive without arms and legs, so are arms and legs optional?

    One of your kidney's is also optional while we are talking about things that are optional to live...


  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    We are omnivores, GaleHawkins, pretty good at getting energy however we can find it. Cutting out carbs, one of the macros, however, makes our job that much harder. A diet very low in carbohydrates would be a ketogenic diet, correct?
    I agree we are omnivores and I see no way to cut out carbs even if we only eat fat meat. :)

    While we know carbs are optional for human we also know they are seem to be more addictive like and relative cheap source of calories plus they are easy to get unlike many fats and proteins that can out run us. :)
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    We are omnivores, GaleHawkins, pretty good at getting energy however we can find it. Cutting out carbs, one of the macros, however, makes our job that much harder. A diet very low in carbohydrates would be a ketogenic diet, correct?
    I agree we are omnivores and I see no way to cut out carbs even if we only eat fat meat. :)

    While we know carbs are optional for human we also know they are seem to be more addictive like and relative cheap source of calories plus they are easy to get unlike many fats and proteins that can out run us. :)
    Carbs aren't addictive, and I've never met a nut or olive that could outrun me.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,250 Member
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?

    How would you ever poop??

  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    tigersword wrote: »
    jgnatca wrote: »
    We are omnivores, GaleHawkins, pretty good at getting energy however we can find it. Cutting out carbs, one of the macros, however, makes our job that much harder. A diet very low in carbohydrates would be a ketogenic diet, correct?
    I agree we are omnivores and I see no way to cut out carbs even if we only eat fat meat. :)

    While we know carbs are optional for human we also know they are seem to be more addictive like and relative cheap source of calories plus they are easy to get unlike many fats and proteins that can out run us. :)
    Carbs aren't addictive, and I've never met a nut or olive that could outrun me.

    spare yourself brother ….ole gale hawkins will go round and round with pseudo science all night long….
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  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?

    I do not think one can go zero carb and live. All the protein I know about will drag some carbs along with it. Almonds have carbs as to about every thing.

    Alatarie175 why to you think it is carbs that make you poop? Coconut oil makes up about 1200 of my daily calories as my good Fat source.

    reddit.com/r/keto/comments/192urc/no_carbs_no_poop/

  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    If you stop feeding a troll Goldfish crackers they eventually stop posting....
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  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?

    I do not think one can go zero carb and live. All the protein I know about will drag some carbs along with it. Almonds have carbs as to about every thing.

    Alatarie175 why to you think it is carbs that make you poop? Coconut oil makes up about 1200 of my daily calories as my good Fat source.

    reddit.com/r/keto/comments/192urc/no_carbs_no_poop/

    Lol, wut?

    Yeah...what? Cause that made 0 sense.

  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?

    I do not think one can go zero carb and live. All the protein I know about will drag some carbs along with it. Almonds have carbs as to about every thing.

    Alatarie175 why to you think it is carbs that make you poop? Coconut oil makes up about 1200 of my daily calories as my good Fat source.

    reddit.com/r/keto/comments/192urc/no_carbs_no_poop/

    Lol, wut?

    10818062_1537219286517132_920940800_n.jpg
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?

    I do not think one can go zero carb and live. All the protein I know about will drag some carbs along with it. Almonds have carbs as to about every thing.

    Alatarie175 why to you think it is carbs that make you poop? Coconut oil makes up about 1200 of my daily calories as my good Fat source.

    reddit.com/r/keto/comments/192urc/no_carbs_no_poop/

    you "know" protein…are they your neighbors…whey and casein johnson????
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,250 Member
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?

    I do not think one can go zero carb and live. All the protein I know about will drag some carbs along with it. Almonds have carbs as to about every thing.

    Alatarie175 why to you think it is carbs that make you poop? Coconut oil makes up about 1200 of my daily calories as my good Fat source.

    reddit.com/r/keto/comments/192urc/no_carbs_no_poop/

    Personally for me, no roughage, no poop.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    There are no carbs in steak. That's why you need the potato. With butter. And bacon. And sour cream. And cheese. And I gotta go.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    tigersword wrote: »
    There are no carbs in steak. That's why you need the potato. With butter. And bacon. And sour cream. And cheese. And I gotta go.

    Hey you know what 'moves' you so keep doing it so you gotta go. :)

  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?

    I do not think one can go zero carb and live. All the protein I know about will drag some carbs along with it. Almonds have carbs as to about every thing.

    Alatarie175 why to you think it is carbs that make you poop? Coconut oil makes up about 1200 of my daily calories as my good Fat source.

    reddit.com/r/keto/comments/192urc/no_carbs_no_poop/

    Seriously? You don't know chicken, beef, pork, lamb or shrimp? You should meet them. They're pretty groovy.


    And they contain zero carbs.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Attract deer by putting out a salt lick. They love it and need it...in moderation. Salt is hard to come by in the wild.

    Of course carbs are wonderful, taste great, and are highly satisfying. We need them. They used to be hard to come by until we discovered farming. Farms are lovely places.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    My butternut squash didn't stand a chance. Sucka!


    Seriously, have you tried going zero carb? Long term?

    I do not think one can go zero carb and live. All the protein I know about will drag some carbs along with it. Almonds have carbs as to about every thing.

    Alatarie175 why to you think it is carbs that make you poop? Coconut oil makes up about 1200 of my daily calories as my good Fat source.

    reddit.com/r/keto/comments/192urc/no_carbs_no_poop/

    What a waste of 1200 calories. Eat a steak or something.
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  • When did we get on keto? I am so sick of the fear mongering, carbs are not the devil.
This discussion has been closed.