Why You Need Carbohydrates
Confused about carbs? Discover the facts and the fallacies about the nutrient we love to hate.
What are Carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of energy. It prefers carbohydrates because they’re easily digested to glucose. Glucose is the energy that cells require, and a steady supply is particularly important for cells in the brain and throughout the nervous system and red blood cells.
With the exception of milk, carbohydrates are found in plant foods and are classified as sugars, starch -also called complex carbohydrates - and fiber. Sugars, which are two sugar molecules bound together, are found in sweet packaged and prepared foods, fruit, refined grains, and plain milk (lactose is the naturally-occurring carb in milk) and they’re digested faster than starch, which contains more molecules. Foods with complex carbs and fiber, such as whole grain breads and cereals, vegetables, lentils, and legumes (beans), make for a slower and steadier energy release into the bloodstream and can help you feel fuller for longer. Fiber is not digested, but it is fermented by the bacteria in your colon.
Carbohydrates and Your Weight
When you start adding pounds in midlife, especially around the belly, carbohydrates are often the first nutrient on the chopping block. But carving out carbs is not always the answer to your weight issues. Here’s why.
Weight gain happens when you eat more calories than your body uses. Except for fiber, carbs provide four calories per gram (one gram of protein also has four calories and a gram of fat has nine). Fiber adds very little to your calorie intake.
Excess calories can come from fat, carbohydrate, protein, or alcohol, yet the perception persists that carbohydrates are to blame. If you lost weight after you stopped eating candy every day, quit eating chips before dinner, or stopped snacking on ice cream at night, you may think that a reduction in carb intake is solely responsible. It’s not. By eating fewer carbohydrate-rich foods, you consume fewer calories, and weight loss results.
Research shows that carbohydrates don’t cause weight gain. A 2022 review found no difference in weight loss when people with overweight and obesity consumed a weight loss eating plan that was either a low‐carbohydrate or a balanced‐carbohydrate diet. In the same year, a study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet was just as effective for weight loss as a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet.
A shortage of carbohydrate in your eating plan can backfire in several ways. Inadequate carb intake causes the body to use protein for energy, which takes it away from its main job of building and repairing muscle tissue and providing the raw materials to produce hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, and all the other compounds that keep you alive and at peak function. Skimping on carbs can also aggravate so-called “brain fog” and tank your energy levels. The brain prefers glucose as its energy source, although it can run on ketones, the products of fat breakdown, when carb intake is low. However, you may feel lethargic without enough carbohydrate which may cause you to eat more, exercise less, or both. Restricting your favorite foods like bread, pasta, and rice can also lead to binging because you feel deprived.
In addition, cutting carbs to the bare minimum makes it next to impossible to get the recommended amount of daily fiber and reduces vitamin and mineral intake. Eating carb-rich foods with fiber, such as beans, lentils, and grains, actually contributes to a healthy weight.
Read about fiber and weight control here.
Do Carbohydrates Cause Type 2 Diabetes?
In a word, no.
Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that occurs when the body cannot properly regulate blood glucose levels. In type 2 diabetes, the body doesn’t respond normally to insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas and secreted into the bloodstream after eating to assist glucose into cells.
Type 2 diabetes can result from a condition called insulin resistance which is caused by chronically elevated blood glucose levels. When there’s too much glucose in the blood, the pancreas pumps out more insulin to return levels to a healthy range. However, when blood glucose is consistently high, cells become more resistant to insulin. As a result, blood glucose stays elevated which causes the pancreas to crank out even more insulin to move glucose into cells. Eventually, the pancreas can’t keep up and blood glucose levels remain high. Elevated glucose concentrations play havoc with your health by promoting weight gain and setting the stage for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Though all the carbohydrate you eat is converted to glucose, a high-carbohydrate diet doesn’t necessarily contribute to type 2 diabetes risk unless it has excess calories. People with prediabetes and diabetes may need to cut some carbohydrate as well as fat and protein from their eating plan to better control their weight and blood glucose levels, but they don’t need to completely avoid carbohydrates. In fact, the American Diabetes Association Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes recommend that people with diabetes follow a balanced eating pattern that includes fruit, dairy products, and whole grains, and minimizes added sugars.
Find out more about perimenopause and prediabetes in this blog post.
What is the Glycemic Index?
Developed about 40 years ago, the glycemic index (GI) is a measure of the rise in blood glucose after eating an individual food containing a specific amount of carbohydrate when compared to consuming the same amount of glucose or white bread. The GI sounds like a great idea, but nutrition experts – including this one – don’t put much stock in it. Despite years of research, groups such as the American Diabetes Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics don’t recommend the GI to plan diets for people with diabetes, those trying to prevent diabetes, or for anyone in the general population.
One of the biggest issues with GI is that it tests carbohydrate-containing foods alone, but these foods are rarely eaten in isolation. Most carbohydrate-containing foods are consumed as part of meals that also have fat, protein, and fiber that can all affect glucose absorption and blood glucose levels. And age, stress, time of day, and other factors also influence how a person responds to food. Other issues include food temperature. For example, cooked rice, beans, and potatoes have a higher GI when eaten warm than when cold. That’s because cooking and cooling foods with starch increases a type of starch called resistant starch which acts like more like dietary fiber than starch.
The jury is still out on the usefulness of the GI. Overall eating patterns matter most when it comes to health. It’s better to concentrate on eating balanced plant-based meals on a daily basis than any single food.
Why Do You Crave Carbohydrates?
It’s possible to equate certain foods, like ice cream, candy, and cookies, with comfort, which may intensify cravings when you’re feeling tired, stressed, or hungry. A balanced, high-protein diet can help. Eating enough protein at every meal and at regular intervals during the day goes a long way to curbing carb cravings. Protein keeps you fuller for longer and prevents you from getting too hungry. Excess hunger can increase your longing for carbs because you know they will increase your blood glucose relatively quickly and make you feel better fast.
How much protein should you eat? Learn more here.
Eating for emotional reasons is normal, but it can be problematic if it’s your only method for coping with stress. Next time you have a craving for candy, cookies, or ice cream, check in with yourself to see how you’re feeling and what else you’ve had to eat that day. Try to keep track of cravings for carbohydrate-rich foods to see if any patterns emerge.
How to Get the Carbohydrates You Need
Instead of taking pains to avoid carbohydrates, focus on getting the carbohydrates you need from nutritious foods. Consider the company that carbohydrates keep rather than taking them off the menu. For example, foods rich in added sugars, such as sugary soft drinks, granola bars, and candy, typically offer little besides calories. Fruits and vegetables, and plain milk, contain naturally-occurring simple sugars, but they are not on the list of sweeter foods experts advise us to limit. Foods with naturally-occurring sugar, as well as starchy foods such as whole and enriched grains, potatoes, and rice, are desirable because they supply vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients, beneficial plant compounds that protect cells. Enriched grains supply additional nutrients, such as several B vitamins and iron, which are often in short supply in a woman’s diet.
Suggested daily carbohydrate intakes are based on calorie requirements. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating 45% to 65% of your daily calories as carbohydrate. My co-author, Hillary Wright, MEd, RDN and I (we wrote The Menopause Diet Plan, Your Guide to Managing Hormones, Health, and Happiness) favor the lower end of the carbohydrate recommendations. Although we have only love for carbohydrates, it’s difficult to make room for adequate protein in eating plans for midlife women and it’s important to minimize added sugars.
If you don’t have a clue about how to get started on a balanced eating plan with adequate protein, carbohydrate and fiber, here's a sample 1800-calorie meal plan from The Menopause Diet Plan. It gets 48% of its calories from carbohydrates, has 107 grams of protein, and supplies 36 grams of fiber.
Breakfast
½ cup whole grain, ready-to-eat cereal
1 cup 1% low-fat or fat-free milk
1 small banana
1 hard cooked egg, or egg cooked without added fat
Snack
3 cups air-popped popcorn
1 ½ ounces reduced-fat hard cheese, such as cheddar
Lunch
Serving of leftover Grilled Turkey and Vegetable Stew (Recipe is in the book.)
1 ounce whole grain roll
Snack
Medium apple
2 tablespoons peanut or almond butter
Dinner
4 ounces grilled fish
1 ½ cups roasted carrots
½ cup cooked brown rice, farro, or quinoa
1 teaspoon olive oil
Questions about carbohydrates? Let me know in the comments. And please note that I will be taking some time off in August. See you back here in September!