To feel more satiated after eating carbs?

[StrangeAntics]

It seems to go against the, er....grain a bit these days, but I guess we are all different!

Late last year I thought I'd try out reducing processed carbs/wheat for a few months to see if it would ease my sinus issues (it didn't change anything). During this time I ate lovely balanced meals with plenty veg and lean protein, fruit, yogurt, and healthy fats only.
It tasted heavenly, but even though I made sure to eat decent portions, I still felt hungry within an hour or two of having eaten it.
This was all unprocessed and 'healthy' food btw.

By the end of the experiment I had gained 4lbs. I am slim and fairly fit (am very active) so it wasn't a worry, but I certainly noticed it. I was also more tired and cranky.

What struck me as odd was when I went back to including my bread and pasta (usually wholegrain or just sourdough/pizza dough) with the same veggies and good fats, I lost the weight again and always felt full and satisfied for hours after my meals. A result I wasn't expecting!

An example of the lower carb - carrot, sweet potato, broccoli, leafy greens with lean roast chicken breast or white/oily fish. Teaspoon of mustard or homemade pesto, etc.

Example of higher carb meal - 1 serving stonebaked pizza base topped with fresh tomato, peppers, basil, rocket, courgette, with pesto, mozzarella and a side of tuna or ham. Both 'diets' had roughly equal calories and portion sizes.

I hear the opposite online quite often, that the higher carb meal leaves people feeling ravenous and not satiated. I don't experience any kind of issue with blood sugar or cravings and tend to eat less over all when I eat more carb. I know the web is full of bogus misinformation regarding nutrition, but the low carb thing does seem to be pretty popular all around.

Is there a reason I do better eating like this or am I an anomaly? Or is it because I balance it with lots of the veggies, etc?

Ive had a noddle and protein shake all day i will live on coffee till tomorrow.
Hopefully will have more to eat tomorrow.

If everyone says you're being unreasonable, are you going to stop feeling it? 😬

Alternatively - everyone reacts differently to food, and therefore no-one is unreasonable to feel satiated or unsatiated after different types of food. It's not one size fits all. Not to mention, "carbs" covers a wildly variable range of stuff - I bet you don't actually eat much "wheat", bread and past and cakes and biscuits and crackers all have very different nutritional profiles.

Personally I could eat a half a loaf of bread at once and still want more. That does not make you wrong 🙄

Different people feel satiety with different foods. It’s not exactly shocking that someone of a normal weight in adulthood, with a normal diet, experiences satiety with carbs. It’s pretty obvious. Overweight people often benefit from LCHF ways of eating exactly because they don’t. Again, pretty obvious.

I see what you mean, and I do have the advantage of a physical job to keep the fuel burning, but I was and am still surprised how maligned wheat products seem to be online. I went down a rabbit hole and couldn't find a single shred of actual nutritional science. It's a minefield out there!

I have a few niggles like most people, a small patch of psoriasis on my neck, occasional bad knees, etc, and it seems that almost all random health complaints are cured by excluding wheat if you believe the internet. It can make you wonder, but at the same time some of it feels a bit cult like.

For some people it’s true. LC has cured my migraines, IBS, nascent GERD. My knees don’t hurt and I run, I feel great , lost weight, and on and on. BUT that’s not true for lots of people. There’s no point doing something if there’s no actual issue. Is it wheat? Who cares, honestly? Ad long as I feel good eating what I eat, there isn’t a point to me finding out why.

I suspect genes play a much larger role in how we process food than we know.

I simply can't not eat carbs. My DH survives on coffee and protein pretty much but his metabolism has tanked.

I'm a grazer of carbs and protein all day but I'm also gluten intolerant. However I had a day out a couple of years ago and didn't take enough food with me... All I had was a few milky coffees (I'm not used to a lot of caffeine) and some chicken breasts.

I got a lift home, lay on the bed and genuinely thought I was losing consciousness. I clearly had a hypoglycemic episode due to low blood sugar triggered by the caffeine and lack of glucose (tested clear for diabetes) and so I know now I either need to be carbed up or have glucose with me all the time. I was genuinely scared back then so always make sure I have carbs with me now and/or glucose.

I would probably avoid something if it made me feel better, too, with or without scientific proof, I agree. I am more irritated by the evangelical attitude of the keto types in forums about nutrition.
Note: I don't believe all keto people are evangelical, of course.

But I have seen young people asking for advice and being told vegetables and wheat will give them cancer. It's appalling. I have never liked or eaten red meat, but I would never try to shame or frighten other people for doing so..

I suppose there is just a really frantic, obsessive attitude to nutrition online, with very few actual studies or experts to stem the flow of misinformation. And then people would simply ignore them and call them false anyway...

Agree with you about genes, too.

Historically the poor had minimal protein and filled up on bread.

Yes it doesnt work for everyone OP, me personally, it makes me eat more food so I have to have fairly low carb (when eating what I should be eating) but thats no the case for everyone
See also the numerous threads about glucose spikes and insulin spikes, that does not apply to everyone.

I only ever talk personally but for me 'wheaty/starchy carby' products certainly make me bloated, uncomfortable, make my vaginal atrophy symptoms worse, GERD symptoms worse, joint pains worse. I discovered it by accident really

Having said that Im now going to have some bread and honey.

There is a ‘frantic and obsessive’ view of nutrition online. It’s incredibly unhealthy. For most people, the old rules are probably fine. Avoid processed food when possible, eat a wide range of foods, lots of vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, healthy fats etc. For some of us that advice doesn’t work. But it doesn’t need to be weird. Just skip the high carb foods, get your carbs from vegetables and up your fat.

And always drink lots of water. That shit is great.

When you eat carbs your blood sugar goes up. Your body then secretes insulin to reduce it.

In many people especially in middle age this process doesn't seem to work very well. Their blood sugar increases too much after eating carbs and they emit a bit too much insulin and then their blood sugar actually becomes too low. This then gives them a craving to eat more carbs or sugar to correct the low blood sugar and round and round they go in a cycle getting fatter.

If your blood sugar control is working nicely then it makes perfect sense that you would feel happy and satified eating moderate portiobd of carbs.

I started having yoghurt, fruit and seeds rather than porridge fruit and seeds for breakfast just because it was much quicker. I was really surprised to find that I was less hungry with the yoghurt than the porridge. I guess it just varies from person to person.

I think different bodies react differently to carbs - I lost 3 stone when I gave up (most) carbs over 5 years ago and have kept it off. I enjoy my food, eat healthily, and am not going hungry - other than having an appetite for my meals.

Now I’m maintaining rather than losing, I’ve introduced some of the healthier carbs back into my diet, like new potatoes, pulses and beans, and more fruits, and that works for me. But when due to circumstances I’ve had to eat bread or pasta or rice, I’ve ended up bloated and yes, hungry again an hour later.

It works really well for me, but I completely understand that it doesn’t work for everyone. As an aside though, I wouldn’t class your lower carb meal as particularly low carb, due to the carrots and sweet potato.

Another one here who is fuller and slimmer eating carbs. I think I read that men are more likely to lose weight on a high-protein, keto diet. Either way, it's not for me.

It seems the experts change their minds every few decades anyway about what's good for us and what isn't. They may well decide healthy carbs are good after all in the future.

I always have to have a portion or healthy carbs with my meals of I feel bit shaky and tired, but I’m also vegan and that makes a high protein low carb diet, not impossible, but not really a great idea. We’re all different I suppose.

Not all carbs are equal and carbs aren't the enemy. Refined carbs are the ones to try and avoid. Not brown bread.

Yup, I just try to control my carb portion now but stick to focusing on high protein. I did keto a while back and people kept saying “wait till you are fat adapted”. I was super strict for 6 months, lost loads of weight felt tired and hungry all the time. It just didn’t work very well for me.

OP your low carb was also low fat. With higher carbs you automatically increase fats, and it is fat that satiates appetite.
Try a simple test, buy two pots of yoghurt, one full fat and one zero. See which one leaves you feeling fuller.
I could eat a full large pot of zero Greek yoghurt but can only manage half a pot of full fat.
Our physiological feedback mechanism relies on fat.
So if eating a healthy unprocessed diet add an olive oil based dressing on a salad to leave you feeling fuller, or use nuts to increase the fat content.
It’s really about balance. High carbs often contain more added fat such as butter on bread, cream in a pasta sauce, so it’s not the carbs that make you feel fuller but the added fat. Most cakes and biscuits are made with half fat half flour and sugar, we assume it’s the carbs but it’s good old butter that fills us up.

People who are metabolically healthy do not suffer adverse reactions to bread or pasta.

The default is not 'diabetic'.
Diabetic is broken, and not really useful as a metric for how a healthy person should eat.

Unless the vast majority of the market is now diabetic? In that case then they are correct, they have become the default.

Also, I do not eat high fat. In fact I eat higher fat when not consuming carbs.
One's mileage, as they say, may vary...

Personally I agree with you. I had a baked sweet potato for lunch today and was thinking all afternoon how unusual it was for me not to feel hungry all afternoon. Carbs are considerably cheaper than most protein foods too.