Sometimes I just camp myself out in front of the fridge with a fork and eat food straight out of the containers for dinner. And by sometimes, I mean all the time.
However, I’ll never forget the one day that I was just about to finish off a whole container of strawberries, when my mom walks by and says, “Be careful not to eat too many of those. You know, fruit has lots of sugar and carbs.”
I had to (attractively) stop mid-bite in order to process this. Since when has fruit been bad for me? Yes, there’s such thing as moderation, but there’s no way eating a package of strawberries is more unhealthy than eating a whole steak, right?
Unfortunately, we live in a culture obsessed with fad diets that have told us that if you eat carbs, you’re going to have to break out the fat pants.
To combat this, nutritionists and dietitians are saying “Break out your pasta pots!” (per se), because there are plenty of reasons to bring carbs back into your diet:
1. Most of what we consider to be “bad carbs” are actually “good carbs”
It’s more about the kinds of carbs you eat rather than how much you eat. Foods to avoid would be white bread, soda, and most processed, sugary junk foods. These are refined carbs that are digested quickly, and so they mess with your blood sugar levels and convince your brain that you need more food, when in reality, you just need better food. While potatoes and fruit could fall into this category, the nutritional benefits and amounts of fiber in both are able to keep your blood sugar from spiking too much. “Good carbs” would include anything made with whole grains (including whole wheat bread), vegetables, and legumes. So you no longer have to turn down the dinner rolls, as long as they’re the right kind.
2. Carbs give us energy
“Good carbs” take longer to digest than their counterparts, and so there is more long-lasting store of glucose being converted into energy. In fact, sports dietitian Dr. Kelly Pritchett suggests that depending on how active someone is, up to 65% of their calorie intake should come from carbs. That means that with my toast and banana smoothie in the morning, I will have plenty of energy to run my daily five miles at five a.m. (That is, if I ran.)
3. Carbs keep us happy
And I don’t mean the “I’d never experienced true love until I ate these mashed potatoes” kind of happiness (although that might be true, also). They help your brain produce serotonin, and one study showed that after a year, people following a low-fat diet were less susceptible to anxiety and depression as opposed to those who followed a low-carb diet.
4.Carbs won’t make us gain weight
…Provided that we maintain active lifestyles, but that’s a given. They give us the nutrition and energy we need in order to live healthy lives and exercise. Most foods with good carbs are able to keep up full longer as well, as opposed to refined or processed foods. Australian blogger Essena ONeill often posts about what a high-carb vegan lifestyle has done for her health:
Now it’s probably not a good idea to go home and eat a whole pizza because, hello, vegtables. And while that baked potato is going to have loads of fiber, if you drench it in butter and sour cream it definitely won’t benefit you as much. But we need to stop being scared of bananas, rice, and whole-grain spaghetti because some fad diets told us we should.
Have your carbs and eat them too.
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