Why simple carbs make you fat

I know it's hard to believe carbs can make us fatter than fat. It also defies the seemingly-healthy labeling on food products. But as you're reaching for that "no-fat" yogurt, "low-fat" bread, "fat-free" cookie package, look around you. Are most people fat or slim? When foods have fat removed, they usually have more sugar added to replace the flavor fat supplies.

If you accept that an over abundance of carbs turns into fat in your body, you're not doing yourself any favor to reach for higher-carb, fat-free foods. The food changes I've made over the past six months, for me, were not gigantic. I already ate a low-carb diet. But eating fewer carbs, which spontaneously led to consuming less calories, along with more protein and healthy fat, the weight began to slide off me. It has also stayed off me because this is how I eat now.

And, I'm not hungry. As for the initial three months I went without exercising, I saw while my daily one hour power-walk is a great way to maintain my weight and my health, it didn't really contribute to weight loss. I'm not advocating a ban on carbs as a quick weight loss scheme. I don't believe in quick weight loss schemes or diets. But I am convinced, as a nation, we eat too many carbs, especially refined carbs, more unhealthy fats than healthy fats, and that food marketers are selling us a bill of goods making us think fat is bad while hooking us on poor-quality carbs.

For me, the proof is hanging all around me in the clothes in my closet that are a size or two too big.

For more by Riva Greenberg, click here. For more on personal health, click here. In science, a hypothesis becomes proven incorrect when an integral part of it is shown to be wrong. The theory that insulin stimulation directly causes weight gain can be tested by comparing rates of weight loss between people on a high carb diet and people on a low carb diet when calories and protein are kept the same.

If the theory is correct, those on the low carb diet should lose more weight due to a lower stimulation of insulin. The best way to test this out is through utilizing controlled feeding studies. These create a highly controlled environment with participants living and sleeping at the lab for the duration of the study. All movement and food intake is measured and recorded. Fortunately for us, this hypothesis has been appropriately tested time and time again over the last 3 decades.

This research review article by Hall and Guo looked at 32 different controlled feeding studies. The results were outstandingly clear:. In the end, weight manipulation comes down to calorie control , not insulin control. Despite all the available evidence falsifying the carbohydrate-insulin hypothesis of obesity, many are unwilling to let go of their dogma and genuinely explore the evidence and their identity.

I wanted this article to be a stand-alone, specifically looking at the carbohydrate-insulin hypothesis of obesity. Hold tight. Over 20 studies have compared low carb and low fat diets. Complex carbs are found in certain fruits and vegetables, nuts, oats, wholegrain cereals and breads and whole grain pastas. Here's where simple vs. Carbohydrates of both types can be stored only in limited quantities in the body. If they're not quickly used for energy via exercise or other physical activity, they're broken down and converted into fat.

Simple carbs break down quickly, whereas complex carbs break down more slowly. The faster carbs break down, the quicker you'll gain weight. That's why complex carbs are recommended for those looking to lose weight.

They allow you a bit more time to hit the gym and burn off some energy before those carbs become fat. Millions of people who have diligently reduced their fat intake are still, well, fat—which has left experts looking for other possible factors besides fat. Carbs—not fat—increase body fat and weight. Insulin takes glucose out of the bloodstream where it is converted first into a starch called glycogen, which is stored in the liver and in muscles.

But the body can store only a limited amount of glycogen, so the excess glucose is stored as body fat. This is the process of putting on weight. Increased insulin levels will also suppress two other important hormones—glucagon and growth hormone—which are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle growth.

When your blood glucose level returns to normal, after about 90 minutes, the insulin level in your bloodstream is still near maximum. As a result, the insulin continues to stack glucose away in the form of fat, thereby increasing your risk of obesity, bloating, depression, fatigue, frequent sleepiness, and almost all chronic degenerative diseases. Ultimately, the level of glucose in your blood falls below normal, and you feel hungry again. So you have a snack of more carbohydrates, and the whole process starts over again.

Insulin resistance caused by continually high insulin levels in your bloodstream impairs your ability to feel sated after a meal. You enter a vicious cycle of continuous weight gain combined with hunger. Under such circumstances, it is almost impossible not to overeat.

As little as years ago, it is estimated that Americans ate around one pound of sugar a year. But today, whether from soda, cereal, pasta, breads or other carbohydrates, Americans each eat the equivalent of 22 teaspoons of sugar each and every day , adding up to about pounds of sugar per person, per year.

And teens can eat as much as 34 teaspoons of sugar a day! According to Rachel K. Johnson, lead author of a paper published Monday in the American Heart Association AHA journal Circulation , too much sugar not only makes Americans fat but also is a key culprit in diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

The AHA report goes on to recommend that most women should be getting no more than 6 teaspoons a day, or calories, of added sugar—the sweeteners and syrups that are added to foods during processing, preparation or at the table. For most men, the recommended limit is 9 teaspoons, or calories, the heart group says.

A single can of regular soda, with the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar, would put you over your daily limit. The guidelines do not apply to naturally occurring unrefined sugars like those found in whole fruit, vegetables or dairy products. Only about 29 pounds of it comes as table sugar, or sucrose, according to The Sugar Association, a trade group of sugar manufacturers.

The rest is added to our foods. Of course, those foods include things like candy, soda, and fast food.