Carbs: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  0:02  
So I want you to know that when you're talking about a low carb diet, in most cases, it's getting rid of the bad carbs, not the carbs that are naturally occurring. Okay? Now in some cases, like when it comes to fruit, you're gonna reduce the naturally recurring ones, especially when they're super loaded with sugar. And the goal of those low carb programs really, is to get your body to burn more fat, and less carbs. And when you're eating the good carbs, genuinely, that's not a problem. It's one of those things that you don't even have to contend with. 

Hey, there! Welcome to Your Health Moment with Dr. Fitness. On this podcast, I want to give you the tools to start, continue and never give up on your journey towards health. Whether you struggle with your weight, eating the right food, drinking enough water, exercise, or even time management, you are in the right place. And I'm here for you. If you want to take the next step on your health journey, I'd invite you to reach out to me, and we'll put together a plan that starts right where you are. So get in touch with me directly at www.iamdrfitness.com or my instagram @iamdrfitness. And it's spelled I A M D R fitness. My name, Dr. Fitness. And this is Your Health Moment. 

All right, let the shenanigans begin. Oh yeah, this is going to be hands down one of my favorite shows that we get a chance to do. And welcome to you know the name of the show Your Health Moment. And when I say shenanigans at the beginning, I want you to know, I say it to remind me to have a really good time join the podcast because I can get super serious. And so, shenanigans just reminds me to relax. And I want to relax so that you guys really enjoy getting the information. And it's not a drudgery to get it. So the goal is to have fun. So get what you want out of it, enjoy the experience and really have fun. So the show is a good bad and the ugly when it comes to carbs. And it's funny, we get to talk a little bit as we're planning for the show, and I and Arby's someone said is when you're eating it, it's good. It's bad in its ugly at the same time. And that's like the perfect example of a bad carbs. So it's kind of crazy. So every one of us eats carbs. Because we really need them. And the crazy thing about it is a lot of us don't know the difference between good and bad carbs. You know, people were talking about it all the time. But not that many people really understand the difference. Hey, before we get started, I want to make sure that you know, good carbs are the carbs that are naturally occurring. And simple carbs are bad carbs are the ones that are refined. So I want you to know that when you're talking about a low carb diet, in most cases, it's getting rid of the bad carbs, not the carbs that are naturally occurring. Okay? Now in some cases, like when it comes to fruit, you're going to reduce the naturally recurring ones, especially when they're super loaded with sugar. And the goal of those low carb programs really, is to get your body to burn more fat and less carbs. And when you're eating the good carbs, genuinely, that's not a problem. It's one of those things that you don't even have to contend with. Now, let me try to break it down so it's fun and super easy to understand. When it comes to carbohydrates that are naturally occurring, we call these the good carbohydrates. So they're in high fiber foods like vegetables, and an occasional starchy thing like certain vegetables are kind of starchy so in some of those for example, like corn is a starchy vegetables so you'd want to cut back on that. Potatoes are really starchy vegetables. So if you're going low carb you want to cut back on that as well. Okay, so you have some vegetables, but Broccoli is it has carbs. So think all the green leaf E's have carbs. And the difference between the simple carbs and the carbs that we want you to eat a ton of really comes down to their nutritional value. Because if you're eaten the quote unquote, good carbs, you can survive off of them.

If you eat the bad carbs,

you can't survive off of them the same, you can be full and you can be fat. But when it comes to getting the micronutrients that you need, you just won't have them. So you'll be malnourished, even though you're well fed. And that's really when it comes right down to it. If you're scarfing down a lot of the simple carbs, you are not giving your body, the nutrients that it needs to do what it needs to do when it comes to everything. So what you want to do is cut down on the refined carbohydrates, they're the sugary ones, the simple ones, okay. And if you've ever been told to eliminate those, you can eliminate them 100% For your body, because you should lose them, okay. And it's probably the refined and processed carbs that you're eating, that tend to put the weight on you. They tend to be step one, before you hit pre by pre diabetes or, or diabetes type two levels. These are the carbs that have been stripped of all the natural nutrients, particularly when you buy them process. So like when you're buying a bag of chips, when you're buying bags of things that go, Hey, I'm really healthy. But if it's bagged, you look at the carbs, if it's sweet, like really sweet, look at the carbs. And those are the things those are just some of the examples of the things to really not have in your meal plan. So one more time, it's that sugar or corn, sweetened beverages, fruit juices, white bread, white rice, pasta, of course, potato chips, and pretzels in, you know, these things are good, I understand that. And, but they're really bad when it comes to your health. And they're ugly, when it comes to, you know, put you in a situation where you're not able to get the nutrients that you need. Because what happens is two things, when you're eating a lot of refined carbs, one of the things is, you never really feel full for a long time, I mean, they'll temporarily fill you up, but the sugar processes so quickly that you're going to be hungry again. And the crazy thing is you'll eat more of them. But you are still neglecting yourself the nutrients that you need, I can't stress that enough. So even though you're loading up on those carbs, you are neglecting the nutrients that you need. So at the same time, you're setting yourself up for diseases that require certain nutrients and for functioning for sleeping, and the list just goes on and on and on. So just eating them is one problem. But when most people eat them, they neglect eating the things that they should be eating. So when you're loading up on those refined carbohydrates, you're not eating the whole carbohydrates, and you're not eating enough of the whole carbohydrates. And not really, therein lies the main problem that most people face when it comes to eating those delicious carbs.

Now the whole carbs are good for you.

When it comes to them being bad, some people don't think they taste as good. So they might have a taste that you need to get used to. And when it comes to being ugly, hey sometimes you're gonna have to of course wash them and you may peel them and or cook them before you eat them. So people find that ugly because they want things fast and they want it automatically cooked but some of you just watching you eat raw, you know, most of my refined or mean most of my whole carbs ie raw, you know, I like raw salads. I like raw vegetables and I kind of snack on them. And that has not always been the case. So I worked my way from being a fast food connoisseur to Now eating vegetables. So if I can do it, anyone can do it. It's not something that that is beyond your capabilities to achieve, trust me.

So I'm going to give you some choices.

And I'm going to just have you take a moment and think about how you eat. Think about what you have for breakfast. And I do this because most of the people that I work with

Speaker 2  10:30  
are having pancakes, French toast, fruit juice, oatmeal. Cereal,

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  10:44  
they're having toast, bagels, donuts, and all these things for breakfast. So they start their day out, loaded up with bad carbs.

And

just take a moment and think about what you have for breakfast.

Do you have toast with jam? Carp, carp? Do you have oatmeal, carp, simple carb to have serial carb.

And it crazy. Most of the cereals that are on the market are loaded with sugar. Even on top of the fact they refined carbs, they put sugar on top of it just kind of takes it from takes it from bad to ugly. So be mindful of that those sweet sugars. But really, so my recommendation is do away with having those kinds of carbs for breakfast. And when I make that recommendation, it's really difficult for people because most people go them What can I eat. So take a moment and think about what you can eat if you give up the carbs that you're having. Okay,

I gave you a moment. So here's what I recommend. I'm gonna recommend one serving of fruit, not a ton. So don't turn into a someone that switches one card for another and just start loading up on really sweet carbs in the morning and doing the same thing to your blood sugar level. I don't recommend that. But I do recommend for breakfast going with protein so you can still have eggs. Going with vegetables so you can have spinach in your eggs, egg omelet, you can do kale, you can stir fry vegetables and have with your egg if you eat regular meat you know I don't see a problem with you having some bacon so you get to decide what you want to have but really pay attention and avoid the things that are common breakfasts and for some reason all the common breakfast food seems to be really high in simple carbs you know I really do believe that there was a conspiracy at some point because one of the most difficult recommendations I think or challenges that people have when it comes to changing the way they eat and getting rid of carbs really comes down to breakfast. It's like the worst for them. So once you master breakfast you are well on your way you know you are well on your way because most people already have a good vegetables with their evening meals. Now you may have been brought up like me having each meal a carb meat and dessert. Okay. So this is just the way it was we had a carb meal a vegetable and dessert that was the standard and and bread with every meal. You know bread and butter with every meal. And I think it was just the way it was done. You know, I but I see today. I don't see too many families still doing it quite that way. But what they're doing at the moment is just tons of processed foods. Stuff that they're microwaving and running. So where we didn't have the processed foods now it's tons of processed foods. It's nuking this bomb and going nuking that going hotpot breakfast hotpot, or what are they Hot Pocket breakfast Just over those little burritos they knew with egg and stuff in them, that kind of stuff. It's all refined, it's all processed. And it's the kind of stuff that it's really important to let go. So if it's not from a natural source, you want to let it go. You want to make sure there's no refined sugars, you want to make sure it has a high nutrient value. The best foods you're going to do yourself. So you can regulate the sodium content, you want to make sure that it's not too salty. Most refined foods can be really salty. It's important that the grains when they are there are whole grains or, or vegetables. Good, we're going to dig into whole grains a little bit too. So low saturated fat, we definitely don't want it to be

high in fat, but more than saturated fat, it's the trans fats that I would have you be more concerned about. Because once you pull back on the carbs, and you're successful at that, the actual saturated fat doesn't do as much harm to your body. And if you're not really, if you've haven't heard that before, I recommend you read this book called Why We get fat and what to do about it. It's by this author named Gary Taubes. It's about t au bes. He's a scientific writer for the New York Times. And the book is amazing. And it really helps you to better understand why it is so important to stay away from the sugar and the simple carbs. I mean, he does such an amazing job explaining it. So some of the things that he does talk about are the epidemiological studies, I don't want to bore you. But the epidemiological studies that have been done for 100 years what he did with the book, as he looked back 100 years at all the studies that have been done on weight gain, and human populations, not just in the United States, but around the entire world. And based on those studies, you can totally see the correlation between when you add, quote unquote, bad carbs to populations diet, what happens, and it's frightening. I mean, you get diabetes, you get high blood pressure, and you get malnutrition, even though they're obese.

So all the health problems that come with being obese, and the health problems with come with not having the right nutrients in your body, you get them both. And it's just crazy how it shortens lifespans. But it's important to know. And I think that's why books like that I think are really important to read. Because, you know, someone like me will say something. But until I encourage people to read certain material, they kind of don't believe me, because a lot of doctors are not on the same page when it comes to nutrition. And so it's really neat when they're looking at actual research that's kind of explaining where the trend is going. And it's funny, because I've noticed that a lot of nutritionist actually, the books are the books that they learned from are subsidized and in some cases paid for by big food. So we're talking Procter and Gamble and Nabisco will pay for the education in some cases that they're getting. And of course, they're gonna skew it in a way that it's going to be favorable to the industry and, and what I'm talking about, and what a lot of fitness professionals now are talking about, is not really favorable to the industry. And, and that's kind of frowned upon. So when you're not doing things that's favorable to the industry. Sometimes they, they've, they fight back in,

but sometimes they pretend to fight back and they do it through labeling. They go yes, fat is a, you know, fat is bad. And so we're gonna reduce the fat and we'll put different types of fat or sugar is bad. Yes, so we're gonna make low carb cereal. Um, don't fall for it. It doesn't really matter what's on the label. Stay away from cereals stay away from processed foods, and no matter how's the fist educated in brilliant they are when it comes to labeling processed foods, it's processed foods. And so rest assure that it's going to not give you the nutrients that you need the way your body really needs it. So avoid processed foods, no matter how beautifully it's labeled, or how pretty the boxes, or how natural it is, or healthy it says on the box. Most of the time, the box itself is more healthy than what's inside. But, um, but do the research for yourself, do not take my word for it. And there's a lot of information out there. And there are a lot of great authors who are writing really good material, what I'll do is when I come across some really great material that that I think it's important that you read, I will definitely make sure that I mentioned it. Hey, the next show is going to be about seven signs that you might be addicted to those bad carbs. So if you think you might have a carb addiction, we're going to talk about the signs, and we're going to talk about what you can do about it. And that's next week on Your Health Moment. 

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Your Health Moment. Learning what tools will help you to live a life you love is so important. And I encourage you to check out some of the other episodes. If you're ready to take the next step for your health. I'd love to have that conversation. Head over to www.iamdrfitness.com or go to my Instagram @iamdrfitness and that spelled I am Dr. Fitness to get in touch with me and we will put together a plan that starts right where you are today. My name is Dr. Fitness. And I will see you next time on Your Health Moment.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai