Here's some information about low carbing for anyone who hasn't tried it before, or who doesn't know too much about it:
What happens when we eat carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are a great source of energy for our bodies. However, the amount and type of carbohydrates that we typically eat in the Western world is too much for our bodies to use as energy, and the excess ends up being stored as fat.
When we eat carbohydrates, the body converts them into glucose. It is the responsibility of the pancreas to release a hormone called insulin to deal with this glucose. The insulin does three things:
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It moves the glucose in your blood stream into your body’s cells for immediate energy (think of that sudden boost you get when you eat a biscuit or a piece of chocolate)
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It transports what is left into the liver, which converts excess energy into glycogen, which is stored in the liver and the muscles, readily accessible for future energy needs
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Once the glycogen stores are full, what is left over is converted to fat
If we eat protein or fat, we do not see the same insulin response.
When we consume a lot of carbohydrates, and carbohydrates that are easiest for our bodies to access – e.g. sugar or white bread/pasta – the level of glucose in the blood rises rapidly. Therefore, the body has to produce a lot of insulin to deal with this. The more insulin we are producing, the more fat we are likely to lay down, as not all of the glucose will be required for immediate energy.
Worse, when we eat a lot of carbohydrates in one go, e.g. at breakfast – where a typical meal might be a piece of toast, a bowl of cereal and a glass of fruit juice – our blood sugar levels spike quickly. Lots of insulin is produced to sweep this excess glucose away, which then results in a swift fall. This leaves us with low blood sugar, which is as much of a problem – it makes us feel shaky and irritable – and hungry.
Thus our typical breakfast of cereal and toast with fruit juice will generally see us hungry again around 11.00 am, and reaching for the biscuit tin. A lunch of a sandwich, packet of crisps and a chocolate bar will see the same effect on us at around 3.00 pm – when we might have a cake or another biscuit. Then our evening meal of pasta or rice or something with potatoes will have the same effect – resulting in late-evening snacking.
When we eat like this, our blood sugar levels are constantly peaking and falling. The peaks mean we produce insulin, which lays down fat in our bodies. The troughs encourage us to eat more, meaning that we produce more insulin, meaning that we are laying down more fat.
Our typical, ‘healthy’ diet in the UK, therefore is anything but.