CARBOHYDRATES:

THE MOST IMPORTANT FOODS IN YOUR DIET

By Mark Hyman, MD

 

Food has the power to heal us. We just have to educate ourselves on what foods are best to eat and then make wise choices.

Carbohydrates are actually the single most important food in your diet for long-term health. Carbohydrates found in their natural form contain many essential nutrients and specialized chemicals that keep you healthy and turn up your metabolism.

Human beings are not designed to metabolize the highly processed carbohydrates so predominant in our current diet. These processed and refined carbs slow down our metabolism and contribute to every one of the major diseases associated with aging including diabetes, heart disease, dementia, depression, and cancer.

However, there are some carbs that are simply perfect for us, and without them we perish.

Carbohydrates are essentially everything besides fat and protein. They constitute by far the biggest group of foods we eat. Without them we would starve and die. They comprise approximately 90% of the living world, and estimates have shown that 70-80% of all the calories consumed by human beings are carbs.

It is interesting to note that less than 10% of Americans eat the recommended five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

When you say the word “carbohydrate” most people think of what I call “the white menace,” namely white flour, white sugar, or variants on these. Most of the bread, pasta, and cereal you find in your local grocery store contain white menaces and are definitely bad carbohydrates.

These carbs are bad for one simple reason: The convert to sugar quickly in your body. This causes insulin levels to spike. Over time you develop insulin resistance and all of the problems that come along with it: weight gain, inflammation, and, if left unaddressed chronic illness.

But there is another kind of carb—the good carbs.

Did you know that vegetables are carbohydrates? So are fruit. Whole grains and beans are also carbs. And each of these is a critical element in the human diet and has been for millennia.

Practically the only thing EVERYONE agrees about in nutrition is that eating five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day can reduce your risk from almost every known disease of our “modern” civilization, including heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and all of the brain and mood disorders so many suffer from.

These important plant foods protect us from disease for two simple reasons:

  1. They help you control your glycemic load
  2. They are full of phytonutrients

So let’s talk about why this is so important. I want to start with glycemic load.

Glycemic Load

The glycemic load of a food or meal is defined as the total affect that food or meal has on your blood sugar. The food or meals you eat can have either a high glycemic load or a low glycemic load.

Bad carbs have a high glycemic load—they convert to sugar in your body quickly as I described earlier.

Good carbs, like vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and fruit have exactly the opposite effect. They convert to sugar more slowly in the body. They have a “low glycemic load.”

Controlling the glycemic load of your meals is essential for long term health, and it is easy to do. Simply combine adequate protein, fats, and whole food carbohydrates at every meal or snack. In addition to their impact on blood sugar, good carbs also contain another critical feature: phytonutrients. These healing chemicals may, in the end, be the most important reason plant foods keep us healthy. So let’s talk about them.

CARBOHYDRATES = PHYTONUTRIENTS

Phytonutrients are healing plant chemicals. The word phyto simply means plant, so phytonutrients are nutrients that are found specifically in plant food. The only way you can acquire these important substances is to eat real, whole, unprocessed plant food.

Phytonutrients include detoxifying foods, foods loaded with antioxidants, and hormone balancing foods. By increasing the amount of cruciferous vegetables, dark berries, dark leafy green vegetables and rich colored fruit, you have the power to rid your body of toxins, decrease inflammation, prevent aging, and improve calorie burning.

Phytonutrients are essential for optimal health. To increase the phytonutrients load in your diet, here is what you have to do:

Ask yourself, “Is this something your ancestors may have eaten?” If so take a bite, if not put it back!

Just think of plants in their unadulterated state – fresh, whole, and unprocessed – vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, seeds, whole grains – and think lots of color and variety.

Almost all oils (except olive oil), refined sugars, refined grains, potato products, hard liquors, and animal products – regrettably, the chief sources of calories in typical Western diets – have NO phytonutrients.

Phytonutrients fill the gap. They make up for what we no longer produce in our own bodies, and they are critical in controlling gene messages that affect our health and our weight. This is one of the major reasons to eat a predominantly plant-based diet of whole foods. These phytonutrients turn on or off genes that control weight and metabolism and benefit us in preventing every known chronic disease of modern civilization.

More phytonutrients are being discovered in foods every day that fight disease. Here are some examples:

  • Isoflavones in soy foods
  • Lignans in flax seeds
  • Catechins in green tea
  • Polyphenols in cocoa
  • Glucosinolates in broccoli
  • Carnosol in rosemary
  • Resveratrol in red wine

All of these compounds fight disease and obesity through a variety of mechanisms. They are part of the secret of The Daniel Plan, and the key way that we talk to our genes.

Processed carbohydrates score low on the phytonutrient index. When carbs are processed many of their important phytonutrient properties are stripped from them. This is one of the reasons processed carbs are so bad for you. They are basically empty calories. Ever wonder what they are empty of? They are empty of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. While increasing your sugar and energy intake, they don’t offer any of the health benefits provided by whole plant foods rich in phytonutrients.

The takeaway from all of this is very simple:

Eat lots of whole, real plant foods. If it was grown on a plant eat it, if it was grown in a plant do not eat it.

Foods grown on a plant are medicine. They will help you heal your body and lose weight. They are a critical part of The Daniel Plan and essential for lifelong health. Eat lots of them and your body will begin to heal itself.

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