Depriving yourself of carbohydrates is the absolute worst thing you can do to your body.
We are taught at a young age that carbs are bad, and that we shouldn’t consume much rice, bread, or pasta. Days before an event, both men and women scramble to lose weight and resort to cutting out all carbs. This makes them grumpy and sad, because what’s life without a good slice of bread?
The typical low carb diet is focused on meat, fish, and eggs. Vegetables and fruits are banned, because they are too high in carbs. When we eat this way, our bodies react in a negative way. Some common side effects are fatigue, headaches, and nausea.
Restricting carbohydrates puts an enormous amount of stress on the body. Your body immediately searches for new energy levels, because carbohydrates are typically the energy provider. This diet also causes build up of ammonia, which can cause kidney and brain damage.
Bloggers and long-time vegans, Alena and Lars explain “when we eat fewer carbs than we need, we get crazy cravings for calorically dense food, we get tired or hangry… and if you deprive yourself of this nutrient for a few days, your body will go into ketosis, which is an ill state to be in.”
Nutrition coach, Brian Pierre says, “most of us require some level of carbohydrates to function at our best over the long term.” Cutting carbs will cause weight loss, however, not in the long run. Carbohydrates are crucial for the body, especially if you exercise regularly.
While on a carb restricting diet, your metabolism slows down, your stress levels go up – your ability to build muscle diminishes. I am sure we have all dealt with the angry mom on a new diet. It’s not fun.
People are getting weak and ill. Let’s take Asia for example, a population who thrives off of carbohydrate-rich diets of whole grains and unprocessed starches. These people maintain long, healthy lives.
There is a reason why athletes “carb up” before a big meet. Carbohydrates provide us with a sufficient amount of energy. Most, if not all, professional athletes do this, yet they do not gain an unhealthy amount of weight.
Dr. McDougall, a biological anthropologist brings up a shocking statistic. “In general, Americans eat far too few calories from carbohydrates – only about 40%” he says, “to make things worse, the kinds of carbohydrates eaten most commonly are “empty calories” in the form of white sugar, corn syrup, and fructose.”
The meat and dairy industry fuels the economy here in the United States. Potatoes, rice, and veggies are far less expensive than a prime rib. To make things worse, magazines, newspaper, and television makes money off of advertisements from the meat and dairy industry. This also profits the drug industry. People get sick from meat and dairy products, thus visit the doctor and get prescribed a costly medication.
Society has been greatly misinformed. The average person most likely does not know the difference between processed and whole foods. Which leads to the negative connotation that comes along with the word ‘carb.’ Even looking up the word “carb” using a search engine will bring you to a copious amount of articles and stories about weight loss ‘tips and tricks.’
We need to stop misinforming younger generations about which foods are healthy and which are not, because we all know that a bowl of fruit is healthier than a rack of BBQ ribs.
