Westside PUFAs
Member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2015
- Messages
- 1,972
"How many times have you heard the following statement? “Science has proven that we don’t need carbohydrates at all.” This is always stated as if it was some kind of revelation and of course justification for a very low carb diet. If you don’t need to eat carbs, that must prove that they are useless, and therefore we shouldn’t eat them, right?
Of course the statement is nothing more than a shortsighted misrepresentation of physiology. The statement that you don’t need to eat carbohydrates is based on the well-known principle of gluconeogenesis, the method by which your body can make glucose from non-carbohydrate sources, primarily amino acids. There’s a reason for this. Glucose is so critical to your health that the body has a simple mechanism for ensuring its concentration in blood for the times when you unfortunately can’t get carbohydrates into your diet. It’s a safeguard against a natural or self-imposed tragedy. It prevents you from slipping into a coma and dying due to lack of sufficient blood sugar. This is not an argument for a low-carb diet or for the uselessness of carbohydrates. It is in fact proof positive of how critical carbohydrates are to your life and health.
If carbohydrates were useless as some low-carb enthusiasts want to believe, we would be able to convert fatty acids into glucose instead of using precious amino acids. It’s time to put away this childish argument."
Simple.
"But I'll just eat nothing but fat and protein and I'll convert all of the glucose I need from the protein I eat, not my own tissue..."
K.
We don’t need carbs?
Of course the statement is nothing more than a shortsighted misrepresentation of physiology. The statement that you don’t need to eat carbohydrates is based on the well-known principle of gluconeogenesis, the method by which your body can make glucose from non-carbohydrate sources, primarily amino acids. There’s a reason for this. Glucose is so critical to your health that the body has a simple mechanism for ensuring its concentration in blood for the times when you unfortunately can’t get carbohydrates into your diet. It’s a safeguard against a natural or self-imposed tragedy. It prevents you from slipping into a coma and dying due to lack of sufficient blood sugar. This is not an argument for a low-carb diet or for the uselessness of carbohydrates. It is in fact proof positive of how critical carbohydrates are to your life and health.
If carbohydrates were useless as some low-carb enthusiasts want to believe, we would be able to convert fatty acids into glucose instead of using precious amino acids. It’s time to put away this childish argument."
Simple.
"But I'll just eat nothing but fat and protein and I'll convert all of the glucose I need from the protein I eat, not my own tissue..."
K.
We don’t need carbs?
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