High carbohydrate diets do not damage the health. There are many examples of populations around the World that consume high carbohydrate diets with no discernible negative effects to their health. However, it is important to understand the nuances of why a high carbohydrate intake has the potential to cause ill health. Firstly, the amount of energy consumed is an important factor. Generally, overconsumption of any nutrient has the potential to cause ill health, but this is particularly true for carbohydrate. Large intakes of carbohydrate, particularly in a single sitting, causes detrimental effects on blood sugar because the glucose and other sugars from the carbohydrate food floods the blood with energy and this leads to the nutrient overload syndrome. The nutrient overload syndrome results in the production of fatty acids in the liver and the development of insulin resistance in peripheral tissues, and this over time causes the development of the metabolic syndrome and its associated diseases.
High carbohydrates diets are not detrimental if the diets are of high quality. However, low quality refined starches and crystalline sugars can have significant negative health effects.
Another problem with high carbohydrate diets is that the carbohydrates are often of the wrong variety. Those populations around the World that eat high carbohydrate diets with no detrimental effects tend to eat unrefined whole grain sources of carbohydrate with no sugar. Refining the carbohydrate to remove the fibre or create fiberless starches and crystalline sugars is detrimental because it accelerated the rate of digestion and this also leads to the nutrient overload syndrome. Refined carbohydrates are also much more palatable to most, compared to unrefined whole grain sources, and this increases the risk of over consuming them. Therefore refined carbohydrates are not only more quickly absorbed, they are also much more likely to be over consumed. Compared to whole grain and unrefined carbohydrates, refined starches and sugars therefore have detrimental glycaemic effects that induce the nutrient overload syndrome and the development of insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome.
One of the main problems of low quality refined carbohydrates is that they provide too much energy to the blood in the form of glucose, in too short a time frame. This may lead to the nutrient overload syndrome and the development of insulin resistance.
Taking Westerners who consume high amounts of carbohydrate and lowering the carbohydrate intake therefore has beneficial effects. Not because there is anything wrong with carbohydrate per se, but more that the types and amounts of carbohydrate consumed in the typical Western diet are conductive to the development of disease. For example in one study, researchers compared the effects of a high carbohydrate low fat diet (58 % carbohydrate, 30 % fat) with a very low carbohydrate diet (14 % carbohydrate, 58 % fat) in subjects with type 2 diabetes. The results of the study showed that both diets were beneficial at improving the glycaemic control of the patients, but the very low carbohydrate diet was significantly more effective than the high carbohydrate diet at improving lipid profiles, stabilising blood glucose, and reducing diabetic medication requirements. Therefore, even if the diet is of high quality (which both diets were in this case) lowering the carbohydrate content may have beneficial glycaemic effects.
Eat Well, Stay Healthy, Protect Yourself
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