If there’s one thing people are most curious about concerning other people’s health habits it’s food. Nowhere in the health and wellness space are there clearer lines drawn in the sand. I get asked a lot what I eat, and aside from the meat misconception, there is another great misconception.
This week alone three separate people have assumed my paleo with a keto lean food regiment means that I do not eat carbs. This is very wrong. I eat a lot of carbs. The carb confusion centres around what carbohydrates one could possibly consume besides the breads and the pastas.
The confusion is that carbs equal wheat. But there are so many more carbs.
And so many better carb. Not only better tasting but far more nutritious and health promoting.
The world of carbs extends far beyond the world of wheat. It just doesn’t seem that way because wheat consumes menus. To the bun on a burger, the base of a pizza, the wrap on all wraps, the slices of bread that accompany every breakfast, to all the fancy things that now come on toast, to unnecessary croutons in a salad, wheat is everywhere. I just looked at one of South Africa’s most successful higher end restaurant franchises, and easily 85% of the menu included bread or pasta. It additionally dominates the convenience market. On the move, need something quick, ready to go, a sandwich wins that battle nine and a half out of ten times.
So let’s explore the cornucopias carbohydrate landscape away from the white yet non-nutritious shores of wheat. Oh yeah, let’s quickly clear that up. Refined white wheat – aka bread aka pasta – has zero nutritional value.
Why not start at the beginning though? What even is a carb? A carbohydrate is an organic molecule that the body uses to create energy. Carbs are either sugars -glucose and fructose – or fibre. Most of us run our bodies on a carbohydrate energy system, which is in practice a glucose utilising system. So unless your keto, the energy extracted from carbs is what is keeping you going.
This is a critical point. One of the most common occurrences observed in people trying to eat “healthier” is that they cut out carbs. This frequently translates into them bypassing right over a low-carb diet, something that has genuine place and merit given specific wellness goals, and going straight to a no-carb diet. This is called “accidental low carb syndrome”, and is categorised by fatigue, lacking energy, slow recovery and general malaise. This becomes particularly important in active people. If you are exercising frequently, cutting out what you consider carbs but not replacing them with what carbs really are is going to catch up with you. Also, there is abundant anecdotal evidence that females do less well than males on less carbs, so for the ladies out there , especially active ones, please be vigilant about your carb intake.
Alright alright, let’s get to the potatoes of the piece. Key word potatoes. On one’s quest to be healthier, eat healthier, the trick is to eat the right carbs.
And right carbs means real carbs.
It’s really that simple. Just replace the processed carbohydrates like bread and pasta with real carbs aka real foods.
This means as many non-starchy vegetables as your heart desires, a reasonable amount of fruits and an intentional amount of starchy plants. Yup, that’s right, fruit are carbs and most vegetables too are mostly carbohydrates.
Go wild on the non-starchy vegetables like artichokes, asparagus, bamboo shoots, beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplant, greens (chicory/endive, rocket, kale, spinach, lettuce, etc), kohlrabi, leeks, mushrooms, okra, onions, peppers, radishes, turnips and zucchini. That isn’t even an exhaustive list. There is a huge variety of carbs out there to diversify your diet with. These non-starchy veggies have a low carb content per gram which is why one can be voracious with them.
The next category of carbohydrate sources is fruits. Fruits can be maligned in the diet space, but there’s plenty evidence this maligning is unfair. There is an issue with excess fructose, the main sugar in fruit, however this is the case with artificial and processed versions of fruits like juices. Whole fruits contain an elaborate mixture of carbs, proteins and enzymes that for most people equates to good eating. So, when cutting out bad carbs fruits can be a great refuelling source. A banana for example is delivering to the body the same amount of carbs per 100 grams than potatoes. Dates and raisins are energy bombs, blowing every other carb source out the water.
The starchy vegetables are the ones however I’d like to focus on. I notice that these are the most overlooked despite the fact they are the most carbohydrate rich. I’m talking about potatoes, both the stock standard white ones but especially sweet. I’m talking about taro, gem squash, butternut, pumpkin, plantains, parsnips, yucca, lotus root, cassava. When you cut out the garbage carbs, these are the one’s that can really replace the calories you’ve lost. And they’re both easy to prepare and delicious to eat (and pretty easy to grow too!). For example, cassava and taro pack the biggest carb punch of the starchy veggies with 38 and 35 grams per 100 grams. That’s three times a carrot and six times a zucchini.
But always remember, diet is a personalised reality.
What one person tolerates effortlessly sends somebody else to the toilet for the rest of the day. One person eats nightshades without issue and the other can experience inflammatory symptoms. Experimentation is critical to how one eats, that’s why many on the paleo diet cut out all legumes, beans and grains whilst others can manage lentils and chickpeas without issue. Just because a food is real doesn’t mean it’s good for YOU, like you the specific one person. It also doesn’t mean that the food is bad for you, particularly with many foods that need to be soaked or fermented properly before consumption. Again, a little effort is required to play around with some of the carbs that some find can be agitators and inflammatory.
That’s the confusion on carbs hopefully clarified. I hope this has inspired and motivated you to get adventurous and creative next time you’re at a grocer or farmers market, or perhaps motivate you to make a trip out to such a market. If you see something weird and funny looking, buy it. Ask the seller what it is and use the magical powers of the internet to find a recipe that gets you salivating. Learning to prepare and cook things I never even considered before like cassava and taro has brought a newness to my eating.
There are plenty bad carbs out there but carbs are not bad. They are a critical macro food group and unless you’re doing keto these carbohydrate sugars are what are allowing you to live your life.
Just remember the RIGHT carbs and REAL carbs.
