Carbohydrate Hell

British Journal of Nutrition, 2002

Here’s a fascinating paradox. Over the last 4 decades, nutrition policy makers have increasingly exhorted us to eat less saturated fat. As a result of this unremitting message, the general population believes this single nutrient, if not overtly toxic, will at least cause wide-spread bodily damage. Additionally, foods that naturally contain saturated fat (e.g., beef, pork, dairy, eggs, and tropical oils) have been branded ‘unhealthy’. The paradox here is that as the drum-beat against saturated fats has increased, the actual science supporting this message has fallen into shambles. So here’s our question: should we all just be good citizens and swallow this advice, even if the science behind it no longer pasts muster?

Nutrients, 2022

Existing metrics of carbohydrate food quality have been based, for the most part, on favorable fiber- and free sugar-to-carbohydrate ratios. In these metrics, higher nutritional quality carbohydrate foods are defined as those with >10% fiber and <10% free sugar per 100 g carbohydrate. Although fiber- and sugar-based metrics may help to differentiate the nutritional quality of various types of grain products, they may not aptly capture the nutritional quality of other healthy carbohydrate foods, including beans, legumes, vegetables, and fruits. Carbohydrate food quality metrics need to be applicable across these diverse food groups. This report introduces a new carbohydrate food scoring system known as a Carbohydrate Food Quality Score (CFQS), which supplements the fiber and free sugar components of previous metrics with additional dietary components of public health concern (e.g., sodium, potassium, and whole grains) as identified by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Two C...

Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2006

The dietary recommendations made for carbohydrate intake by many organizations/agencies have changed over time. Early recommendations were based on the need to ensure dietary sufficiency and focused on meeting micronutrient intake requirements. Because carbohydrate-containing foods are a rich source of micronutrients, starches, grains, fruits, and vegetables became the foundation of dietary guidance, including the base of the US Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid. Dietary sufficiency recommendations were followed by recommendations to reduce cholesterol levels and the risk for cardiovascular disease; reduction in total fat (and hence saturated fat) predominated. Beginning in the 1970s, carbohydrates were recommended as the preferred substitute for fat by the American Heart Association and others to achieve the recommended successive reductions in total fat and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Additional research on fats and fatty acids found that monounsaturated fatty acids could serve as an alternative substitution for saturated fats, providing equivalent lowering of LDL-C without concomitant reductions in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and increases in triglycerides witnessed when carbohydrates replace saturated fat. This research led to a sharper focus in the guidelines in the 1990s toward restricting saturated fat and liberalizing a range of intake of total fat. Higher-fat diets, still low in saturated fatty acids, became alternative strategies to lower-fat diets. As the population has become increasingly overweight and obese, the emergence of the metabolic syndrome and its associated disruptions in glucose and lipid metabolism has led to reconsiderations of the role of carbohydrate-containing foods in the American diet. Consequently, a review of the evidence for and against high-carbohydrate diets is important to put this controversy into perspective. The current dietary recommendations for carbohydrate intake are supported by the evidence. (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2006;26:1958-1965 Key Words: carbohydrates Ⅲ dietary patterns Ⅲ nutrition Ⅲ cardiovascular risk D ata from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys have been collected by the Centers for Disease Control since the 1970s to track dietary habits of Americans. Careful comparison of these surveys, taking into account improved methodologies for collecting intake data, 1-3 indicate that over the past 25 years, the consumption of carbohydrate in the United States has increased from 42.4% kcal to 49.0% kcal for men and from 44.8% kcal to 49.7% kcal for women. 1 The increase in carbohydrate intake has been accompanied by an apparent increase in energy intake (2450 kcal to 2618 kcal for men and 1542 kcal to 1877 kcal for women; PϽ0.01), and a corresponding decrease in the percentage of calories from total fat (36.9% to 32.8%; PϽ0.01 for men and 36.1% to 32.8%; PϽ0.01 for women). 1

This is a summary of a brilliant book on the adverse effects of high-carb diets. It delves into the science behind heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and consumption of carbohydrates. The book is very dense and lengthy, but more people should know about its important critiques of mainstream recommendations on nutrition.

2019

Nutrients, 2021

Carbohydrate-containing crops provide the bulk of dietary energy worldwide. In addition to their various carbohydrate forms (sugars, starches, fibers) and ratios, these foods may also contain varying amounts and combinations of proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, prebiotics, and anti-nutritional factors that may impact diet quality and health. Currently, there is no standardized or unified way to assess the quality of carbohydrate foods for the overall purpose of improving diet quality and health outcomes, creating an urgent need for the development of metrics and tools to better define and classify high-quality carbohydrate foods. The present report is based on a series of expert panel meetings and a scoping review of the literature focused on carbohydrate quality indicators and metrics produced over the last 10 years. The report outlines various approaches to assessing food quality, and proposes next steps and principles for developing improved metrics for assessin...

EVL, 2024

Esta nota académica presenta una visión general del papel del preimpreso como una nueva alternativa que podría reemplazar a los artículos de revistas académicas como fuente primaria de información para académicos y estudiantes en todo el mundo. Describimos aspectos clave del papel emergente de los repositorios académicos como fuentes principales de información y su potencial para reemplazar las bibliotecas tradicionales, tanto en el presente como en el futuro, basándonos en nuestros veinticinco años de experiencia en investigación.