Carbohydrates: They're not as evil as I make them seem

How do you understand carbohydrates?

Over the bank holiday weekend, whilst sitting eating breakfast with a group of friends it was commented that my choice of a bowl of porridge as opposed to a bacon sandwich was a 'healthy option'. 

For me, I saw this as a diversion from good nutrition. A big insulin spiking bowl of simple carbohydrates with no protein and lots of dairy (which causes me a bit of grief). Fail to prepare and that's what happens eh? 

Still better than a  bacon sandwich 

What my friends saw was a low fat, low sugar bowl of carbohydrates which would, and I quote, 'release the energy slowly so I didn't feel hungry later'. Apparently they read it on the internet. 

I bit my tongue, if I challenged every false bit of knowledge about health that I heard, I wouldn't have any friends left. 

The point of this story is that many people just don't understand carbohydrates at all. They don't understand when it is that they should be eating them, when it is that they should be avoiding them and what the difference between sources of carbohydrate are.

• Excess carbohydrate consumption is the reason that most people struggle with poor body composition

Ultimately the progression of the technology of our food industry has lead us to a point where we can buy food that is so easily digestible and so calorie dense that we only need to eat a tiny bit of it every day in order to survive. 

But we don't, we eat lots of it because our digestive systems can handle it and we don't have a reason not to. Either we practice abstinence and constantly feel that we can only have 'a little' or we put on fat. 

Realistically if you ate the same volume of carbohydrates from a vegetable source you would find yourself to be incredibly full, like you had over eaten.

• Sugars are carbohydrates

In a 40 gram bowl of porridge with semi skimmed milk there are 38g of carbohydrates and 9 grams of fat. To give this some perspective, in a 39 gram Cadbury's Creme Egg there are 29 grams of carbohydrates and 6 grams of fat. 

Either way this will be broken down into sugars and absorbed into the blood stream, but those 'complex' carbs from the oats allow sugar to be packed in more tightly. Repeated exposure to these quantities of sugar encourage your body to store fat, lose muscle and can lead to metabolic disease..

• Overconsumption of carbohydrates reduces testosterone 

Not good for gains in the gym or body composition

• Post workout carbohydrates are often a good idea

Carbohydrates after you work out improve recovery and force and insulin spike. At this point your sensitivity to insulin is the highest and the protein you should have consumed along side the carbs will be most likely to be pushed into your muscles. 

If you're primarily focussed on losing body fat and you haven't got training again later that day, then you can skip the carbs as you will have recovered by your next session without them. 

• Having carbohydrate re-feeds accelerate your ability to lose fat

If you are following a controlled carbohydrate diet then intermittently re-introducing carbohydrates in large quantities keeps your metabolism high which leads to fat burning and high energy levels.

• Carbs make it much easier to put on muscle

The best way to put on muscle is to eat lots of high quality protein and fat. However this can be expensive and a good compromise is to eat carbs intelligently to supplement the calories in your diet.

So we can now see that although the porridge was a better choice than the bacon sandwich. Having it as an any time meal (not post workout), when my main focus is on improving my body composition was not a good option. 

However if I had been wanting to put on muscle and I had just worked out, a bowl of porridge (maybe with protein as opposed to the milk) would have been a really good option. 

Carbs aren't evil, they are an incredible versatile nutritional tool which deserve your respect.