Top 10 Foods Highest in Carbohydrates (To Limit or Avoid)

Chris, You are not fully informed about carbs, or how your body works. Try reading Why we get fat, and what to do about it by Gary Taubes. The science of adiposity (how our fat stores are controlled - otherwise known as endocrinology), has been known for many years, but largely ignored by the people that dish out nutritional and lifestyle advice.

In a nutshell, the presence of insulun controls what goes in and out of a fat cell. Fat goes in, no fat comes out, until the carb load, and the insulun, goes away. Our body releases insulun in response to the foods we eat - by a huge margin, it releases it for sugar and other carbs. Eating fat does not cause us to release insulun, so by that logic, you can't get fat eating fat alone. (practically we almost never do).If you eat carbs and fat, the fat is stored for later use, while the body burns the carbs off. If you are consistently eating sufficient carbs, the fat never gets a chance to get used. If you're lucky you might burn some before breakfast (in or out of bed), after an all-night fast. (remember folks - this is the nutshell version, the details are quite, well, detaily). For people consistently releasing insulun, their cells can become insulun-resistant, so the body produces more - vicious circle.

Certain people are genetically disposed to store fat rather than burn it - these are the ones that get obese over time. Also why fat parents often have fat kids. its not ONLY that the eating habits rub off, to a certain extent they can't help it. Anyone doubting that excess insulun makes you fat should look at the photo of a diabetic woman that consistently injected insulun into the same spot on each thigh, and over a peroid of 40 yrs developed camel-like mounds of fat in each location. He debunks the relatively recent myth that obesity is caused by overeating and under-exercising (so-called gluttony & sloth).

Adiposity 101: the amount of fat we store is precisely and directly regulated by our hormones. Gettting obese is a fault in the regulation system, not a moral or psychological failing. People overeat because they are fat, not the other way around. If the reason we get fat is an imbalance in calories in/out, then if we over or undereat by 20 calories/day, that would make us chronically obese/thin respectively within very few years. The fact is that the average person simply does not (and cannot) quantify how much energy they are consuming or expending, let alone get it spot on over vast periods of time, yet they can maintain a healthy weight. The accuracy required (if that theory were true) is beyond most machinery - a mathematical impossibility.

The brain does not run 'exclusively' on glucose. Sure it does, if there is plenty of glucose available, but if it couldnt run on anything else, a carb and sugar free diet would be debilitating or fatal, but its not. In fact we can survive fine without them. The reason is that in the absence of glucose, the liver produces ketones from fat, and the brain burns them instead. This is the so-called 'ketogenic' state you get in when deprived of carbs. Off-smelling breath in the morning? you are ketogenic. or you ate a lot of garlic for dinner :-)

You cannot point to a runner eating lots of carbs to prove that a high carb diet will make you slim. That is putting the cart before the horse. The fact is that the runner body type can eat carbs with impunity, as they are not genetically predisposed to store the energy as fat. they have plenty of 'spare energy' and tend to lead active lifestyles. An obese person has the opposite problem - their body preferentially stores fat. That this happens has been shown unquestionably using lab rats & other animals. Rats bred to have the predisposition will fatten on any amount of calories short of starvation, and will be lethargic, as they dont have any spare energy. Their body is 'hogging' it all to push it into fat cells. Once fat, you can starve it, and it will die fat, as its body refuses to release the fat once its in. Hibernating animals do not get fat before winter because they overeat, but because their hormones kick in to make them fat. In experiments, researchers have been unable to prevent hibernating animals from getting fat by controlling their calorie intake, short of starvation, but then the body consumes itself to create and store fat. Beef, fish and cheese are all healthy. Fats in whole foods are all healthy. Only hydrogenated and industrially processed fats are unhealthy (eg hard fats made from oils, & bulk vegetable oils). Fats from whole foods, even (gasp) saturated fats, do not cause heart disease. This is the truth, made plain by the likes of Dr Mary Enig, Dr Malcolm Kendrick, Dr Uffe Ravnskov, & many others. Given the above knowledge, if potatoes (healthy enough in themselves) are cooked in a fat that does not denature and form toxic compounds at higher temperatures (eg a saturated fat), reason says there is nothing wrong with eating chips in moderation. Chips always used to be fried in tallow, which mainly consists of fats such as stearic acid and other saturated fats that have been shown to be beneficial to health. Nowadays they are fried in vegetable oil, which was unhealthy before it came out of the can, and then gets totally denatured in the fryer. Lard - a word that strikes fear into the heart of the modern health nut. Well would you believe, its major constituent is the monounsaturated fatty acid, oleic acid - as you have probably guessed, the same as found in olive oil. Healthy? you betcha. The food our great grandparents ate was healthy after all - no heart disease or obesity epidemics back then. The problem with todays carbs (wheat) is its unnaturally (genetically bred) high gluten content. The number of true celiacs and those with a gluten sensitivity has hugely increased in recent years. Besides the fact that now its in virtually everything, even where you wouldnt expect it. I know this - my Uncle was a celiac from teen, my mother acquired it later in life, and my daughter is sensitive to it. Cue lots of label reading and gluten free cooking. In summary, an average person that is not predisposed to store a lot of fat can eat carbs as part of a normal balanced diet. People with a very low predisposition to store (your runners) can eat plenty if they so desire. People with the predisposition to store, cannot eat much or any carbs/sugar, if they want to get and/or remain lean.

Chris, You are not fully informed about carbs, or how your body works. Try reading Why we get fat, and what to do about it by Gary Taubes. The science of adiposity (how our fat stores are controlled - otherwise known as endocrinology), has been known for many years, but largely ignored by the people that dish out nutritional and lifestyle advice.

In a nutshell, the presence of insulun controls what goes in and out of a fat cell. Fat goes in, no fat comes out, until the carb load, and the insulun, goes away. Our body releases insulun in response to the foods we eat - by a huge margin, it releases it for sugar and other carbs. Eating fat does not cause us to release insulun, so by that logic, you can't get fat eating fat alone. (practically we almost never do).If you eat carbs and fat, the fat is stored for later use, while the body burns the carbs off. If you are consistently eating sufficient carbs, the fat never gets a chance to get used. If you're lucky you might burn some before breakfast (in or out of bed), after an all-night fast. (remember folks - this is the nutshell version, the details are quite, well, detaily). For people consistently releasing insulun, their cells can become insulun-resistant, so the body produces more - vicious circle.

Certain people are genetically disposed to store fat rather than burn it - these are the ones that get obese over time. Also why fat parents often have fat kids. its not ONLY that the eating habits rub off, to a certain extent they can't help it. Anyone doubting that excess insulun makes you fat should look at the photo of a diabetic woman that consistently injected insulun into the same spot on each thigh, and over a peroid of 40 yrs developed camel-like mounds of fat in each location. He debunks the relatively recent myth that obesity is caused by overeating and under-exercising (so-called gluttony & sloth).

Adiposity 101: the amount of fat we store is precisely and directly regulated by our hormones. Gettting obese is a fault in the regulation system, not a moral or psychological failing. People overeat because they are fat, not the other way around. If the reason we get fat is an imbalance in calories in/out, then if we over or undereat by 20 calories/day, that would make us chronically obese/thin respectively within very few years. The fact is that the average person simply does not (and cannot) quantify how much energy they are consuming or expending, let alone get it spot on over vast periods of time, yet they can maintain a healthy weight. The accuracy required (if that theory were true) is beyond most machinery - a mathematical impossibility.

The brain does not run 'exclusively' on glucose. Sure it does, if there is plenty of glucose available, but if it couldnt run on anything else, a carb and sugar free diet would be debilitating or fatal, but its not. In fact we can survive fine without them. The reason is that in the absence of glucose, the liver produces ketones from fat, and the brain burns them instead. This is the so-called 'ketogenic' state you get in when deprived of carbs. Off-smelling breath in the morning? you are ketogenic. or you ate a lot of garlic for dinner :-)

You cannot point to a runner eating lots of carbs to prove that a high carb diet will make you slim. That is putting the cart before the horse. The fact is that the runner body type can eat carbs with impunity, as they are not genetically predisposed to store the energy as fat. they have plenty of 'spare energy' and tend to lead active lifestyles. An obese person has the opposite problem - their body preferentially stores fat. That this happens has been shown unquestionably using lab rats & other animals. Rats bred to have the predisposition will fatten on any amount of calories short of starvation, and will be lethargic, as they dont have any spare energy. Their body is 'hogging' it all to push it into fat cells. Once fat, you can starve it, and it will die fat, as its body refuses to release the fat once its in. Hibernating animals do not get fat before winter because they overeat, but because their hormones kick in to make them fat. In experiments, researchers have been unable to prevent hibernating animals from getting fat by controlling their calorie intake, short of starvation, but then the body consumes itself to create and store fat. Beef, fish and cheese are all healthy. Fats in whole foods are all healthy. Only hydrogenated and industrially processed fats are unhealthy (eg hard fats made from oils, & bulk vegetable oils). Fats from whole foods, even (gasp) saturated fats, do not cause heart disease. This is the truth, made plain by the likes of Dr Mary Enig, Dr Malcolm Kendrick, Dr Uffe Ravnskov, & many others. Given the above knowledge, if potatoes (healthy enough in themselves) are cooked in a fat that does not denature and form toxic compounds at higher temperatures (eg a saturated fat), reason says there is nothing wrong with eating chips in moderation. Chips always used to be fried in tallow, which mainly consists of fats such as stearic acid and other saturated fats that have been shown to be beneficial to health. Nowadays they are fried in vegetable oil, which was unhealthy before it came out of the can, and then gets totally denatured in the fryer. Lard - a word that strikes fear into the heart of the modern health nut. Well would you believe, its major constituent is the monounsaturated fatty acid, oleic acid - as you have probably guessed, the same as found in olive oil. Healthy? you betcha. The food our great grandparents ate was healthy after all - no heart disease or obesity epidemics back then. The problem with todays carbs (wheat) is its unnaturally (genetically bred) high gluten content. The number of true celiacs and those with a gluten sensitivity has hugely increased in recent years. Besides the fact that now its in virtually everything, even where you wouldnt expect it. I know this - my Uncle was a celiac from teen, my mother acquired it later in life, and my daughter is sensitive to it. Cue lots of label reading and gluten free cooking. In summary, an average person that is not predisposed to store a lot of fat can eat carbs as part of a normal balanced diet. People with a very low predisposition to store (your runners) can eat plenty if they so desire. People with the predisposition to store, cannot eat much or any carbs/sugar, if they want to get and/or remain lean.