The info in this blog is knowledge I've acquired over the years from various sources like books, podcasts & blogs. I'm constantly adding to this knowledge in my mission to become the 1st super healthy 100-year-old who can do backflips. As I learn more, I will update this blog as necessary to reflect any new findings.
THE CARB CONSENSUS
For the last decade, it seems like there's been a major smear campaign against carbs. The bad publicity carbs have received has been relentless. They've been vilified as the culprit behind weight gain by several trendy diets like Keto & Whole 30. & if it's not trendy diets coming for carbs then it's people who want to be trendy. Blaming carbs for their bad skin, low energy levels (can't lie, I'm this person) & fat hips. Carbs are essentially the Piers Morgan of the macronutrient world.
Obesity & diabetes epidemics are also becoming more & more frequent worldwide right now. & coincidently these epidemics seem to manifest whenever a population swaps their traditional diet for a Westernised urban diet. & a westernised urban diet is just mostly processed food which is high in carbs.
Despite all of this damning evidence, I don't want to believe that carbs exist purely to make us fat & ruin our lives. After all, carby foods are arguably the most delicious. & even though I follow a predominantly low carb diet I'd love to find an excuse to increase my carb intake. I currently eat naked burgers to avoid bread, this is my life. Do you know how ridiculous a burger looks without the bun? Well, not even half as ridiculous as the person calling a bunless burger a burger.
In my quest to justify never eating another naked burger again I'll attempt to answer all the burning carb related questions like-
Do carbs make fat go straight to our hips?
Are carbs evil?
Do carbs have any redeeming qualities?
WHAT ARE CARBS?
Carbs are known as the energy macronutrient. Carbohydrate molecules are made up of carbon, hydrogen, & oxygen atoms. These molecules that make up carbs act like building blocks & work similarly to the ones we discussed previously in the protein blog. They can be combined & arranged into multiple structures of varying size, shape, & complexity to suit the body’s needs.
As humans, we need to make sense of everything. To make sense of all these different molecular combinations some scientist categorised them into 3 main types. He based these types on their chemical structures & called them sugar, starch, & fibre. While something like white sugar is only made of sugar, many foods contain 2 or 3 types of carbs.
SUGARS
Sugars are the basic bitches of the carb group & are often referred to as simple carbs. This isn't because they're stupid or engage in typical, unoriginal behaviours. Instead, it's because their chemical structure is actually simple. They come in the form of monosaccharides (single sugar molecules) or disaccharides (two sugar molecules joined together). & are naturally found in fruits, dairy, and sweeteners like honey or syrup.
The type of sugars that most adults & children in western societies eat too much of are also referred to as free sugars. These are sugars added to food or drinks, such as biscuits, chocolate, breakfast cereals & fizzy drinks. The sugars in honey, syrups, & unsweetened fruit juices & smoothies happen naturally. Don't mistake natural for healthy though. They still count as free sugars. They're just as bad for you as added sugars when consumed in high amounts so moderation is your friend. Don't go ham on those smoothies, unless you want fat to be your friend.
STARCHES & FIBRES
Starches & fibres are called complex carbs because well, they look more complicated under a microscope. These complex carbs are generally made of long strings of simple sugars & are called polysaccharides (i.e. many sugars/accharides). Starches can be found in foods that come from plants like beans, whole grains, & some vegetables, like potatoes & corn. Fibre is found in the cell walls of foods like vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds & fruits.
WHAT CARBS DO?
The human body needs all 3 types of carbs (sugar, starch, and fibre) to function well because our bodies utilise them in different ways.
In general, sugars & starches get broken down for energy usage & stored in our cells, tissues, & organs. Fibre, on the other hand, is like the black sheep of the carb family as it isn't used for energy purposes. Instead, it passes through the body mostly undigested whilst helping to regulate things like digestion, blood sugar, & cholesterol.
Gross Fact: Fibre helps your body get rid of your waste more efficiently. It eases constipation by absorbing water, making your stool easier to pass. It also reduces diarrhoea by helping solidify your poo. It's no wonder fibre has been nicknamed the bodies colon concierge (It hasn't really but that's what I like to think of them as).
In energy terms our bodies are similar to cars, only their preferred form of fuel is a type of monosaccharide (simple carb) / single sugars aka glucose. Glucose is our body’s currency for energy. Any carbs that enter the body need to get changed into glucose before being used for energy. As simple carbs are essentially glucose, they can be absorbed into the bloodstream right from the intestine giving you that hit of energy quickly.
When we eat complex carbs, our digestive tract needs to break them down into these single sugars first, before they can be absorbed into the bloodstream. Glucose is then used directly by our various organs & muscles as a source of energy. Fuelling your activities, whether that's walking around your house or simply breathing in your house (for anyone who reads this at a later date thinking those are washed references, in my defence this was written during quarantine).
INSULIN THE ENERGY GATEKEEPER
Once the glucose enters the bloodstream, it will get distributed to places in need of energy the most. Places like our brain or our muscles via the key hormone called insulin. Insulin is the energy gatekeeper that allows the glucose into our bloodstream where it can then enter the body’s cells so it can be used for energy. When we eat carbs, the pancreas automatically releases the perfect amount of insulin to assist the cells use of glucose & keep our blood sugar levels steady.
Diabetes Fact: If you ever wondered why people with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin to keep their blood sugars in check, this is the reason, their pancreases don’t produce any or enough insulin.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE CONSUME MORE CARBS THAN WE NEED?
For those of us who are undisciplined savages & usually consume more carbs than we need at that particular moment, don't worry. Rather than letting that excess glucose pile up in the bloodstream, the body stores it in a few ways.
First, a limited amount of excess glucose is converted into something called glycogen. Glycogen is the bodies emergency glucose that is stored in our liver & muscles to use when we need energy later. This could be when you go a long time between meals or go for a really long run. The rest of the excess glucose gets stored in our fat cells as body fat until it's needed for energy. If getting fat isn't part of your plans then you will need to minimise the amount of glucose your body stores in fat cells. This involves creating an energy deficit (i.e. burning more calories than we consume).
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DON'T CONSUME ENOUGH CARBS?
Our bodies are super adapting machines. I've experienced this first hand during water fasts where I only consumed water for 3 days. I don't recommend anyone else do this because those 3 days kind of sucked. However, for the duration of the fast, I was surprisingly still able to function fairly normally. This was because my body was resourceful enough to find energy from other stuff lying around in my body. That other stuff being fat & protein.
Even though glucose is the bodies preferred fuel source, when you're running low it will look elsewhere to survive. After all, that's your bodies main job, keeping you alive. To do this the body breaks down stored fat to convert it into energy via a process that puts you in ketosis (I can explain this further in a blog post about diets).
Some people purposefully force their body into ketosis by following a keto diet which is basically a very low carb diet. The main concerns about this kind of restrictive diet are that if not done properly with supplements you can miss out on nutrients specific to carb-containing foods. There is also a lack of data about the safety of fuelling your body via ketosis long term. I've dabbled with keto sporadically... it was not fun. (Again, I can discuss the details in another blog specifically about diets)
DO CARBS MAKE YOUR HIPS FAT?
The food you eat does not decide where the fat is stored (if it is stored) but it's your genetics & body type making these decisions.
Fat storage explained: When you eat food, your body processes it & tries to distribute the nutrients as necessary into your cells. If you eat more than your body can immediately use or store as glucose (sugar) in muscles or liver (ie. consume carbs in excess of your activity levels), it's stored as fat. The fat cells are created equally all over your body with the pattern dictated by your genetics. Some people generate more fat around their stomach, some around hips & some around thighs or knees or ankles...
It works the same if you want to reverse engineer the process & burn fat. Unfortunately, you can't just decide to burn your hip or knee fat. If you do burn some, it again occurs randomly all over your body in patterns dictated by your genetics.
It's also often confused with muscle definition. There are muscles below fat. If you consistently exercise a specific set of them, they will grow & shape up in a process known as getting swole. The fat around those muscles will not go away faster though, it will just look thinner, evenly distributed around the bigger, more swole muscles.
MY TAKEAWAYS
Carbs don't make you fat, sugar does... well sort of. Let me explain. Firstly, any food can make you fat if you eat too much of it. Whether your diet is high in fat or high in carbs. If you frequently consume more energy than your body uses, you'll gain weight.
I actually feel sorry for carbs. They've unfairly been made the face of weight gain. Not all carbs are made equal though. Starches (complex carbs) are good sources of fibre. Foods high in fibre add bulk to your meal & help you to feel full longer which reduces the urge to overeat. But foods high in simple sugars are often high in calories. & as they're processed by the body quicker, you're more likely to feel hungry again soon after. Beginning the cycle of overconsumption which inevitably leads to fat hip city.
It's easy to blame carbs but this is too much of a generalisation to make. Starch & fibre are cool, they're conducive to a healthy balanced diet. Sugar, on the other hand, can be a treacherous, backstabbing snake. Fair enough it is your bestie if you need to fuel your muscles for exercise. If you're not about that gym life though, you should treat foods high in sugar like crack cocaine... if needs must, only consume on special occasions.
So, there you have it, turns out not all carbs are evil or make your hips fat. It's actually sugars which are evil & your genes that are responsible for your fat hips. Carbs need a break; they fuel your activities & fortify your poos. Both of those things are super important. I'm definitely guilty of overlooking their benefits & hating on them, but not anymore. Not only will I defend carbs from future misguided detractors but more importantly, I will never ever suffer through the embarrassment of eating another naked burger again.
Disclaimer: LOLA does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional.