[Fiber is your body’s natural guide to weight management –
rather than cutting carbs out of your diet, eat them in their original
fiber packaging instead ]
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HOW TO EAT CARBS (WITHOUT REGRETS)  
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Christopher Damman
July 3, 2023
The Conversation
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_ Fiber is your body’s natural guide to weight management –
rather than cutting carbs out of your diet, eat them in their original
fiber packaging instead _

Fruits and vegetables, Nathan Dumlao

 

Fiber might just be the key to healthy weight management – and
nature packages it in perfectly balanced ratios with carbs when you
eat them as whole foods. Think unprocessed fruits, vegetables, whole
grains, beans, nuts and seeds. Research suggests that carbohydrates
are meant to come packaged in nature-balanced ratios
[[link removed]] of total carbohydrates to
fiber. In fact, certain types of fiber affect how completely your body
absorbs carbohydrates [[link removed]] and
tells your cells how to process them
[[link removed]] once they are absorbed.

Fiber slows the absorption of sugar in your gut. It also orchestrates
the fundamental biology that recent blockbuster weight loss drugs like
Wegovy and Ozempic
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tap into, but in a natural way. Your microbiome transforms fiber into
signals [[link removed]] that stimulate the
gut hormones that are the natural forms of these drugs. These in turn
regulate how rapidly your stomach empties, how tightly your blood
sugar levels [[link removed]] are controlled and
even how hungry you feel.

It’s as if unprocessed carbohydrates naturally come wrapped and
packaged with their own instruction manual for your body on how to
digest them.

I am a physician scientist and gastroenterologist
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spent over 20 years studying how food affects the gut microbiome
[[link removed]] and metabolism. The research is clear –
fiber is important not just for happy bowel movements, but also for
your blood sugar, weight and overall health.

Different types of carbs have different effects on the body.

Carbohydrates without their wrappers

Unfortunately, most Americans get the majority of their carbohydrates
stripped of their natural fibers. Modern processed grains like white
rice and white flour as well as many ultraprocessed foods like some
sugary breakfast cereals, packaged snacks and juices have removed
these fibers. They essentially come unwrapped and without instructions
for the body on how much it should absorb and how it should process
them. In fact, only 5% of Americans
[[link removed]] eat the recommended
amount of carbohydrates with enough of their natural packaging intact.
Guidelines recommend at least 25 to 30 grams
[[link removed]] of fiber a day from food.

It may not be surprising that lack of fiber contributes to diabetes
and obesity [[link removed]]. What is
surprising is that the fiber gap also likely contributes to heart
disease [[link removed](19)30257-2], certain types
of cancer [[link removed]] and maybe even
Alzheimer’s disease [[link removed]].

One popular approach to mitigating some of the ill health effects of
low fiber and high refined carbohydrates has been to limit
carbohydrate intake [[link removed]]. Such
approaches include the low-carb, keto, paleo and Atkins diets. Each
diet is a variation on a similar theme of limiting carbohydrates to
varying amounts in different ways.

There is scientific backing to the benefits of some of these diets.
Research shows that limiting carbohydrates induces ketosis
[[link removed]], a biological process that
frees energy from fat reserves during starvation and prolonged
exercise. Low-carbohydrate diets can also help people lose weight and
lead to improvements [[link removed]] in
blood pressure and inflammation.

That said, some keto diets may have negative effects on gut health
[[link removed]]. It is also unknown how they
may affect heart health, some forms of cancer
[[link removed]] and other conditions in the long
term.

Even more confusing, research shows that people with diets high in
plant-sourced carbohydrates, like the Mediterranean diet, tend to lead
the longest and healthiest lives
[[link removed]]. How can this be reconciled
with studies that suggest that low-carbohydrate diets can benefit
metabolic health?

Is a carb a carb?

The answer may have to do with the types of carbohydrates
[[link removed]] that studies are evaluating.
Limiting simple sugars and refined carbohydrates may improve certain
aspects of metabolic health, as these are some of the most easily
digested and absorbed calories. But a more sustainable and
comprehensive way of improving health may be increasing the percentage
[[link removed]] of unprocessed, more complex
and slowly absorbed carbohydrates that come with their natural
packages and instructions intact – those that have fiber.

These natural carbohydrates can be found in whole grains, beans, nuts,
seeds, fruits and vegetables. They come in ratios of total
carbohydrate to fiber that rarely exceed 10-to-1 and are often 5-to-1
or lower [[link removed]]. Eating
mostly whole foods is a simple way to ensure you’re consuming
quality carbohydrates with the right ratios.

[Person looking at vegetables in farmers market]
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Fruits and vegetables typically come in ideal total
carbohydrate-to-fiber ratios. Oscar Wong/Moment via Getty Images
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But who doesn’t like to have a big bowl of pasta or cake with ice
cream on occasion? Focusing on packaged processed foods that maintain
carb-to-fiber ratios of at least as low as 10-to-1 or ideally 5-to-1
can help you make the best choices when picking more processed foods
at the store. Take a look at the nutrition facts label and simply
divide total carbohydrates by dietary fiber.

On occasions when you’re eating out or celebrating someone’s
birthday, consider taking a fiber supplement with your meal. One pilot
study found that a supplement containing a blend of fibers
[[link removed]] decreased the blood sugar spike
– an increase in glucose levels in the blood that if too high can
damage the body over time [[link removed]]
– after a meal in healthy individuals by roughly 30%.

Listen to your body

While almost all fiber is generally good for health in most people,
not all fiber affects the body in the same way
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Consuming a range of different types
[[link removed]] of fiber generally helps ensure a
diverse microbiome
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which is linked to gut and overall health.

But certain medical conditions might preclude consuming certain types
of fiber. For example, some people can be particularly sensitive to
one class of fiber called FODMAPS
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oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols – that
are more readily fermented in the upper part of the gut and can
contribute to symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome like bloating and
diarrhea. High-FODMAP foods
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include many processed foods that contain inulin, garlic powder and
onion powder, as well as whole foods including those in the onion
family, dairy products, some fruits and vegetables.

Listen to how your body responds to different high-fiber foods. Start
low and go slow as you reintroduce foods like beans, seeds, nuts,
fruits and vegetables to your diet. If you have trouble increasing
your fiber intake, talk with your health care provider.

Tools like this online calculator
[[link removed]] I’ve created can
also help you find the highest-quality foods with healthy fiber and
other nutrient ratios. It can also show you what proportions of fiber
to add back to sugary foods to help achieve healthy ratios.

I wouldn’t endorse eating sweets all the time, but as my three
daughters like to remind me, it’s important to enjoy yourself every
once in a while. And when you do, consider putting the carbs back in
their fiber wrappers. It’s hard to improve upon nature’s
design.[The Conversation]

Christopher Damman
[[link removed]],
Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, School of Medicine,
_University of Washington
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This article is republished from The Conversation
[[link removed]] under a Creative Commons license. Read
the original article
[[link removed]].

* diet
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* health
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* carbohydrates
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