The "Slow Burn"

There are various forms of carbohydrates that people can eat. When most people think of carbs they likely think of pizza. However, the term "carbohydrate" can include the "healthy" carbs as well, such as oats and millet and other "resistant starches". These type of carbs are digested slowly, releasing glucose at a steady rate because they contain fibers that resist digestion. This is in contrast to refined carbohydrates that once consumed release the glucose very quickly, causing a "blood sugar spike".

Besides oats, one of my new favorite slow burning carbs is millet. Just a serving or so a day has been shown to improve blood sugar control in diabetics. It will likely benefit other people on the diabetes spectrum, such as people with pre-diabetes and those who currently have poor blood sugar handling, such as reactive hypoglycemia.

Not only do slow burning carbs benefit the body via a steady release of glucose, but the fibers found in them feed our good gut bacteria. Keep in mind that different plant based compounds feed different good bacteria in our gut. For example, did you know the polyphenols in blueberries feed a type of gut bacteria that use it to produce a compound that helps maintain the health of our mitochondria (our cellular energy producing factories)? Pretty fascinating. Maybe this is why blueberries have been shown to improve attention spans and cognition in kids and adults (brain cells are very metabolically active).

Thus, it is important to not skip out on the carbs when trying to lose weight. You may starve and diminish some good bacteria in your gut that could give you a metabolic boost needed to maintain weight loss.

And keep in mind that glucose is the body's preferred fuel source. This is because glucose is needed to make plentiful amounts of ATP (the energy molecule of life) via the Krebs cycle in our mitochondria found in every cell of our bodies. If someone goes on a low carb or keto diet they may lose some weight initially (likely due to unintended calorie restriction), but the metabolic consequences long term can be devastating (weight rebound, decreased muscle mass, decreased BMR, etc).

So don't shy on the carbohydrates. Just like any other unprocessed and whole food, they can do a body good. Check out my Carb Cycling and Detox Programs Here.