Carbs are bad. Yes or no?

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Replies

  • nooboots
    nooboots Posts: 480 Member
    mojavemtbr wrote: »
    Well carbs have only been "bad" over the last few decades.
    Nobody ever seemed to have an issue with them before that.
    Carbs were the main macos that fueled people who built the Great Pyramids, or the Roman Legions who conqured most of the known world at that time. Carbs fueled the workers who laid the railroads crossing north America. Carbs fueled the message runners of Native North American tribes while they ran 20..30...40 miles in a day delivering important information to other tribes. Carbs are the primary fuel for riders in the Tour De France who ride for three weeks at racing speeds covering hundereds of kilometers over tall mountain passes. Were any of these groups known to struggle with weight issues or lack of energy to accomplish these feats ???
    No Carbs are just another thing we in our modern "knowledge" have made out to be a boogyman because it supposedly is the primary cause of so many fat people. When in reality its laziness, a sedentary lifestyle, the overall ease of modern life that are the culprits. But hey....it so much easier to blame it on carbohydrates now isn't it ?

    Its true that they have taken the blame for general overeating. But its not true to say that its a modern thing, way back in the 17 and 1800s, people who wanted to lose weight were advised to cut out the bread and potatoes.
  • nooboots
    nooboots Posts: 480 Member
    https://www.bbc.com/timelines/z9nfyrd
  • poisonesse
    poisonesse Posts: 573 Member
    The question was are carbs bad. My answer... no, they are not. They're a macro, you're body needs them. Too many of them, on the other hand, is just like too much of any good thing. Not so good. ;)
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    nooboots wrote: »
    mojavemtbr wrote: »
    Well carbs have only been "bad" over the last few decades.
    Nobody ever seemed to have an issue with them before that.
    Carbs were the main macos that fueled people who built the Great Pyramids, or the Roman Legions who conqured most of the known world at that time. Carbs fueled the workers who laid the railroads crossing north America. Carbs fueled the message runners of Native North American tribes while they ran 20..30...40 miles in a day delivering important information to other tribes. Carbs are the primary fuel for riders in the Tour De France who ride for three weeks at racing speeds covering hundereds of kilometers over tall mountain passes. Were any of these groups known to struggle with weight issues or lack of energy to accomplish these feats ???
    No Carbs are just another thing we in our modern "knowledge" have made out to be a boogyman because it supposedly is the primary cause of so many fat people. When in reality its laziness, a sedentary lifestyle, the overall ease of modern life that are the culprits. But hey....it so much easier to blame it on carbohydrates now isn't it ?

    Its true that they have taken the blame for general overeating. But its not true to say that its a modern thing, way back in the 17 and 1800s, people who wanted to lose weight were advised to cut out the bread and potatoes.

    They were also advised to cut out butter. They were basically advised to cut out things they overate and eat things they didn't overeat, some of which are plenty high in carbs, like fruits (even dried ones) and biscuits. Although I'm sure glad I didn't have to diet in the ancinet Greece times.
  • nooboots
    nooboots Posts: 480 Member
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    nooboots wrote: »
    mojavemtbr wrote: »
    Well carbs have only been "bad" over the last few decades.
    Nobody ever seemed to have an issue with them before that.
    Carbs were the main macos that fueled people who built the Great Pyramids, or the Roman Legions who conqured most of the known world at that time. Carbs fueled the workers who laid the railroads crossing north America. Carbs fueled the message runners of Native North American tribes while they ran 20..30...40 miles in a day delivering important information to other tribes. Carbs are the primary fuel for riders in the Tour De France who ride for three weeks at racing speeds covering hundereds of kilometers over tall mountain passes. Were any of these groups known to struggle with weight issues or lack of energy to accomplish these feats ???
    No Carbs are just another thing we in our modern "knowledge" have made out to be a boogyman because it supposedly is the primary cause of so many fat people. When in reality its laziness, a sedentary lifestyle, the overall ease of modern life that are the culprits. But hey....it so much easier to blame it on carbohydrates now isn't it ?

    Its true that they have taken the blame for general overeating. But its not true to say that its a modern thing, way back in the 17 and 1800s, people who wanted to lose weight were advised to cut out the bread and potatoes.

    They were also advised to cut out butter. They were basically advised to cut out things they overate and eat things they didn't overeat, some of which are plenty high in carbs, like fruits (even dried ones) and biscuits. Although I'm sure glad I didn't have to diet in the ancinet Greece times.

    I wasnt just referring to the article I posted (I found that after I posted), I was writing from memory of various bits and bobs Ive read over the years ( I love history and read an awful lot about social history). My point wasnt that 'low carb' was the only method of diet ever suggested from those days but that 'lower or low carb' has been espoused for a lot longer than we think.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    edited August 2019
    No. Eating too much of anything is bad. The body needs the right amount of carbs period. Remember. Vegetables are carbs. And if you are using net carbs in your diary it doesnt mean you arent still eating those carbs.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    I think that video is a bit of a cheap shot. There are many low carb advocates and authors who are very lean and fit. That should not be the deciding factor. The deciding factor is as simple as it gets: people who eat too much get fat, and people who don't, don't.

    Bingo. <3
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  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
    edited August 2019
    maxbbbr wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    I think that video is a bit of a cheap shot. There are many low carb advocates and authors who are very lean and fit.

    I disagree, obviously. It's like Kiai martial artists who claim to be extremely deadly, to have a 200:0 fight record, who make a ton of money teaching suggestible students, but when they enter the ring, the truth comes out...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDaCIDvj6I

    OK, some might be advocating low-carb diets and be thin, but why so few (if their ideas are good)? Is this only while they are young? What happens when they follow their diets for years? What happens when they stop spending 3 hours a day on cardio?

    just an aside from a low-level aikidoka--I've never heard of Kiai, but it looks like what we'd call a 'stupid ki trick'.

    It is genuinely possible to knock someone down without hitting them--but only if the person you are trying to fell is unwilling to get hit.

    The way it works is that when you go to strike, you give your target barely enough time to move out of the way, but limit his or her choices as to where they can go to avoid being hit. You can use this to manipulate their physical position and balance so that for the last attempted strike, as a result of trying to not get hit by prior strikes, the only way to avoid the hit from their current situation is to fall.

    This relies on several factors. First, you have to legitimately be trying to hit them, so that if they don't move, they *do* get hit hard enough to hurt so they want to avoid it. But you can adjust the pace of your strike to allow them to evade, since your true goal is to manipulate their evasions until they fall. Second, they need to have to have the skill to evade your hit. And third--and this is where that sort of thing fails in MMA--they have to *care* whether they get hit or not.

    If they're willing to take a punch or two (knowing how your method is supposed to work) then your non-contact fighting-method isn't going to work. MMA fail.

    Also, for those of you about to jump me and say "aikido isn't a real martial art" or "it can't protect you in a street fight"--that's not really why people study aikido. A lot of it is de-escalation so it never gets to a street fight, but in terms of physical conflict, I can use it to take the keys from my drunk pal without hurting him, or to restrain my adult-autistic nephew if he freaks out. And it's probably adequate to escape your average mugger who isn't expecting it. But it's not meant for street fighting or warfare.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,158 Member
    And just FTR, the MA movie is negligible irrelevance of an analogy, in a diversity of ways. I'm not even going to bother going into the reasons why, it's so inane from all perspectives. Not even as plausible, rational, logical or well-founded as the very implausible, irrational, illogical, ill-founded video about low carb.

    And I'm not a low-carber, BTW, not at all. I'm a high carb balanced-nutrition vegetarian. And a former martial arts practitioner. But not a "kiai martial arts" practitioner, either, since that's not a serious grown-up term sane, actually-knowledgeable people use to talk about any actual traditional martial arts. (And in the style I did, there wasn't kiai at all: It was not part of that tradition.) I freely admit that a good MMA person could kill me. And a good one could kill the MMA guy in the video, too, at least from what one can see in that snippet. Lame, lame, lame.

    Yes, my post is off topic. So was the initial MA movie. And commenting on that MA analogy is on topic, in the sense that the nature of arguments, and the evidence given, bear on the overall quality of a line of argumentation. D- for the low-carb video (maybe lower), F- for the MA video (maybe lower).

    :lol:
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  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,271 Member
    You could still argue about WHY low-carb fails for many/most in the long-term, or about why these diets are popular despite their ineffectiveness. But it's not so interesting to me.

    Most diets fail for most people in the long term - especially if they are too different from their regular WOE.

    That's not a low carb thing, its just a sad fact of all diets thing.

    Long term success is the exception, not the norm.
    Says nothing about low carb - more about the factors in our society that make eating more than you burn the norm.
    another topic entirely.

  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    maxbbbr wrote: »
    J72FIT wrote: »
    maxbbbr wrote: »
    Anyway, I'm not really interested in debating this topic

    well, this is a debate forum. Just sayin...

    Before I found this video, this would be an interesting topic for me, but after I found it, it settled the debate for me.

    You could still argue about WHY low-carb fails for many/most in the long-term, or about why these diets are popular despite their ineffectiveness. But it's not so interesting to me.

    Then why are you debating it in the debate section if it's not so interesting to you and you have no desire to debate it?
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  • Gamliela
    Gamliela Posts: 2,468 Member
    I think the people with the most significant longevity are somewhere in Japan eating a lot of sweet potatoes and a high high amount of carbohydrate. I haven't found the scientific evidence that points to a high fat, high protien diet as a good way to eat over a full lifetime. Nor is a very high carbohydrate diet been proven to be a good way to eat into older age.

    I don't think carbs are evil and I like them. I don't feel well when I over indulge in a high amount of carbohydrates combined with a lot of fat.

    I vary my food quite a lot. I like vegetables and fruit and basically a vegetarian way of eating, but a lot of my days are lowish in carbohydrates. I'm becoming way more attentive to how I feel and energy levels because I am quite active for my age and its important to me that what I eat works to give me a healthy, good feeling and plenty of energy with a good nights sleep.

    So many carbohydrate debates!


  • Phirrgus
    Phirrgus Posts: 1,894 Member
    Gamliela wrote: »
    I think the people with the most significant longevity are somewhere in Japan eating a lot of sweet potatoes and a high high amount of carbohydrate. I haven't found the scientific evidence that points to a high fat, high protien diet as a good way to eat over a full lifetime. Nor is a very high carbohydrate diet been proven to be a good way to eat into older age.

    I don't think carbs are evil and I like them. I don't feel well when I over indulge in a high amount of carbohydrates combined with a lot of fat.

    I vary my food quite a lot. I like vegetables and fruit and basically a vegetarian way of eating, but a lot of my days are lowish in carbohydrates. I'm becoming way more attentive to how I feel and energy levels because I am quite active for my age and its important to me that what I eat works to give me a healthy, good feeling and plenty of energy with a good nights sleep.

    So many carbohydrate debates!


    Regarding the bold, couldn't that be said with anything edible at all though?

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