Those Crazy Carbs!

Carbohydrates. That's a word, like "fat," that many of us have learned to fear or at least be somewhat perplexed about. I often have questions from individuals I work with about carbs and how should they be a part of our diets. Are carbs good? Are they bad? What exactly are they anyway?

Carbohydrates are in most of the foods we eat, from candy to vegetables. We've learned to avoid all carbs, but we need carbohydrates for optimal health and energy! What we really should be doing is eating complex carbs and avoiding simple carbs. Most simple carbohydrates are highly processed foods with refined sugars and little nutritional value - many pastas, cookies, cakes, breads, crackers and cereals. These foods do not provide us with lasting energy because they are low in fiber, vitamins and minerals. Complex carbohydrates, on the other hand, are the carbs we want to eat! These carbs appear in nature - our whole foods - such as vegetables and whole grains like brown rice. Yes, these foods are carbs too! These foods should make up the majority of our diets because they are nutrient-rich and provide lasting energy. The problem is that many of us are eating carbs that have been denatured and deformed instead of whole foods.

With the New Year comes resolutions to lose weight, stick to certain diets and avoid certain foods. So often we fall short of these diet-focused resolutions, and it's not because of lack of will power or dedication. The truth is dieting in general is hard work and certainly not the natural way to eat! Trying to cut out certain foods from your diet is a difficult task and very rarely can any of us permanently stick to a diet plan such as low carb, low fat, no protein, etc.

One of the strategies I focus on is slowly adding in foods that are healthier choices rather than trying to omit not-so-healthy foods. Eventually, these healthier foods "crowd out" the processed, sugar-filled, chemicalized foods...often without you even realizing it's happening! And, rather than focusing on the carbs, fat, protein and calories - which is a horribly difficult, frustrating and unnatural way to be eating for any period in your life - why not focus on adding in a variety of local, organic whole foods? Perhaps it means adding one single food in at a time, but making a small change such as this is a habit that will actually stick!

American culture has learned in the past few decades to focus on what experts call "nutritionism." This is the ideology that food is replaced by nutrients. We are told to worry about how much of each vitamin and mineral we are getting (get your calcium! take an iron supplement!), eat more antioxidant-rich foods, eat lower fat foods and so on. This shifts our focus from food and nature to nutrients and science...and this is not a natural or healthy way to be eating. It seems the more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we become - something food expert Michael Pollan, calls the American Paradox. Doesn't that seem odd? Our ancestors certainly didn't count calories or take a multi-vitamin, and in many ways they were much healthier as a nation than we are.

This is all a large part of the foundation for my health coaching and why I feel so strongly that what many of us (including myself) have been hearing for so long is completely backwards. Figuring out what to eat should not be so complicated and doesn't have to be! Can you imagine actually eating guilt-free and with the satisfaction of knowing that you are making smart, natural decisions for you and your family? It's time to throw that No Carb/Low Carb/Low Fat/No Fat/Calorie Counting stuff out the window! Trust me - you don't need it!!