Carbohydrates in holistic nutrition

Carbohydrates are perhaps the most controversial macronutrient that exists, due to their marked relationship with weight gain when ingested in excess. It is an element worthy of study, since its main function as a source of energy has been finding substitutes in fats. In any circumstance, the important thing is that you have the necessary information to make your own decisions when it comes to organizing your meal plans, having as main foundation, that the basis of a healthy diet will always be in the proper balance of the nutrients we eat.

In this guide we will analyze the basic concepts that revolve around carbohydrates, so that you will have more information when planning your meals.

Differences

Carbohydrates are broadly characterized into simple and compound carbohydrates.

Simple carbohydrates are simple sugars such as fructose, glucose and lactose. These can be found in milk products, sweets, soft drinks, syrups, among others.

Complex carbohydrates are made up of three or more sugars that join together to form a chain. They are rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber. As they are more complex, they take longer to be assimilated by the body, so they do not raise the blood sugar level as fast as simple carbohydrates. They are a source of energy necessary for the body in the performance of its functions.

We can find them in wholemeal flours, potatoes, legumes, whole grains, in vegetables such as spinach, beans, artichokes and broccoli. This type of carbohydrates plays a fundamental role in the diet, being the natural source par excellence for our body to obtain energy.

They are not the only source of energy

Normally there is a preconceived idea that carbohydrates are our source of energy, and therefore decreasing the intake of these would result in not having enough energy to perform our daily work. The truth is that if this were true, there would not be so many people who have been on different low-carbohydrate diets for years, nor would we have so many testimonies of developers and people in the world of technology, who work in high-pressure environments and eat only meat. The point we want to get to is that carbohydrates are not the only source of energy and for many it is not even the best.

Do not abuse their consumption and boost protein.

Proteins are excellent for speeding up our metabolism, besides that they are a macronutrient of extreme necessity in building muscle mass. This is exactly what we want, that our metabolism works optimally to avoid storing fat unnecessarily and build our muscular system to displace fats.

Another important factor is that as we said before, carbohydrates are not the only source from which we can obtain energy, but fats are excellent to fulfill this function. Thus, by inducing ketosis we can force our body to use those fats that it has been storing for a long time and that until now were useless for us, as a natural source from which to obtain constant energy to carry out our daily activities.

Sensitivity to carbohydrates

It has been seen that a certain group of people have a greater sensitivity to carbohydrates, the process of conversion into sugar is magnified, accelerating its transformation into sugar and penetrating our bloodstream to increase our fat reserves.

This sensitivity to carbohydrates allows our body to make the most of every meal we eat, this is not something positive, we are talking about our body has learned to extract the energy it needs from our food and retain part of it to continue increasing our fat reserves.

It is a process that is repeated with every meal we eat, to the point that even when we decide to eat little food, our body slows down our metabolism even more and maximizes the accumulation of fat in case the shortage is maintained over time, which is why when including carbohydrates in your meals it is better that they are of complex type and are well balanced with the rest of the nutrients.