What Are Carbs?
One of the food groups which the body needs to survive are carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates also referred to as carbs come in two types: sugars and starches.
Sugars are simple carbs usually sweet tasting like biscuits and sweets and easily digested.
Whereas, starches are complex carbs found in bread, pasta, noodles and rice and take longer to digest.
The body transforms all these digestible carbs into glucose, the sugar that our cells use as fuel or energy.
When glucose molecules pass from the intestine into the bloodstream, the pancreas releases insulin, a hormone that mobilizes cells to absorb it.
Muscle, fat and other cells then absorb the excess glucose from the blood and insulin levels return to normal.
The Cycle
After a meal high in glycemic index (ranking of foods according to how fast their sugars are released into the bloodstream), blood-sugar levels rise higher and rapidly.
The insulin needed to fill all that sugar into muscles and fat cells also weaken the activity of glucagon, a hormone that signals the body to burn stored fuel when blood-sugar levels fall below a certain point.
Glucose level drops so low leaving the body starved for energy.
The brain and intestine then send out hunger signals. New cravings are created requiring more carb intake.
We then overeat, that leads to more fat, rise in blood insulin level, more hunger, and more weight gain and the cycle goes on.
On the contrary, adhering to a low carb diet puts an end to this cycle.
Reduced carbohydrates would mean decreased insulin level, increased glucagon level, weight loss, improved triglycerides (fats carried in the blood which are necessary but when excessive cause coronary damage), decrease in LDL (bad cholesterol), increase in HDL (good cholesterol).
The Bottom Line
Refined or processed carbohydrates which cause rapid changes in blood sugar, trigger hunger, thereby encouraging overeating that ultimately leads to obesity and smaller spots on your plate.
Anyway, nobody ever died from skipping potatoes, pasta, rice and white bread 🙂