How can carbs be bad when ppl have eaten them for thousands

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  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
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    Sit around and not exercise, eat processed and fast food "IN EXCESS" pretty much tells the story for the most part.

    The problem I have with this logic is that there are plenty of people who do exercise and still can't lose weight. There are also plenty of people who eat whatever they want, do no exercise, and don't gain weight. Plus there is no compelling evidence that physical activity makes all that much of a difference in weight loss. Plus I haven't seen compelling evidence that we are as sedentary as people make us out to be. And then add the evidence that body fat storage is regulated. So my belief based on all that is that its more a genetic response to the environment and not a behavioral problem.
  • AeolianHarp
    AeolianHarp Posts: 463 Member
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    Grinch, are you suggesting that all of our attempts at losing weight is feeble? Huh. All this time I was eating less for no reason. I guess I'm doomed to be fat even though at one point I never was fat. In that case, it's not my fault. I'll just go eat everything in my cupboard now.
  • dkug1964
    dkug1964 Posts: 13 Member
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    Carbs aren't bad. Just abused. Like many other things...
  • shani251
    shani251 Posts: 145 Member
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    Well, i wouldn't demonize carbs, BUT i haven't had any processed carbs for a few months now and feel fantastic. i'm having an easier time losing weight, and am gaining muscle like crazy, simply by replacing the calories i would eat in carbs with protein.
    I'm just going by how fantastic i feel and all the energy i have now (that i didn't have before). maybe give it a shot? it's easier to do than you think. :)
  • _Elemenopee_
    _Elemenopee_ Posts: 2,665 Member
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    ANYTHING in excess is potentially "bad". All the processed junk and additives in our foods is what's actually bad.
  • gersoco
    gersoco Posts: 155 Member
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    Carbs in fresh fruit and vegetables are not bad..
    Carbs from table sugar, flour, and starchy vegetables are very bad.

    Humans were eating fruit and vegetables for a couple hundred thousand years and our ancient human ancestors for hundreds of thousands more years before that...

    The other carbs are relatively recent.
  • silkandsugar
    silkandsugar Posts: 125
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    Excess carbs is bad. If you're eating clean and healthy then this shouldn't be a problem anyway!
  • Triguy83
    Triguy83 Posts: 57 Member
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    Vegan 80/10/10 for me dropped 5lbs since and lowered my bf% 2-3%. been smashing all my PR Times by a full minute. I have more energy and able to suffer through a long ride, run and or brick before I crash. Brown Rice, steel cut oats, fruits, veggies, Legumes.
  • RachelsReboot
    RachelsReboot Posts: 569 Member
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    The ones that people have been eating for thousands of years aren't all that bad, but you show me a civilization that has been eating, ho hos and twinkies, big macs and mac n cheese for even a couple of years. The carbs that nature gave us are good for most people. It's all the other crap that get's lumped in that gives carbs a bad name. When I think of carbs, what comes to mind is tasteless, bleached, white bread, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, sugary cereals, etc... those are not carbs the way nature intended.
  • Josie_lifting_cats
    Josie_lifting_cats Posts: 949 Member
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    One time my trainer asked me what I eat and as I was listing it she said "Oh you're still ON bread?" like it was a drug or something!!

    Years back I had a nurse practitioner address my weight loss and then say "Well, you need to cut carbs out of your diet completely - then you will lose weight."

    I was not cutting potatoes. I live for potatoes.

    I did not lose weight.

    However, when I changed my eat habits (i.e. OVEREATING), I lost weight! Wait, what? Not by reducing carbs????? That's right.

    I love carbs.... I have no intention of quitting them. And I actually am pretty well balanced, despite my passionate lust for potatoes and rice.
  • wingsandgills
    wingsandgills Posts: 48 Member
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    Carbs themselves aren't bad. In fact, we can't really live healthfully without some level of carbs in our diet.

    But when HFCS, corn syrup, dextrose, and other sugars are mixed into every food you eat (for preservative, flavor or taste masking purposes - sugar is versatile) then you end up eating way too many badly-processed carbs without even knowing it. When you eat bread you know you're eating carbs, but when you're eating bacon? Beef? Broth? I don't expect to be eating carbs when I eat many foods, but I am getting a few, sometimes even a lot, because of additives.

    When you drink a can of soda with a meal you add 25-40 carbs to your meal just from the soda!

    So yeah, overdosing on carbs is bad for you. And, depending on your dietary needs and weight loss goals, eating a low carb diet can be very beneficial. You can pick out the advantages and disadvantages of any healthy diet, whether that's low carb and moderated fat, or low fat and high carb. Regardless of how you choose to eat, you have to always be aware of what's going into your body. With that awareness you become healthier.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    Carbs in fresh fruit and vegetables are not bad..
    Carbs from table sugar, flour, and starchy vegetables are very bad.

    Humans were eating fruit and vegetables for a couple hundred thousand years and our ancient human ancestors for hundreds of thousands more years before that...

    The other carbs are relatively recent.

    Excess total carbs are the only things that matters from a weight loss point of view regarding carbs and total calories overall. Your statement is true in regard to overall health factors but it sounds like your saying in essence that carbs from fruit and veggies don't count and eat all you want. If you trying to lose weight, you need to maintain a deficit and all food needs to be considered in you daily eating goal regardless of the source.
  • RockaholicMama
    RockaholicMama Posts: 786 Member
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    ACG is right, I remember everything being low fat when i was younger and now the latest 'fad' is low carb - everything in moderation is the way to go!!

    Carbs are not bad, more the type of carbs that most people eat nowadays - asians eat a lot of rice and are generally super healthy, americans / uk eat too many carbs that are processed to death and usually deep fried!!!!!!

    BTW - carbs are fine for coeliacs, its wheat gluten that causes the problem (which is found in PROCESSED carbs like bread / pasta) so natural carbs such as oats, potatoes and rice are fine :-)

    I have celiac so I keep away from processed carbs. Breads and pastas could easily put myself, my mom and brother in the hospital. The outcome is just not pretty at times. Potatoes and rice is where we get our good carbs from. But, of course, those are in moderation.
  • ShifuYaku
    ShifuYaku Posts: 504 Member
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    American carbs are not real. They put all kinds of stuff in the bread, the rice, etc. Now even if you make your own bread, the flour would have been bleached, and that isn't good either. So the best kind is outside the US, where there are no preservatives in the foods.

    [EDIT] or grow your own stuff and make it from that. :smile:
  • amyy902
    amyy902 Posts: 290 Member
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    carbs arent bad. vegtables are carbs. fruit are carbs. its the refined carbs that are bad - chocolate, biscuits, crisps, white breads. people cant do a no carb diet anyway. because all theyd be eating is meat pretty much!!
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
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    Grinch, are you suggesting that all of our attempts at losing weight is feeble? Huh. All this time I was eating less for no reason. I guess I'm doomed to be fat even though at one point I never was fat. In that case, it's not my fault. I'll just go eat everything in my cupboard now.

    Nice reasoning.

    No I think that the majority of people with weight problems have some intolerance to carbohydrates. I think eating a high carb calorie restricted diet is not very helpful in the long term. I don't care what works for you, I'm talking about people who have weight problems.
  • lickmybaconcakes
    lickmybaconcakes Posts: 1,063 Member
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    It is not...

    the derivative (Monosaccharide) is metabolised by pretty much every known organism, without it ATP storage would be too low...
    the only problem with carbohydrates is the water storage capacity.
  • emisu2
    emisu2 Posts: 53 Member
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    Read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson... Or go to www.marksdailyapple.com. Go Primal!! :bigsmile:
  • kaiman1
    kaiman1 Posts: 27
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    On an evolutionary time scale people have not been eating grains for very long, only some 10.000 or 20.000 years.
    Compare that to about 2.000.000 years eating everything else.

    Now experts say we need to suddenly eat totally different? As in grain products as the basis of our food pyramid?
    Doesn't really make sense.

    Wenn grains and sugars are processed to create foods that contain lots of energy and little to no nutrients, combined with a sendentary live style, then your insulin will spike after you eat and excess energy is strored in fat.

    We don't want to be fat. That's why carbs, as in grain products and sugars, are bad.
  • DianneLB
    DianneLB Posts: 2
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    It is the processed carbs and all the added sugar that usually comes along with carbs. If you look at most of our processed foods sugar or a form of sugar is one of the top ingredients in most of the carbs we eat. If you stick to a measured portion of carbs that don't have added sugar or fructose etc. then carbs are definitely a healthy part of our diet - that means whole grains or plain rice etc.

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