Based on the current collection of popular diets, you’d be forgiven for thinking that high-carb diets were bad. Some of the more popular diets, like the Keto diet, seek to minimize carbohydrates as much as possible. Other diets like the Paleo diet allow fruits and vegetables but eliminate all grain products.
Diets like Paleo don’t target carbs per se. Rather, a diet like Paleo seeks to model what our ancestors ate. Dieters think that the caveman probably did not harvest wheat or make bread or harvest rice, of any color. Cavemen (and women) were hunter-gatherers.
However, although the Paleo diet allows for simple carbohydrates in the form of fruits, vegetables, and nuts; eliminates a huge source of complex carbohydrates. And to be fair, Paleo is less of a weight loss diet than a lifestyle diet. Perhaps the best comparison would be to a lifestyle diet such as the Mediterranean diet.
But Keto is a weight loss diet. The general essence of this diet seeks to eliminate all carbohydrates from consumption. The reasoning is that with the absence of carbohydrates, the body will begin to use fat for energy. It is a reasonable assumption.
After all, although carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy, the body cannot use what it does not have. Therefore, the body enters a state where it begins to take advantage of fat stores. The body does not like to use protein for energy. Protein is used for the maintenance of muscles. Fat is the option.
The ketogenic diet works. A large group of dedicated followers and practitioners can attest to this. But if the key to losing weight is low carb, high fat, and high protein, how then do countries like Korea and Japan produce some of the “skinniest” and healthiest people in the world?
One cup of cooked rice contains approximately 44 grams of carbohydrates, 0.44 grams of fat, and 4.2 grams of protein. I can tell you from personal experience that Koreans eat more than 1 cup of white rice in one sitting, let alone throughout the day. However, as a society, Koreans are a skinny bunch. The same is true for Japan, perhaps more.
Apart from white rice, Koreans love sweet potatoes. Street vendors roast sweet potatoes in converted 55-gallon drums with a log fire blazing underneath. Taking one on a cold, wintry day is one of life’s true joys. 1 cup of sweet potato equals 30 grams of carbohydrates, just 0.2 grams of fat and 2.5 grams of protein.
The question we must ask ourselves is why. Why are people whose main staples are high in carbohydrates and low in fat with moderate levels of protein not overweight? Because if the answer to weight loss is to cut carbs, then it stands to reason that carbs caused or contributed to the weight gain in the first place.
And it’s not about good carbs versus bad carbs. These low carb diets seek to eliminate all of them. And lifestyle diets like Paleo seek to eliminate all starchy complex carbohydrates, arguably the best form of long-term energy carbohydrate.
And when it comes to lifestyle diets, pasta is a key component of the famous Mediterranean diet. Although the term pasta is quite broad, a cup of “normal” pasta yields approximately 43 grams of carbohydrates, 1.3 grams of fat, and 8 grams of protein. Once again another wildly successful healthy lifestyle diet featuring high carbohydrates and low fat with moderate protein.
The answer to this dichotomy is that carbohydrates are not stored or converted to fat in any appreciable way. Generally speaking, the body burns carbohydrates until there are no more carbohydrates to burn or the body no longer needs to burn carbohydrates for energy.
Excess carbohydrates are stored as glycogen. It is not initially converted (or stored as fat). The average person has the capacity to store up to 1500-2000 calories of stored glycogen. Once full, carbohydrates are stored as fat. But glycogen is constantly being converted to glucose and therefore constantly depleted. And yes, “constantly” in need of replenishment.
What is stored as fat is the fat that a person eats. It is dietary fat. It’s not the carbs or protein that magically sticks to your belly or hips, it’s the fat.
The total fat intake recommended by the FDA is 65 grams per day. The consensus is that any diet that gets less than 30% of its calories from fat is considered a low-fat diet. 30% is huge. One cup of cooked white rice yields less than half a gram of fat. 65 grams of fat a day translates to a lot of rice and potentially a lot of happy Koreans.
The body uses protein to build or maintain muscle. The body burns carbohydrates as an immediate source of energy. The body stores fat for the long winter hibernation (well, if we were bears).
Not getting fat means not eating fat. Not gaining weight means eating enough protein to maintain muscle mass. Not gaining weight means eating enough carbohydrates to fuel the body and glycogen stores. Protein and carbohydrates don’t turn into fat (maybe a little bit), it’s the fat that turns into fat.
And the holy truth about weight loss is simple. Eat less than your body uses and the weight will drop. And stop eating fat.
