Today’s post is about how much stripped (refined) carbohydrate is okay to eat. Stripped carbohydrate means white flour and sugar.
This post is only about white flour and sugar. It is not a discussion about whether carbohydrate is okay to eat at all. There are people who feel that carbohydrate has no place in their diets, and who manage beautifully on a very-low-carbohydrate diet. I get plenty of comments from readers who eat this way. Someday, when we are able to map everyone’s DNA, we might discover that this group of people share a combination of genes that makes it very difficult for them to tolerate even a modest amount of carbohydrate in their diet. I am glad to know that they have figured out how best to protect their health. So this post is not for them. It is for people who tolerate whole grains, fruit, and beans without any problems. Like Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.
If you were to look out your window at some growing food, you would notice that there is no such thing, in nature, as carbohydrate without fiber attached. White (refined, stripped) flour and sugar are both the result of fiber stripping, and both are relatively recent industrial farming inventions. Stripped flour and sugar are derived from raw ingredients — mainly produce (like dates and beets) and grain — that are found in abundance in nature. These ingredients are converted to flour and sugar by stripping out the fiber and/or germ. Human beings figured out how to do this only within the past couple of hundred years. We did not evolve to eat these food-like products, and most certainly not at the volumes we currently consume them.
How much stripped carbohydrate is it “safe” to eat? In my opinion, not a lot. But I am not going to say zero. At the end of the day, I think it comes down to a relatively simple equation, one that is probably affected by three things: 1) your genes, which are affected by your environment, 2) the amount of stress you withstand on a daily basis, 3) and the amount of activity you tend to engage in on a weekly basis.
Stress can be physical, emotional, or spiritual. It can come from within (fever, anxiety, bereavement, pregnancy) or without (a blizzard, a heat wave, a new baby, winning the lottery). It can be the result of circumstance (a safe falls on your head) or questionable decision-making (skipping breakfast). It can be due to conflict, real or imagined. Agents of stress can be small, like a virus, or large, like an asteroid. Pain and fatigue are common and serious causes of stress.
And, yes, stress can be caused, or exacerbated (worsened), by eating foods that are difficult to digest. Like stripped carbohydrate. Yes, stress causes stress. That’s one place you don’t want to be. So eating nutritious food is one way to decrease the amount of stress in your life.
Are you looking for a number? Okay, here it is. You can have two servings of stripped carbohydrate. In how much time, you ask? Well, that depends on you.
Here are your choices: Two servings per day, two servings per week, or two servings per month. [People who thrive on a very-low-carb diet might add “two servings per year.”] If you are slender, active, comfortable, and quite healthy, you may be able to tolerate as much as two servings a day of white flour or sugar. Not two cans of soda pop, but two ounces. A can of soda with 12 teaspoons of sugar is not one serving. It is 12 servings. Two servings is just one-sixth of a can.
If, on the other hand, you are overweight, have two diabetic family members, are under a crushing amount of stress, and get little or no exercise, I doubt that you can tolerate white flour and sugar twice a day. More like twice a month. In other words, save it for special occasions, and that’s all.
The average American, couch potato or not, probably eats 10-12 servings/day of stripped carbohydrates or more. That is beyond the point of absurdity. If you’re wondering what’s driving the obesity and diabetes epidemics, wonder no more.
The average American, couch potato or not, probably eats 10-12 servings/day of stripped carbohydrates or more. That is beyond the point of absurdity. If you’re wondering what’s driving the obesity and diabetes epidemics, wonder no more.
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