So, are carbs evil or not?

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  • hartmamp
    hartmamp Posts: 80 Member
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    For me, eating wheat makes me crave more wheat. I can't just eat one serving of pasta and be satisfied. Therefore, I stay away from it.

    Food is an addiction so I don't know why people here tend belittle those of us that struggle with our relationship with eating - "oh just watch your portions". OH IS THAT ALL!? IT'S THAT SIMPLE!? If that were the case, we wouldn't have as many overweight people as we do.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?

    Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?

    Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.

    Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?

    Two main things:

    1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.

    2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.

    Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.

    This is the point. It's your nutrient intake at the end of the day that matters. How you get there really doesn't matter.

    If you can get carbs from pop tarts and ice cream and still get your fiber and micros, who cares?
  • NewMnky1
    NewMnky1 Posts: 264
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    I did not, and will not give up carbs and have been able to lose weight. Moderation is the key with carbs and everything else.
  • Matt_Wild
    Matt_Wild Posts: 2,673 Member
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    Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?

    Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?

    Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.

    Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?

    Two main things:

    1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.

    2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.

    Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.

    Fibre is indeed very very important, absolutely no two ways about it. But you are going away from the point - whatever the source of the carb isn't bad as long as you hit your macro goals - and yes this includes hitting your fibre needs. I'm certainly not saying avoid fibre.

    I however think its is VERY wrong calling carbs bad, when there isn't bad carbs. It makes people want to avoid them without understanding WHY they are avoiding them.

    As for abusing them, absolutely. But then you can do that with any food - I love my sweet potato fries I make and could easily down a kilo of them in a sitting given the chance.

    This vid here is very interesting about carbs and why they are not bad - http://youtu.be/G6H2edyPLU8

    (it raises the same point as you regarding fibre).
  • kittykinsqt
    kittykinsqt Posts: 24 Member
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    deep fried process food is evil. LOL
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    deep fried process food is evil. LOL

    Yeah? Why?
  • action_figure
    action_figure Posts: 511 Member
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    Carbs are not evil. I personally believe that simple carbs are metabolically bad, but I'm talking about white sugar, bleached flour, nutritionally "empty" kind of things. In the final instance, calories are what counts. Some people have a deranged insulin metabolism, and for those people, they tend to have a lot of trouble with carbs. They cause wicked cravings, and people's blood sugar and insulin production are very crazy when they eat carbs. Other people do not have this extreme reaction. However, I think bottom line is, the majority of your calories should come from real, whole foods. A wide variety of foods, in as close to their natural state as you can enjoy them, will give you the energy, macro and micronutrients you need to be healthy.
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
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    I limit my carbs to an extent because to stay within my calorie deficit to lose weight I find that carbs do not fill me up for very long.

    Other than that, I have no issue with them - they just seem to be the first thing to go for me as I want to feel satisfied and not hungry!
  • BlueObsidian
    BlueObsidian Posts: 297 Member
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    1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.

    I really wanted to address this point. It's not about being "icemen." It's about taking control of your choices and owning up to them. In all my previous diet attempts, I used to clear my house of anything carb-heavy. Bread, sweets, pretzels - they all had to go. I believed they were triggers and I couldn't have them in the house or I just HAD to eat the entire container.

    You know what? The carbs didn't make me eat anything. I chose to keep eating. Blaming the pretzels because I refused to stop after one serving wasn't going to do me any good, unless I wanted to hide from foods I enjoyed for the rest of my life.

    For me, mastering the mental part of dieting involved a lot of therapy. I've been an emotional and stress eater as long as I can remember. But I made the decision to get over it and stop blaming my problems on food. I'm still working on developing a healthy relationship with eating, but it's so much more empowering than blaming Pop Tarts for my overeating.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?

    Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?

    Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.

    Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?

    Two main things:

    1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.

    2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.

    Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.

    I think this is the key. Honestly, I don't see anyone advocating getting all your carbs from Poptarts. And it's not just veggies but be consious of you micronutrient intake and eat mostly nutrient dense foods in general. Protein powders can be great for supplementing but they are not rich in micronutrients. As far as point 1. goes, that is really a personal self control issue. If some foods are a trigger for you, it's best to avoid them. Sometimes these threads deal in extremes like this:
    So if you max out your carbs with junk food
    .

    I'm sure some do. Most, here anyway, don't. We don't want to exclude the middle where a mostly nutrient dense diet has some fun food (not junk food) in it. You addressed that in your last statement. Overall, you and I agree.
  • minkakross
    minkakross Posts: 687 Member
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    I'm insulin resistant so for me carbs are of the devil and impact my weight loss. If you are not I'd still argue that there are probably better ways to get calories then carbing out but for most people a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.
  • Matt_Wild
    Matt_Wild Posts: 2,673 Member
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    Alberto-Nunez3.jpg

    This guy diets on pop tarts for example, world reknown Alberto Nunez.

    Nothing wrong with them!
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
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    Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?

    Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?

    Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.

    Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?

    Two main things:

    1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.

    2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.

    Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.

    I think this is the key. Honestly, I don't see anyone advocating getting all your carbs from Poptarts. And it's not just veggies but be consious of you micronutrient intake and eat mostly nutrient dense foods in general. Protein powders can be great for supplementing but they are not rich in micronutrients. As far as point 1. goes, that is really a personal self control issue. If some foods are a trigger for you, it's best to avoid them. Sometimes these threads deal in extremes like this:
    So if you max out your carbs with junk food
    .

    I'm sure some do. Most, here anyway, don't. We don't want to exclude the middle where a mostly nutrient dense diet has some fun food (not junk food) in it. You addressed that in your last statement. Overall, you and I agree.

    See when people judge my diary, my typical day anyways, they always seem to overlook the fact I eat a couple pounds of veggies and a couple pounds of lean meat a day. I fill in my calorie needs with Pop tarts, ice cream, corn bread, & cereal at the end of the day.
  • CoachReddy
    CoachReddy Posts: 3,949 Member
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    Alberto-Nunez3.jpg

    This guy diets on pop tarts for example, world reknown Alberto Nunez.

    Nothing wrong with them!

    what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...
  • Matt_Wild
    Matt_Wild Posts: 2,673 Member
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    what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...

    If you new anything about Alberto Nunez you'd know he's not on them either.

    I was showing you can get very lean on ANY carb. Its people demonizing them that cause the rest of us problems.
  • CoachReddy
    CoachReddy Posts: 3,949 Member
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    what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...

    If you new anything about Alberto Nunez you'd know he's not on them either.

    I was showing you can get very lean on ANY carb. Its people demonizing them that cause the rest of us problems.

    why does me "demonizing" a certain kind of carb have any effect on you or cause you ANY problems? out of curiosity.
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
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    Carbs are good. Healthy fats are good. Protein is good. It's all good, and you don't need to cut anything out. Though I advise against tubs of Crisco.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...

    If you new anything about Alberto Nunez you'd know he's not on them either.

    I don't believe that for a second.
  • mmowery31
    mmowery31 Posts: 23 Member
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    carbs are not but should not be eaten after lunch and should only be good healthy carbs in the form of fiber.
  • CoachReddy
    CoachReddy Posts: 3,949 Member
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    what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...

    If you new anything about Alberto Nunez you'd know he's not on them either.

    I don't believe that for a second.

    haha we can at least agree on that. :)

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