To be confused about carb heavy diet?

[GreenestValley]

Just reading a thread on here about weight loss and diet. Many posters commenting that the Op in that thread has a very carb heavy diet.

I feel quite confused about it as I always thought carbs were an important part of a balanced diet and a source of energy. Obviously not too much white bread, white pasta etc, but from a personal perspective I have to have a fairly carb based diet or else I get hungry and end up snacking. And I’ve always had a normal weight.
I was also under the impression that the “low carb” diets of the early 2000s eg Atkins etc that were very popular, were kind of debunked now.
Am I missing something? Do carbs affect some people differently to others? Would welcome a bit of de mystifying here if anyone has expertise just for my own understanding!

I make my own kombucha tea, too! It's great for your gut. You can order a scoby online, but you do have to add tea and a sugar to it to ferment it. It makes another scoby, too, to give to like-minded friends .

But a dead animal carcass or milk made to feed the offspring of another species is dandy. 🤷‍♀️ The farming industry is great for male cattle, said no one ever. Or for the dairy cow.

You have heard of nature?

I know you will never shift on this but I am genuinely interested in how you square the fact that in order to grow all these crops for vegetarianism we have to wreck the soil and use synthetic chemicals (because presumably you don't agree with animal manure) and use pesticides which kill animals. I mean they are insects and not cute cows, but living animals all the same.

How do you square this with the 'no dead animals' thing?

@Batshitbeautycosmeticsltd

I do like some Haribo on a really long hillwalk. Actually I prefer boiled sweets to suck on but my really hardcore, native Cumbrian friend swears by dark chocolate covered Kendal mint cake on the trail. I gave it a bash and yeah, it's fab. It's definitely wise to carry something like these in your emergency drybag on long walks with your stuffs like fire key, tinder, bivy bag or shelter tent, etc.

Haribo has a place!

So you are fine with Haribo being able to sell 190g bags of sugar for £1?

You are well cool

‘Ah, I see. For some posters, their vegetarianism/veganism means they fundamentally disagree with low carb because they see it difficult to do without eating animal protein. So any health benefits of it are staunchly denied on principle...’

I don’t think it would be difficult to do on a vegetarian diet, but it would be difficult for me because I don’t like quorn/soya meat substitutes. I like veg, lentils and carbs like potatoes and porridge.

I’m also not against other people eating meat. From an environmental perspective, some agricultural areas are best suited to farming of livestock for meat.

I would just question how for me I could find low carb meals that were high in fibre and micronutrients.

I am sure there are some people who have a very healthy low carb diet. There is a diverse range of healthy human diets (and unhealthy ones).

*Who are these people? I think you'll find that all those of us who are low carb proponents are very well aware of these things.

And any good low carb diet will always contain all three macronutrients, just in different proportions from those which are currently deemed healthy. So high fat:medium protein:low carb, rather than high carb:medium protein: low fat.*

I'd disagree with your use of the word all proponents. Many people who low carb would'nt know a monosaccharide from a disaccharide, soluble fibre from insoluble fiber etc.

I honestly had no idea some of you vehemently disagreeing were vegan/vegetarians. I can see why you’d be pissed at the meat eaters coming along saying our way is the only way. I know you can be both low carb and vegan/vegetarian but I’m sure it would be more difficult and I can understand why you’re pushing back.

“ I know you can be both low carb and vegan/vegetarian but I’m sure it would be more difficult and I can understand why you’re pushing back.“

I am not pushing back on the facts because I am vegetarian. If I believed it were a healthier way of eating I would switch to low carb. It would be difficult because I’d probably have to eat some things I don’t really enjoy, but that’s just part of life.

I just don’t see the evidence is really there to support a low carb diet being healthier than a high carb diet. I’ve watched part of the video on this thread promoting low carb and it is based on misunderstandings. I have also had a vegan to visit recently who made me sit through a different YouTube video on how high carb is better and how we shouldn’t eat meat and that was also full of misunderstandings.

I don’t really know how we have got to the point where so many people are getting into very entrenched positions over complex fields of research based on evidence put forward by people who seem really uniformed. But it is happening all over the place not just over diet.

I want to make modifications to my diet to really focus on making sure I am getting the best micronutrition. I also know a few scientists who are doing fasting because having read the research they believe the evidence is there for it prolonging life. I don’t see a good case for either high or low carb.

Uninformed not uniformed!!!!!

So you are fine with Haribo being able to sell 190g bags of sugar for £1?

You are well cool

Yes. Why on Earth would I be in favour of nannying personal responsibility to people? How odd.

Nature performs animal farming? I did not know this.

@justanotherneighinparadise

I honestly had no idea some of you vehemently disagreeing were vegan/vegetarians. I can see why you’d be pissed at the meat eaters coming along saying our way is the only way. I know you can be both low carb and vegan/vegetarian but I’m sure it would be more difficult and I can understand why you’re pushing back.

No one is 'pushing back'. Just pointing out that is possible to be healthy and lose weight without eating meat.

Bit confused as to why I'm persona non grata for pointing this out or being vegetarian. Bit odd at how I'm being personally targeted for pointing out that one size does not fit all and it's entirely possible to be healthy without eating meat.

Millions, possibly billions, of people in the world are vegetarian and healthy. There's no one size fits all, IMO.

Some of you say carbs are non essential they are the only way of providing fibre in your diet. Not having enough fibre can cause constipation an even bowel cancer.

@goose1964

Some of you say carbs are non essential they are the only way of providing fibre in your diet. Not having enough fibre can cause constipation an even bowel cancer.

You can get plenty of fibre in your diet eating low carb. A good low carb diet should be focussed on getting carbs from vegetables and salad in the main, but also some nuts and seeds, and pulses/legumes.

No reason why it isn't enough fibre.

Someone up thread went through a list of the fibre amounts in different kinds of veg and it did look like it would be hard to hit 30g daily.

It could well be that there are reliable ways of doing it, but I haven’t see that so far.

Look - if you don't want to eat low carb, that's totally fine.

There's lots of good, consistent and reliable scientific evidence to support that low carbing is a positive and healthy way to eat. Lots of benefits, including prevention of cancer (amongst a whole load of other diseases).

It's not just about fibre, it's about other markers like cholesterol levels, reduction of inflammation, lowering of blood pressure, reversion of diabetes.

There's plenty if easy ways to boost fibre intake whilst low carbing. For example, oat bran. Because the fibre content is so high the effective carbohydrate (which you can metabolise) is low. Makes up into a very good porridge.

@Batshitbeautycosmeticsltd

So you are fine with Haribo being able to sell 190g bags of sugar for £1?

You are well cool

Yes. Why on Earth would I be in favour of nannying personal responsibility to people? How odd.

You are deliberately avoiding the question. You know exactly what I’m asking....selling junk sugar for £1...do you think that’s ok?

Would you prefer your children to spend their £1 on haribo or some fruit (with fibre!)? Do you see any problem with sugar junk bring so freely available and cheap, despite your libertarianism?

Wheat bran has even more fibre but is not as easy to eat.

@Batshitbeautycosmeticsltd

Bit confused as to why I'm persona non grata for pointing this out or being vegetarian. Bit odd at how I'm being personally targeted for pointing out that one size does not fit all and it's entirely possible to be healthy without eating meat.

Except you do need to supplement for nutrients that you can only get from animal products

‘Look - if you don't want to eat low carb, that's totally fine.‘

Well yes. I’m not expecting it to become some kind of edict. I am still interested in learning about nutrition and so am asking questions.

Moving on to other claimed health benefits isn’t going to resolve the fibre question. It will just raise different questions.

Vegetarians do eat animal products. They don’t require supplements.

Why are you so fixated on fibre? There have been plenty of answers to your concerns!

Moving on to other claimed health benefits isn’t going to resolve the fibre question. It will just raise different questions.

I've just answered the fibre question. Intake is easily boosted low carbing. You don't metabolise fibre so don't need to count the grams of fibre as a carb for the purpose of limiting it on a low carb diet.