-Diablo's Journal, 23 Mar 21

Carbs do NOT make you hungry! Eating too much hyper palatable processed food high in carbs AND fats make you hungry! 🤷🏼‍♂️ Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is one of the leading comorbidities associated with weight gain & obesity. Since diabetics struggle with proper carbohydrate disposal due to insulin resistance, dietary strategies that reduce carbs have become popular for T2D So T2 diabetics should just eat less carbs right? Saying eat less carbs to a diabetic to manage their T2D is like putting a band aid over the symptom & not necessarily addressing the root cause. There is plenty of data suggesting that reducing body fat can improve insulin sensitivity & glycemic control independent of the type of dietary intervention used. What’s one of the major issues associated with eating less? Hunger! Which makes it extremely difficult for some individuals to eat in a caloric deficit. Therefore, using strategies that improve satiety may be a better strategy than avoiding carbs for both diabetics & normal individuals alike! A study by Struik et al. compared the effects of isocaloric very low cab (VLC) or high carb (HC) diets on measures of hunger & satiety in diabetics while being in a 500 – 1000 kcal deficit per day. The VLC diet was 14% CHO and 58% fat while the HC diet was 53% CHO and 30% fat What happened? After 16 weeks, both diets decreased bodyweight by about ~10.5 kg on average. However, the HC diet improved overall ratings of fullness and prospective consumption (the desire to eat in the future) compared to LC. This means that the HC group had fewer thoughts about their next meal compared to the VLC group The authors suggest that this is may be due to increased gastric filling. Carbohydrate rich foods contain more volume than high fat foods for the same number of calories & there are some interesting mechanisms by which food volume can reduce hunger. But that will be a topic for a future post. Moral of the story, if you personally feel more satiated on a VLC diet then it can be a tool to reduce your intake. However, there is no evidence that its better than eating calorie matched HC diet on average, even in populations that have issues with T2D Share & save! http://www.biolayne.com 

Interesting. Glad I'm not diabetic though. 

True Princess, but the information applies to anyone trying to reduce caloric intake. 

You are right on the money!!! Especially carbs with lots of fiber, they do wonders for hungry people. 

Thanks Diablo, so interesting! My husband has always been fit and eats healthy, yet he has type two diabetes, so that’s genetic because both his parents had it. One time I was reading that it was healthier for him to have regular milk than the 2% milk and now it kind of makes sense. Thanks again.👍 

This needed to be said. People need to learn about the white rice & table sugar diet for diabetics (not recommending it, but it just shows that this is NOT about carbs as the root cause) and very low-fat ad libitum diets where people get full and automatically restrict calories on high-carb diets full of root veg and fruit. 

It drives me crazy when people classify ice-cream, pizza, chips (ALL high-fat) as "carbs" and blame carbs for their problems. 

Though I lost a majority of my weight using LCHF and didn’t have issues with hunger. I agree with OceanGirl and feel I have better energy with higher fiber carbs added in at the same calorie intake. Good article! 

Super interesting info. I'm just about 20 pounds down and average about 48% carbs. I shoot for 125grams of protien and the rest fall where they may. This info really serves as confirmation that carbs from while foods aren't "bad" and moderate fat intake is good for my body. Thanks for the post Diablo  

My issue is actual carbs. For a quick lunch I make a sandwich and I usually had a roll or bread with dinner. I love pasta. I could just have buttered noodles for a meal. I'm slowly getting away from that mindset, but it is hard as hell. 

I would be curious to see this study framed in the perspective of fiber rather than carbs. I know people often think of processed foods like breads and pasta as carbs, and while they are, leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables are mostly carb and virtually no fat. But they are incredibly high in fiber, and that is one of the most important nutrients (my opinion, not scientific fact) in terms of volume/satiety. Another absolutely key factor in terms of health is the diversity and stability of the microbiome. There is growing evidence that the bugs in our guts produce chemical signals our body responds to - so keeping them happy has a direct impact on our body and our health (including, to a degree, mental health). Diets rich in leafy greens, beans/pulses, etc, are necessarily high in carbs, but also in fiber, and these diets are associated with diverse and stable microbiomes. Although the effectiveness of the keto diet on body weight is demonstrable, I really worry for long-term health results with that sort of restricted diet. (Plus, in the veterinary world, ketosis is considered a disease state, and I have trouble rationalizing why it wouldn't be for the human animal)  

there is an interesting piece of research: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091743509002643 it looks at adolescent mental health and eating habits, with the conclusion drawn that leafy vegetables and moderate protein provided best stability of mood and therefore improved over all life quality. I also think that fibre is important in a diet, perhaps the most important thing. Anecdotally in France we used to be famous for being thin, however our obesity rates are soaring, but largely amoungst the young and the big difference between their diet and the diet of their grandparents is fibre, the big difference in their eating patterns is that the eat all the time, it used to be a social faux pas to eat in the streat, now you see the children in the street munching away. I am a big believer in the old adage of a balanced diet with no one food group having dominance. Fibre feeds the gut, which is essential for mental health and carbohydrate feeds the brain, and after all 90% of your health is your mental health 

Bev, you said your issue is carbs but then mentioned buttery pasta. Your issue is high fat+carb calorie dense food. 

People say fat is satiating. I bet most anyone can eat way more calories of bacon than apples or a baked potato without the added fat. Those two items are much more filling given equal calories compared to bacon. It's the protein that is most filling. So a fatty piece of steak is filling but it isn't because of the fat alone. 

Marie. Each gram of fat is over twice the calories.  

Marie, you obviously struggle with math and don't understand the energy value of those grams. Try again. 

Also, you chose vanilla. It's popular but most go for Ben and Jerry's or a Blizzard with higher fat calories than vanilla. 

This is the first time I've seen anyone try to argue that ice-cream isn't considered a high-fat food. Seriously? 

Also, saying something is "high-fat" doesn't mean it can't also be high in carbs. These are calorically dense foods that are high in both fat and carbs. They also tend to be low in protein. 

Think of fats to carbs/protein like kilos to pounds. 2.2 pounds per kilo and fat has 2.25 as many calories as carbs and proteins. Oh, and it is the macro that converts to fat on the body the easiest as well as having the lowest thermic effect. Don't put them on a pedestal.