Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates / Diet / Fats / Nutrition / Video — 0 Comments
10
May 09

Gary Taubes Defends Eating Fat.

Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health defends his position that fat is not the cause behind North America’s obesity epidemic, but rather that fat may be a key to mitigating many of the problems cause by a poor, carbohydrate rich diet. Taubes discusses how refined carbohydrates are the elephant in the room that health officials fail to acknowledge as the root cause of many ailments associated with a Western diet. Watch Taubes speak on Getting Your Money’s Worth with Judith West.

Carbohydrates / Nutrition / Video — 0 Comments
16
Mar 09

Robb Wolf of CrossFit HQ on Insulin Resistance

Today’s CrossFit WOD post came with a video on insulin resistance that nicely coincides with the post I wrote a few days ago about the insulin response.

In the video Robb Wolf explains how our body’s resistance to insulin happens very much analogous to they way our olfactory reaction to perfume is very strong when we first smell a new scent. That smell fades however as our noses become desensitized to the perfume’s aroma. To experience the smell with the same intensity as the first inhale, we either have to increase the amount of perfume (similar to having to increase drug dosages to maintain effectiveness), or decrease our exposure to it. The sad reality is that most people choose the former when it comes to insulin levels.

When insulin resistance occurs, the body has trouble releasing the energy that it has already stored in fat cells, and thus asks for more food to burn as instant energy in the form of hunger pangs. If this demand is satiated by carbohydrates, as is common in North American eating habits, the cycle continues to repeat itself, and fat stores grow while energy levels need continuous “topping-up” with more carbs.

To elaborate what I said in the post on the insulin response, eating low Glycemic Index (GI) carbohydrates, in conjunction with fats and protein, will keep your blood glucose levels low, and thus maintain a normal insulin response.

You body is stuck in an evolutionary past where sugar was relatively non-existent. Due to this environmental scarcity, when a sugar source was eaten your digestive system became very good at instantly storing it as fat, not knowing when the next opportunity for such a high energy intake would be.

If you would not like to be in a constant battle with your genetics, limit your intake of high GI carbs, and cut the refined sugar.

Robb Wolf is both a scientist and athlete as a personal trainer at NorCal Strength & Conditioning. Robb is an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. In addition, he is a USAW Olympic Weightlifting coach, and a certified CrossFit Coach, the highest level of CrossFit training certification, possessed only by a handful of strength & conditioning coaches throughout the world.

Additionally, Robb is co-publisher and editor-in-chief of The Performance Menu.