Nourish Your Body with More Protein, Carbs, and Fats
Chances are, you’ve been on a diet before. According to the Boston Medical Center, an estimated 45 million Americans go on a diet each year and spend $33 billion on weight-loss products. Maybe you counted points (you could eat about 20). Maybe you counted meals (you could have three a day—but remember, no snacking!). Or maybe you counted calories (you could eat 1,500 if you wanted to lose weight slowly, but 1,200 was better if you were really serious about weight loss).
No matter what you’ve tried, we’ve been in your shoes. Between the two of us, we have been on pretty much every diet around the block: Atkins, Weight Watchers, SlimFast, Lean Cuisine, Special K, vegetarian, low-fat, low-carb, low-calorie, and various kinds of undereating. We kept trying new diets because we were certain that one of them was going to be the ticket—the thing we were missing. We thought if we could just eat a little more perfectly, we’d arrive at the promised land.
Only we didn’t.
Western culture is obsessed with the idea that calories—that is, the amount of energy in the food you eat—are all that matter for weight loss and health. The basic idea is this: the more energy you eat, the more weight you gain. People who believe this argue that health is about eating a specific amount of calories every day. If you consume fewer calories than your body needs, you’ll lose weight, and if you consume more, you’ll gain weight. This is why people are obsessed with eating less. They think that if they consume less, they’ll weigh less.
Unfortunately, this is an oversimplified formula. Yes, calories do matter. But they don’t matter as much as you might think. This is because your health plays a role in how well your body processes energy.
The more healthful a food is, the more it will contribute to a well-functioning body. Consider a candy bar. A normal-size candy bar has 230 calories. For the same number of calories, you could have an avocado. You could also have two and a half bananas or a leafy green salad with two tablespoons of dressing. Let’s say that Noelle eats six candy bars a day and Stefani eats some fruit, avocado, a salad, and oven-roasted spareribs (see here for this scrumptious recipe). We eat exactly the same amount of calories. But because the food that Stefani eats contains a variety of macronutrients and micronutrients, she will feel a lot more energetic than Noelle, and undoubtedly be healthier, too.
Quality matters. The more nourishing your diet is, the better your body is able to process the food you eat. The better you enrich your diet with vitamins, minerals, plants, and nutrient-dense animal products, the more you will heal. When you eat well, you provide your body with the nutrients it needs to repair damage and become strong and vibrant. If you predominantly eat nutritionally empty foods, your body simply won’t have the building blocks it needs to operate well. All the systems in your body will be at risk of malfunctioning. This could result in conditions such as fatigue, hormonal imbalances, high blood pressure, heart disease, osteoporosis, mental health disorders, acne, autoimmune diseases, joint pain, gut distress, and metabolic dysfunction, which affects how your body burns energy.
THE PROBLEM WITH UNDEREATING
When it comes to caloric intake, many diets fail to recognize one important fact: the less food you eat, the fewer nutrients you give your body. For example, because Noelle avoided dietary fat for quite some time, she was deficient in the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. As a result, she had very dry skin and suffered from keratosis pilaris—otherwise known as “chicken skin”—on her arms. Because Stefani wasn’t eating sufficient protein, she was deficient in iron. As a result, she became anemic and weak. These are just two examples of ways in which we deprived our bodies of nutrients because we simply didn’t eat enough.
Many health conditions can be linked to deficiencies in specific nutrients. A deficiency in B vitamins—in particular, B12—can cause anxiety, fatigue, and mood problems. B vitamins are found in high-quality animal products such as beef, poultry, and fish, and in leafy greens. Another nutrient many people are deficient in is vitamin D, which is found dietarily in eggs (yes, with the yolk), fish, and beef liver. Low vitamin D has been linked to a number of health issues, including osteoporosis, autoimmune disorders, and depression.
Perhaps the most detrimental consequence of undereating is the hormone response. The thing about human bodies—and especially female bodies—is that they like to have fat on them. They like to know that they have ample energy stored up so they can support reproduction. Throughout the vast majority of human history, pregnancy was a very precarious thing. If you became pregnant during a time of famine, you very well might have died.
In order to prevent this sad end, the female body evolved a mechanism to protect itself. In situations in which the body experiences excessive stress, whether that be from undereating, overexercising, or too much work, it triggers a process known as the pregnenolone steal. Pregnenolone is the precursor from which nearly all other steroid hormones are made, including progesterone, testosterone, estrogens, and cortisol. In times of stress, the body shuttles all its pregnenolone toward the production of cortisol and away from the sex hormones. In other words, it turns off the systems in the body that support reproduction for the sake of making stress hormones.
Now, you might be thinking, This was all well and good for those prehistoric ladies of the savannah, but I live in the twenty-first century! I have bountiful access to food! Yes, this is true. But if you don’t actually feed your body, and if you regularly eat less than what your body needs, then your body is going to think you are starving.
The thing about these hormone systems is that they don’t just operate for the sake of reproduction. Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), prolactin, and other reproductive hormones play important roles in the rest of the body. If hormone levels fall, you may lose the ability to sleep, feel calm, feel happy, have a libido, have clear skin, have strong bones, menstruate, and do many other things, including have children.
One unique and important hormone that suffers as a result of undereating is the thyroid hormone. The thyroid gland is responsible for regulating cell metabolism, or the way your body uses energy. When the thyroid is functioning well and properly releasing the hormones it produces (T3 and T4), you feel energetic, your organs perform as they should, and your metabolism hums along quickly and smoothly.
Unfortunately, if you undereat, your body decreases its production of thyroid hormone in an effort to conserve energy. (Again, this is especially the case for women—the female body really wants to preserve as much energy and fat as possible.) When you undereat, the production of thyroid hormones decreases, and with them, your ability to burn fat.
That’s right. It’s so important, we’ll say it again: undereating causes production of thyroid hormones to slow, which can damage the body’s ability to burn fat, instead causing it to store fat.
THE SHAME CYCLE
There is a common pattern among people who regularly restrict their food. It goes like this:
You feel bad about yourself, so you forbid yourself from eating certain foods. Let’s say you decide to completely avoid a particular food, such as a cheeseburger.
But then, all of a sudden, everywhere you look you’re seeing cheeseburgers.
You crave them. You dwell on them. You can’t stop thinking about them.
Then you cave to the pressure you’ve put on yourself and eat a cheeseburger. Maybe you eat two, or even three. While you’re eating, you’re in heaven. But the second you stop, you feel guilt, shame, and despair. You had promised yourself you wouldn’t eat any more. But you did anyway! You feel awful. And you torture yourself over your failure. This torture might come simply in the form of negative self-talk. Or you might make yourself go for a 5-mile run when you wake up in the morning, or force yourself to avoid cheeseburgers yet again. Attempting to erase or correct your wrongs makes you feel worn out, hungry, and restricted. And eventually, you succumb to your desire to have a cheeseburger again.
We call this the shame cycle. And for many women, it’s a loop that never stops.
If you’ve experienced this, or something like it, you are not alone, and it’s not your fault. This is how human beings are wired. Millions of people around the world today are stuck in this kind of cycle. People at the gym, people in line behind you at the supermarket, people thick and people thin.
Everyone assumes that the way out of it is to just finally marshall enough willpower to successfully restrict themselves down to a perfect weight. But the answer—the only answer—is actually the opposite.
The answer is to freely and lovingly give yourself permission to eat as much as you feel you need. The answer is to focus on the quality of food you consume and not restrict the quantity. The answer, we know from experience, is to stop thinking about food in terms of maximums and start thinking in terms of minimums.
EAT AT LEAST 2,000 CALORIES A DAY (OR AS MUCH AS YOU NEED)
You have likely been told your whole life that you should eat no more than a certain number of calories a day. Wherever that number came from, it’s likely always been in the back of your head. For years, you’ve idolized being able to maintain a specific calorie intake with ease: 1,600 calories a day, 1,400 calories a day, or the magical 1,200 calories a day (which, by the way, is the recommended calorie intake for a three-year-old). The reason most diets default to recommending a set calorie intake is that it’s easy. And while conventional diets keep telling people all they have to do is eat less and exercise more, no one is getting any slimmer or healthier.
Our solution may sound radical, but it isn’t. It’s just unfamiliar because of the diet industry BS you’ve been exposed to your entire life. Our solution is literally the only way that is healthy and sustainable. And once you decide to embrace it, it’s exciting—and liberating.
We say:
Eat at least 2,000 calories a day.
When in doubt, err on the side of eating more rather than less.
Choose nourishment. Choose to give your body the bountiful vitamins and minerals that it’s been craving its whole life. Choose to give your body the energy and nutrients it needs to heal, rebuild its systems, and provide you with life, energy, and vitality.
THE BENEFITS OF A 2,000-CALORIE MINIMUM
Setting a calorie minimum for yourself can do wonders for you physically. The more you fill up on nutrient-dense foods, the more your body has the opportunity to absorb nutrients and heal. When you give your body the nutrients it needs to function properly, it will reward you with all the things you are hoping for: clearer skin, easier sleep, improved mental health and clarity, more energy, less struggle with your weight or fitness, fertility, stronger sex drive, and stronger bones.
By eating enough, you can also heal your metabolism and thyroid function. If you have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks the thyroid gland, your path to thyroid health may require more interventions. But if you are suffering from decreased thyroid function in any capacity, you can boost your thyroid production by eating more. The less your body thinks it is starving and the more it thinks you live in a period of bounty and plenty, the happier it will be to run smoothly and burn energy with ease.
Finally, eating enough can also help regulate your appetite. If you feel chronically hungry, or like you always “could eat,” it’s likely due to the fact that your satiety signals have gone haywire. This is common for people who have a history of yo-yo dieting or regularly restricting access to food. You may have struggled with “cravings” your whole life. This is normal, and something that often resolves when you give yourself the freedom to eat intuitively, and when you want to.
Unfortunately, this is not always a simple fix. Appetite-signaling problems can be caused by neurotransmitter imbalances or nutrient deficiencies, which can take longer to resolve. There are also many physical and psychological aspects of cravings that can take longer to work through. But actually eating when your body wants you to is the critical first step to finally beating cravings and feeling at peace with food, for good.
MAKING THE 2,000-CALORIE-A-DAY MINIMUM WORK FOR YOU
For most women, a 2,000-calorie-a-day minimum is a great place to start. However, there may be instances where 2,000 calories a day is too many. If you feel overfed or overstuffed, you can slowly scale down your caloric intake until you no longer feel too full but also don’t feel hungry. It’s perfectly acceptable for you to need less, and your caloric requirements may decrease at different points in your life according to your specific situation. You may feel more comfortable at a lower calorie intake if you are exceptionally short or of a smaller build, have been sedentary for a prolonged amount of time, have gone through menopause, or are a mature woman of advanced age.
There are also cases in which a 2,000-calorie-a-day minimum may not be a sufficient. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, experiencing chronic stress, recovering from an eating disorder, attempting to regain fertility or get pregnant, or have a high activity level, you may benefit from bumping up your minimum to at least 2,500 calories a day.
It’s important to note that a minimum is just that—a minimum. It’s not a set number of calories you must stick to each day. Bodies are dynamic and ever-changing, and the energy you need each day can fluctuate dramatically. Each day, shoot to achieve your minimum, then add more calories according to your hunger and activity level.
MACRONUTRIENT MINIMUMS
Just as you’ve been told you need to restrict your overall food intake to be healthy, you’ve also probably been told you need to cut back on carbs or fat. There is no shortage of websites, books, magazines, and Netflix documentaries advocating for one side or the other.
Is fat causing all your health problems? Many people who adhere to the USDA guidelines think so, especially when it comes to saturated fat. They argue that a low-fat diet is best for avoiding or alleviating the symptoms of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
Are carbs causing all your health problems? Many people who advocate a low-carb, paleo, primal, or ketogenic diet would say so. Like low-fat dieters, people who advocate a low-carb diet believe reducing carbohydrates is best for avoiding or alleviating the symptoms of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
The reality is that both are right, and both are wrong. The research on low-carb and low-fat diets is conflicting. Some studies show that low-carb diets are better for certain health conditions and weight loss, and other articles demonstrate that low-fat diets are better. This brings us to one simple conclusion: the problem isn’t that carbs are unhealthy or that fats are unhealthy. The problem is that there are poor-quality carbs and poor-quality fats, and when these “bad” carbs and fats get used in studies, it confounds the variables and makes it impossible to tell what is actually causing the problem being addressed, such as obesity, diabetes, or systemic inflammation.
What Are Macronutrients?
Macronutrients are the three main types of energy that people consume: protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
Protein is predominantly found in animal products, though smaller amounts can be found in plant foods. Protein is composed of molecules called amino acids. Animal proteins contain all nine essential amino acids the human body needs but can’t produce for itself. Plant sources of protein, including most beans and nuts, do not, which is why vegetarians and vegans need to be careful about where and how they get their protein.
Carbohydrates are the sugars, starches, and fiber found in plant products. Typically, people think of “carbs” as bread and pasta. While bread and pasta are made nearly entirely of carbohydrates, so are many whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables.
Fats are the oily, densely energetic components of foods. They are present in both plant and animal products. In animal products, fat can be found in fatty cuts of meat and poultry, eggs, and fatty fish such as salmon. Plants that contain high quantities of fat include olives, coconuts, avocados, and nuts.
In other words, when you compare people who drink soda and eat processed sugar and grains regularly to those who don’t, the people who eat more carbs are worse off. Likewise, when you compare people who are eating deep-fried chicken and fast food regularly to those who don’t, the people who eat more fat are worse off. When we look at more nutrient-dense versions of carbs and fat, such as sweet potatoes and olive oil, we get a completely different result.
The other thing that both sides fail to recognize is that there is no one specific diet that works for everyone all the time. We all have our own bioindividuality, meaning we’ve all grown up in different environments and have varying genetics and histories. As a result, there is a great diversity of body types, so people naturally react differently to different ratios of macronutrients.
Because of this, you may find that you function better with a higher percentage of carbs or fat in your diet, based on your own situation and preferences. This is perfectly normal. Stefani finds that she functions better on carbohydrates. She feels more mentally clear, she has more energy, she sleeps better at night, and, importantly, she simply likes them better. She is what we lovingly (and somewhat ironically, since she eats very little bread) call a bread lover.
Noelle finds that she functions better on fats. She has better focus and mental clarity, her digestion is better, she has more energy, and she is much more satisfied at the end of a meal. She is what we lovingly (if also ironically, since she doesn’t eat much butter) call a butter lover.
Defining “Bread Lover” and “Butter Lover”
It may be a touch ironic, but Stefani doesn’t eat much bread and Noelle doesn’t eat much butter. This is just a fun play on words that we use to define our differences. Stefani does like bread and other carbs, and Noelle does like butter and other fats. We simply do not eat them all that much, since bread isn’t the most nutrient-dense food and we both react negatively to dairy.
ALL ABOUT FAT—WHY FAT IS YOUR FRIEND
Fat is essential to the body for several reasons. First, many vitamins and micronutrients are fat-soluble, which means they need to be eaten with fat to be properly absorbed in the digestive tract. The fat-soluble vitamins, which include vitamins A, D, E, and K, play a key role in immune system function, heart and bone health, and fertility. Studies show when vegetables are eaten with fat, there is significantly more absorption in the small intestine of the vitamins and micronutrients in those vegetables. Research also suggests that unless fruits and vegetables are consumed with fat, they do not lower the risk of coronary heart disease. In short, to get the most from your salad, you’ll want to add plenty of avocado slices and olive oil, which are rich in fat (and delicious—you’re welcome).
Second, fats serve as the building blocks for cell membranes and hormones. The adult human body is made up of trillions of cells, and fatty acids make up the structural component of every cell in the body. Fatty acids are also used to make hormones—specifically, sex hormones—and hormone-like substances that control inflammation. Without sufficient fat intake, these systems do not function appropriately.
Fat is incredibly important, particularly for women, because having fat stores in the hips, breasts, buttocks, and thighs tells the brain the body is healthy, well fed, and capable of reproduction. Without fat—both in the diet and on the body—hormone production shuts down and reproductive function falters. As a result, hormonal symptoms like irregular or absent menstrual cycles, low libido, acne, poor sleep, mood swings, depression, and anxiety can occur.
In short, fat is your friend. Don’t fear it—use it with gusto and pride.
ALL ABOUT CARBOHYDRATES—WHY CARBS ARE YOUR FRIEND
In recent years, many health gurus have warned that consumption of carbs leads to negative health consequences, disease, and “insidious” weight gain, regardless of quality or source. They worry that carbohydrates cause insulin levels to rise and eventually cause insulin resistance.
As it turns out, carbohydrates do elevate insulin levels, but that isn’t bad for you in the context of a healthy body that isn’t suffering from diabetes or insulin resistance. In fact, while removing carbohydrates from the diet can help minimize the insulin response, it will not cure the underlying problem causing the insulin resistance. What does help to increase insulin sensitivity is reducing inflammation, managing stress, and healing the gut. This can be done with a diet that includes any amount of carbohydrates, within reason.
Carbohydrates actively promote good health in many instances. For one thing, they are an important source of energy. The body needs carbohydrates when performing high-intensity (or anaerobic) activity. While athletes’ bodies can adapt to burning fat for fuel during activity, carbohydrates are the most readily available fuel source in the body; this makes carbohydrates great for optimizing athletic performance. Sufficient carbohydrates, in combination with protein, are needed post-workout to stimulate muscle growth.
Carbohydrates are also necessary for women’s health, particularly for women of reproductive age. Carbohydrates play an important role in leptin signaling. Leptin is a hormone that controls hunger and feelings of satiety, signaling to the brain that the body has been fed. Drastically cutting carb intake for too long can potentially mess with leptin signaling, which can result in poor appetite regulation, fatigue, a sluggish metabolism, impaired hormone production, and infertility.
Worse still, if you’re already overloaded with stress, eating too low-carb can add fuel to the fire by increasing the demand on the adrenals to provide glucose. This can cause your body to produce too much or too little stress hormone, or at the wrong time, which interferes with pretty much all of the body’s systems and can especially affect sleep, mental health, and energy.
SET MACRONUTRIENT MINIMUMS INSTEAD OF MAXIMUMS
Just as with calories, instead of setting maximum amounts, the best way to pursue eating the appropriate amount of macronutrients is to set a minimum amount of protein, carbs, and fat to consume each day. From there, you can fill in whatever you’d like. This enables you to get the requisite nourishment from each macronutrient while providing you with tons of flexibility based on your own needs and wants.
For most people, a good minimum carbohydrate intake is 100 grams. This is equal to approximately four pieces of fruit or two medium sweet potatoes. For fat, a great starting point is 50 grams. This is about 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) of oil or two medium avocados.
For protein, your minimum intake will vary depending on your body size, gender, age, and the type and amount of activity you do. Women may require anywhere between 50 and 125 grams of protein a day and men between 75 and 150 grams. A typical can of tuna or palm-size portion of meat, poultry, or fish will give you 25 grams of protein. Twice that amount would be the minimum for women and three times that amount would be the minimum for men.
It’s important to note that when you add up your minimums, your total calorie intake will be much less than you need. Minimums are your baseline, and from there, you should add the foods that work best for you to get to your daily caloric intake. Play with varying the amount of carbohydrates or fat in your diet to see what works best for you. For example, you may want to eat a higher-carbohydrate diet for a month or two and then shift to a high-fat diet. Be conscious of how it makes you feel. Do you notice a difference in your energy levels, athletic performance, fat mass, muscle mass, mood, libido, sleep, PMS, menstrual cycle, or appetite? These are important qualities of life that may shift depending on the ratio of carbohydrates to fat in your diet.
You may also simply want to eat more carbohydrates because you feel like it. Or more fat. That’s great! You’ll get no arguments here. Taste is a perfectly good reason to eat more of one kind of food than another. Simply make sure to get in your minimum requirements of all the macronutrients, then eat according to your body’s needs. Repeat.
Sample “More Fat” Day for Noelle
BREAKFAST: 2 eggs, 1 large Pink Lady apple, 2 to 3 tablespoons almond butter
LUNCH: 1 or 2 servings Apple, Avocado, and Chicken Salad, handful of macadamia nuts
SNACK: ½ cup Slow Cooker Bison Chili
DINNER: Large salad with nuts, raisins, and olive oil, 1 or 2 servings Zucchini-Beef Taco Skillet
SNACK: 2 or 3 squares dark chocolate
PROTEIN: 120 grams (480 calories)
CARBS: 140 grams (560 calories)
FAT: 130 grams (1,170 calories)
TOTAL CALORIES: 2,210
MINIMUM VS. ADDED INTAKE IN CALORIES
TOTAL PERCENTAGE OF CALORIES FROM PROTEIN, CARBS, AND FAT
Sample “More Carb” Day for Stefani
BREAKFAST: 2 servings Twice-Baked Breakfast Sweet Potatoes, 2 hard-boiled eggs
LUNCH: Roasted Beets and Berries Salad, 2 cups diced fruit
SNACK: Palm-size serving beef jerky, 1 cup banana chips
DINNER: 2 servings Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, ¼ cup lean ground beef sautéed with kale
SNACK: 1 pint blackberries with 1 tablespoon honey
PROTEIN: 77 grams (308 calories)
CARBS: 243 grams (972 calories)
FAT: 89 grams (801 calories)
TOTAL CALORIES: 2,081
MINIMUM VS. ADDED INTAKE IN CALORIES
TOTAL PERCENTAGE OF CALORIES FROM PROTEIN, CARBS, AND FAT
ARE YOU A BREAD LOVER OR A BUTTER LOVER?
You may find, for a variety of reasons, that you prefer eating more carbs or more fat. It could be because you feel better and have better health following a particular approach, or simply because you feel more satisfied and less restricted. The decision is entirely up to you and should be based on your experience and preferences.
You can figure out if you’re one, the other, or both by paying attention to your body.
To help you figure out if you might be physically inclined one way or the other, we’ve compiled a list of various health components of both choices. Will you thrive as a bread lover or a butter lover? Check the following reasons to see if you fit one of the categories.
ARE YOU A BREAD LOVER? REASONS FOR A HIGHER-CARB DIET
HIGH ACTIVITY LEVEL
People who are highly active require more carbohydrates to burn as fuel than those who are not. If you are constantly on the move or exercise regularly, bump up the lower limit of your carbohydrate intake to 150 grams a day. If you are highly active, such as if you have a labor-intensive job or are a serious athlete, or both, you may need at least 200 grams of carbohydrate each day.
INSOMNIA
Carbohydrates have been shown to help improve sleep, especially if consumed two to four hours before bedtime. If you struggle with falling asleep, staying asleep, and/or having restful sleep, consider consuming a minimum of 150 grams a day. Note that while most people typically benefit from eating their carb dose later in the day, some people need to have carbohydrates throughout the entire day to sleep well.
FERTILITY
A woman’s fertility can be greatly affected by carbohydrate intake. Without adequate carbohydrates, the body may believe that it does not have access to enough energy, which can result in reduced sex hormone output. If you are trying to conceive, have trouble with your menstrual cycle, or especially if you have a history of undereating or dieting, then it may be important for you to eat a minimum of 150 grams of carbohydrates a day.
PREGNANCY AND BREASTFEEDING
If you are growing another human being inside of your body or feeding it with your milk supply, it’s no time for deprivation! Carbohydrates are an important source of energy for feeding your baby. Kick up your minimum carb intake to at least 150 grams a day, especially if you are noticing fatigue or struggling with your milk supply. Of course, your appetite can be very particular at this point in time, so it’s also important to let your food intake wax and wane with your body’s signals.
GENETICS
Some people have several copies of a gene called AMY1 that codes for an enzyme called amylase in their saliva. This makes starch break down faster. If you have this, shifting your diet toward carbohydrates can result in better weight management and improved health. To figure out if you have this enzyme, you’d need to get a genetic test done by a company such as 23andMe, and the results would be listed in their report. You could also make an educated guess by trying a higher-carbohydrate diet and seeing if it works well for your weight maintenance.
ARE YOU A BUTTER LOVER? REASONS FOR A HIGHER-FAT DIET
DIABETES/INSULIN RESISTANCE
If you have diabetes, are insulin resistant, or suspect that you are insulin resistant, a lower-carbohydrate approach will likely be a helpful way for you to manage your symptoms.
Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the cells of the pancreas that are responsible for producing insulin, is, unfortunately, intractable. For many people, eating a low-carbohydrate diet makes type 1 diabetes easier to manage because it keeps insulin injections to a minimum and it’s easier to match insulin to carbohydrate intake.
People with type 1 diabetes who are concerned about thyroid health or fertility can typically increase their carb intake up to 75 to 100 grams a day by spacing out their carbohydrate intake throughout the day and pairing carbs with a good dose of fiber and fat, as fiber and fat blunt blood sugar spikes.
Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes (insulin resistance), on the other hand, can often be treated with diet and lifestyle choices. The most effective way to overcome insulin resistance and even type 2 diabetes is to work on gut health. Restoring gut flora populations, healing the intestinal lining, and reducing inflammation are the keys to helping cells become more insulin sensitive and thus easing the burden on the pancreas to produce so much insulin (see optimizing digestion and gut health). In the meantime, however—while that healing is taking place—a lower-carbohydrate diet reduces the amount of insulin your pancreas makes. This helps manage symptoms such as extreme hunger or thirst, increased urination, fatigue, and difficulty losing weight.
If you suffer from insulin resistance, a low-carb diet can halt the progression from insulin resistance to diabetes. Importantly, however, this is not a cure. A low-carbohydrate diet keeps insulin levels from rising but doesn’t solve the underlying problem. In fact, being on a very low-carbohydrate diet for a long period of time can actually worsen insulin sensitivity. For that reason, it’s best to focus on fixing underlying problems (such as poor gut flora health, intestinal permeability, and inflammation) for a long-term solution and to use a low-carbohydrate diet as part of the solution.
REACTIVE HYPOGLYCEMIA
Reactive hypoglycemia is a condition in which the body clears sugar out of the bloodstream quickly and precipitously. When people (often women) with reactive hypoglycemia eat carbohydrates, their blood sugar levels drop very low.
Symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia include rapid heartbeat, headaches, shaking, sweating, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, blurry vision, sudden mood changes, fainting, and head rushes, as when you stand up too fast.
A lower-carbohydrate approach can help keep blood sugar levels from going too high and therefore prevent these precipitous drops.
BLOOD SUGAR SWINGS
Blood sugar swings (essentially, when your blood sugar fluctuates from too high to too low and vice versa) can happen to anybody, with any degree of frequency. They can result in symptoms of both low and high blood sugar: Low blood sugar can result in fainting, blurry vision, fatigue, and shaking. High blood sugar can result in excitability, jitteriness, mania, and high energy.
If you struggle with blood sugar issues, consider experimenting with limiting carbohydrates to around 100 grams a day (spaced as evenly throughout the day as possible), while focusing mostly on fat in the diet. If you refrain from eating large amounts of carbohydrates, your body may have an easier time keeping a steady amount of glucose in your blood.
MENOPAUSE
Many women in menopause will do great with a higher-carbohydrate diet—so we’re not saying that you must eat high-fat if you’re going through menopause. We simply know that many women struggle with a shift in body composition at this time as fat moves from more “female” areas such as the hips and thighs into the abdomen.
Menopausal abdominal fat (as well as other testosterone-related symptoms such as acne and facial hair growth) occurs because the body produces fewer female sex hormones at this time. The fewer female sex hormones you have, the less fat your body will shuttle to areas such as the breasts and hips. You can help keep testosterone levels to a minimum by keeping carbohydrate intake on the low end, as insulin is one of the primary drivers of testosterone production.
GENETICS
Some people are genetically inclined to be better at burning fat for fuel (perhaps 2.5 times faster than others). If this is you, you may tend to do better on a higher-fat diet. To figure this out, you can get your genes analyzed by a company such as 23andMe and check your results for the genes FABP2, PPARG, ADRB2, and PPARG (don’t worry—the company will tell you in its report if you’re an efficient fat burner, so you don’t necessarily have to learn about and hunt for these genes yourself). You may also, if you wish, make an educated guess based on your experience.
WHICH ARE YOU?
And now for the million-dollar question: Are you a bread lover or are you a butter lover? One of our favorite parts about our approach to health is that it’s totally okay to be one or the other . . . or both! Your body has its own specific needs. Any time you hear a proclamation that “low-carb is best for everyone” or “you must be low-fat or else,” alarm bells should go off. Yes, for some people, low-carb is better. But for others, it’s not. Perhaps what’s been holding you back (as was the case for us) was trying to fit your needs into these cookie-cutter molds.
To figure out what is going to work best for you, you’ll need to experiment with each approach. Start with your minimums and add either more carbs or more fat. You can shift your carbs down and fats up (or vice versa) until you hit your sweet spot. Do your best to forget “diet rules,” and pay attention to how your body and mind feel instead. Over time you’ll find a balance that works best for you.
Also keep in mind that what works for you now may not work for you later—if you do best as a bread lover right now, in a few years, you may find you thrive as a butter lover. Keep your options open, remain flexible, and make changes according to how your body responds.
Good Sources of Carbohydrates
LESS DENSE
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Carrots
Chard
Eggplant
Kale
Mushrooms
Onions
Spinach
Parsnips
Peppers
Zucchini
MORE DENSE
Vegetables
Acorn squash
Beets
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Taro
Winter squash
Yucca
Fruits
Apple
Apricot
Banana
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Grapefruit
Grapes
Kiwi
Mango
Orange
Papaya
Passion fruit
Peach
Pear
Pineapple
Plantain
Plum
Raspberries
Starfruit
Strawberries
Good Sources of Fat
Avocados
Coconut (coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut meat)
Cooking fats and oils (see here for a list of high-quality cooking fats)
Fatty cuts of grass-fed/pasture-raised meats (cow, bison, lamb, pork)
Fatty cuts of pasture-raised poultry (turkey, chicken, duck)
Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel)
Ghee (clarified butter)
Nuts and seeds
Pasture-raised eggs