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Understanding carbs

In the last couple years carbs have rocketed to the headlines as the "low carb diet" revolution gathers new supporters everyday. Bodybuilders and couch potatos alike are turing to diets low in carbohydrates and high in fats and protein. Suddenly carbs have become a popular topic for debate as nutritionists, scientists, doctors, bodybuilders and laymen all put forward their position on this once "no brainer" nutrient. Suddenly its the carbs that make you fat not the fat itself. An endless number of over night experts have decalred that you can actually eat all the fat you want just as long as you dont eat the carbs. I feel that I should interject my opinion on this issue but not try and sell you on any one point of view. Rather I'm going to try and show what carbs do, how different sources of carbs cause different responses in your body and when eating carbs is a good idea and when eating them isn't a good idea.

In the human body, carbs are the primary source of energy. That is, our bodies will look first to any sugars in the blood, in the muscle cells (stored as glycogen), or in the liver for energy before turing to other sources. If no carbs are available, the body will look to other sources such as protein in the body stream, fat storage, or protein within the muscle cells which is accessed by breaking down the muscle tissue to free up the protein. As you can see, there are good reasons to have carbs available and there are good reasons to have no carbs available. For example, a constant supply of carbs in the blood stream will prevent muscle wasting, that is, the bodies machanism of breaking down its own muscle in order to feed itself Why bust your ass in the gym to build up a couple pounds of muscle if your just gonna let your body waste them away right? However, not having enough carbs available for your bodies energy needs also forces your body to turn to body fat in order to get the energy it requires. So when cutting down, you want your body to use its stored fat and thus depleting your bodies carb supply seems to be one possible route.

Another thing that carbs do and one that is particularily important to bodybuilders but also carries important health issues for normal people, is the way they effect a powerful hormone in the body known as insulin. Most of you probably know of insulin because of its roll in diabetes. When you eat carbs, your body responds by releasing insulin into the bloodstream. What insulin does is it pushes the carbs (and protein) into the muscle cells and any other cell in your body that requires energy. Insulin also pushes fat from the bloodstream and into adipose tissue (basically it makes you fatter). Thus, insulin has two very polar effects in the body builder. It pushes carbs and protein into your muscle cells which is a good thing because it allows your muscles to rebuild their glycogen supply and makes protein available inside the cell for growth but it also is the hormone that makes you fat. So what is a bodybuilder to do?

The answer lies in understanding how different sources of carbs cause sizeably different reactions in the body. The key to understanding how carbs differ is something known as the glycemic index. This is a ranking of carb sources and its basic function is to tell you which ones get into your blood fastest and which one get in slowest. Each carb on the list has a number beside it which shows its rank. The lower the number the slower it gets in to your blood, the higher the number thr faster it gets into your blood. This rank however is not from 1-100. Basically, it starts by setting an average, which in this case is glucose and which gets a ranking of 100 and then every other source of carbs is ranked against it. For example, an apple gets a glycemic index rating of 35 because it burns signifigantly slower then glucose (and is in fact considered a slow buring source of carbs) while maltodextrin gets a glycemic index rating of 150 because it burns signifigantly faster then glucose (and is actually the fastest buring carb available). So why does any of this matter to you? Simple, the faster the carbs hit your blood stream the more insulin your body releases. With this knowledge in hand you can control just how much insulin your body releases and when. Why is this important? Well lets look at a couple of situations in which you would and would not want your body releasing insulin. Right after a heavy workout your body is drained. Its been hammered and its begging for energy. What do you eat? High glycemic carbs. Why? Because they will get into your bloodstream fast and the insulin released will make sure the carbs and protein get into the waiting muscles quick. Insulin in this case is our friend. What about the fat storag you say? Two answers to that. One, don't eat fat after your workout because it will slow down the digestion of the carbs and second, your body will not store much fat after a heavy, demanding workout, even with a sizeable insulin spike just because it is not in fat storing mode at this point. Right after a workout you want to eat the fastest burning carbs available (maltodextrin) in order to promote a big insulin release which will in turn begin your muscles down the recovery road faster. For more information on post workout nutrition, check out "The post workout meal" article. For the next couple hours after your workout, medium to high glycemic carbs are your best bet because they will ensure a constant and fast supply of energy to your muscle cells.

During most other times of the day, low glycemic carbs are the way to go. This way you can still supply your body with the energy it needs to prevent muscle wasting but the carbs that are released into your blood will be done so slowly which means no big insulin spike and that means no threat of fat storage. Keeping yourself lean is only one of the benefits of controlling insulin. By preventing large amounts of insulin from being released throughout the day, you will make your body more sensitive to smaller amounts of insulin and thus require less to be released in order to get the same job done. One of the main causes of diabetes (it should be noted that diabetes only become a problem with the invention of highly refined, meaning high glycemic, sugars) is insulin insensitivity which is caused by chronic over eating of high glycemic carbs which forces your body to release more and more insulin. Learning to eat low glycemic carbs will not only keep you lean, it will also prevent diabetes.

Of course the first step to understanding carbs is reading (and if your smart printing out and putting on your fridge) the glycemic index. If you would like to check out the glycemic index for yourself, click here.

Now that you know a little more about carbs and their effect on the body, you should be able to make more sense of the new diets and design a diet that suits your needs.