Carbohydrates: Quantity and Type
LCHQ is a diet with a considerably reduced average intake of carbohydrates—but it’s not a minimal one. It’s normal for LCHQ dieters to have about 20 E% (energy percent) carbohydrates (naturally these should be carbs with a low glycemic index). This means that about one-fifth of the energy comes from carbohydrates, and the rest from fat, protein, and possibly alcohol. The reduced number of slow-acting carbohydrates ensures a perfect blood sugar level between meals. And you’ll be able to tell the difference. You will feel more alert than before because your brain will have constant access to blood sugar, and you won’t become drowsy from the food. When you find yourself in a “lunch coma” after a calzone pizza, it’s because your blood sugar rose too high in too short a period of time. This causes a too-rapid increase of the serotonin level in your brain, which in turn causes you to become drowsy. However, this doesn’t happen with LCHQ. You might say that LCHQ food gives energy instead of draining it from you. Which is just how it should be.
Typical sources of carbohydrates for LCHQ dieters are nuts, seeds, vegetables, mushrooms, fruit, berries, root vegetables, and small amounts of rice, oats, quinoa, and corn. For those who benefit from a slightly higher intake of carbs, LCHQ allows for 30 E% from carbs, and then the remaining percent is divided up equally between fat and protein—i.e. 35 E% each. Everyone is different and some people need more in order to feel good, especially if they exercise a lot. During the weeks when I travel to health lectures, I exercise on a daily basis, which then means I need more carbohydrates. When it comes to my energy to work out, the difference is like night and day. Some days during these trips, I will load up on up to 30 E% of carbohydrates, resulting in a completely different level of stamina. It’s still considerably lower than the 40 E% from carbs the average person consumes per day. Of course, how much food is consumed is also crucial for determining the total nutritional intake. But since you generally eat more when you exercise, this results in consuming more grams of everything.
LCHQ CARBOHYDRATES
• Vegetables
• Root vegetables (especially those with a low carb content)
• Nuts and seeds
• Fruit and berries, in moderation
• Small amounts of bulgur, quinoa, and brown rice
What happens when you don’t eat enough carbohydrates?
As a result of today’s general fear of carbohydrates, many people believe “the fewer the better.” However, this is completely misguided. It’s very risky to eliminate carbohydrates entirely from your body, since carbs are your body’s primary fuel. If your blood contains glucose, this is primarily what the brain will use. During periods of starvation—or when you drastically reduce your intake of carbohydrates—the ketone production in your liver increases. Ketones are formed by fat and can be used by the brain when the glucose levels are insufficient, resulting in a state of ketosis. However, ketone is a backup fuel and the body reacts negatively when it’s in a state of ketosisis for too long (18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24). One thing that will result is that the body will want to reserve as much glucose as possible for the brain—and the only way to do so is to decrease sensitivity to insulin. The effect is that the insulin will not work as well in the muscles, liver, and kidneys (in other words, the insulin’s effect as a “door opener” to the cells deteriorates), which can have extremely adverse consequences. At its worst, this can lead to type 2 diabetes, a disease that many people try to avoid by decreasing their intake of carbohydrates. Sure, an individual with type 2 diabetes can quickly reduce his or her blood sugar to a minimum by not consuming any carbs at all. The downside is that the disease worsens if you simply mask the symptoms. If a diabetic is not prepared to live the rest of his or her life without carbohydrates, he or she risks dangerously high blood sugar levels if he or she eats a high-carb meal. The best thing for someone with diabetes is to considerably reduce their the intake of carbs, but not exclude carbs entirely. Many foods with a high carbohydrate content, such as fruits, berries, vegetables, root vegetables, nuts, whole grain products, etc., all have health benefits for other reasons.
This is why LCHQ includes 20 E% of high quality carbohydrates. This is enough to keep the blood sugar in check without developing a resistance to insulin.
The fewer carbs you eat, the more ketones the body produces. But this is not an on or off function; rather, the ketone level changes gradually. For example, after a good night’s sleep, we all have an elevated ketone level—even those who eat plenty of carbs.
When you follow the LCHQ diet, you will be in a mild state of ketosis, which is beneficial for many reasons. A certain state of ketosis makes it easier for your body to burn fat and maintain your weight. However, an intense state of ketosis (in other words, that which you achieve when you starve yourself or omit carbs entirely) is problematic in many ways. Ketones contain low levels of pH, so your body becomes more acidic (18, 19), which can increase your risk for osteoporosis (21, 22, 23) and inflammations (24).
LCHQ can make you happier
Excluding all carbohydrates from your diet can have a negative effect on your mood and quality of life. When your blood receives glucose, the brain creates serotonin, which makes you happy and satisfied! Research has shown that people who lose weight with a diet that prohibits carbs consider themselves less happy than people who have lost an equal amount of weight and were allowed to eat carbohydrates (20). In this respect, LCHQ is optimal. You consume enough carbs to keep up serotonin production, and you eat regularly, which maintains serotonin levels throughout the day. Another important factor is that LCHQ includes the right types of fat to make you feel better mentally and emotionally. It also contains high levels of omega-3 fats and research has shown that these increase the brain’s ability to regulate serotonin. In this way, omega-3 decreases the risk of depression and may, in fact, help mitigate it.
The right quantity of carbs provides energy and motivation to exercise
A certain intake of carbs is also important to the LCHQ lifestyle, because I promote exercise. You never feel as good as when you devote yourself to physical activity.
The more ketones you have, the less you’ll want to exercise. The LCHQ diet balances ketones and glucose perfectly, giving you enough energy for both your muscles and your brain. It’s not surprising that the body indicates fatigue when it’s in a state of ketosis, since ketones appear during starvation—signaling to the body that it needs to save as much energy as possible. The 20 E% of carbs in LCHQ are enough to make the body feel as though it has enough energy to exercise and increase the fat-burning process. Because LCHQ contains a high intake of protein, it’s an optimal diet for building muscle. This is important for people of all ages, but especially for older generations, who often suffer from reduced muscle mass and strength, or sarcopenia. It’s a serious condition, which increases the risk of falling, disease, and premature death. Therefore, eating LCHQ foods paired with reasonable exercise is an effective strategy for both the young and the elderly who want to improve their physique for a long, healthy life. As previously mentioned, I have personally tried almost every type of diet, and I know if I consume fewer carbs than are suggested by LCHQ, my ketone levels will rise too high. This means that my desire to exercise will decrease and I won’t achieve the active lifestyle that leads to the quality of life I want.
LCHQ’s low glycemic index keeps you young
All natural foods that contain carbohydrates slowly elevate your blood sugar. Your body was designed to handle this process. If you instead eat too many fast-acting carbohydrates, you will feel bad and might get sick. Such foods can harm your body and may cause you to age more quickly and suffer from cardiovascular disease. It’s also evident that such food has the ability to be stored in your body as fat. By avoiding such a diet, you can easily decrease your body fat. I’m sure you already know that fast-acting carbohydrates exist in things like white sugar, instant mashed potatoes, sugary cereals, soda, and white flour products.
Naturally, LCHQ only includes carbs with a low glycemic index. You’ll probably notice it in the form of a quicker fat-burning process and a stronger mental performance. You won’t notice that you are simultaneously reducing your risk of a heart attack. Type 2 diabetes and many tumor diseases also correlate with a high glycemic index, so hopefully your retirement won’t include any of these things.
Something that you will probably notice decades after having maintained a low GI diet is that you’re able to age with dignity. Because you avoided the glycation that accompanies high blood sugar (sugar molecules bind with protein or fat, which decreases their functionality in the body), you won’t suffer from the stiffness or high blood pressure that usually comes with old age. You’ll probably also look younger than your friends who have kept a high GI diet, since age-related skin deterioration actually stems from glycated collagen, and is therefore caused by a high glycemic index. Even reduced brain functionality can be related to glycation, because dementia includes elevated levels of glycated proteins in the brain.
Free from refined sugar
It probably hasn’t been lost on anyone that Americans consume high volumes of added and refined sugar. Approximately one out of every five calories consumed in this country comes from added sugar. All this sugariness makes one’s blood sugar skyrocket, harming the body’s proteins. In an attempt to reduce the blood sugar level, the body releases insulin, which causes such side effects as the storing of fat, increased blood fat, and insulin resistance.
We also know that sugar and sweeteners tend to increase our appetite and make us crave even more sweetness. Think about your own life: Do you ever have periods where you have an elevated desire for sweet foods? If you eat candy for a couple of days straight, it begins to take incredible willpower to go without sugar. But once you’ve been without sugar for a couple of days, this desire for sweetness will lessen and lessen until it is virtually gone.
LCHQ is, of course, free from all refined sugar. There’s simply no room for candy or other sweets if a maximum of 20 E% is supposed to come from carbohydrates. However, what can fit are fresh or frozen fruits and berries. These taste sweet but they contain natural sugar, as well as thousands of healthy nutrients, such as fibers, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Therefore, in its natural form, sugar is actually nutritious. Additionally, fruits and berries contain extremely few calories. They consist of about 80 to 90 percent water, making them very filling in relation to their low calorie levels.
Dried fruit is also healthy, but it contains a few too many carbs and concentrated energy to be included in LCHQ. Dried berries are better, but watch out for the sweetened ones!
Your body is host to a constant battle between substances that cause inflammations and those that prevent inflammations. Inflammations are necessary; they constitute an important part of your immune system and ensure that tissue can heal. If you exercise a lot, an inflammatory response is needed in order to recover from the workout and achieve the desired results. However, if an inflammation becomes too severe, you’ll get sick, and it may increase your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and autoimmune disease.
Pain is almost always due to inflammation, and if you suffer from chronic pain, chances are that the pain will mitigate if you reduce the chance of inflammations.
Interestingly, you can affect inflammations through your diet. A high intake of carbohydrates, especially fast-acting ones, increases the inflammations in your body. LCHQ promotes a balance of nutrients and ingredients that keep inflammation in check without eliminating them entirely. Many people suffer from too many inflammations, so you may notice a positive effect when beginning the LCHQ diet. A reduced number of headaches is a good example, as well as decreased flare-ups of eczema and joint pain. What also makes the LCHQ diet effective against inflammation is that it contains fruit, berries, and vegetables, all of which contain high quantities of naturally anti-inflammatory nutrients (45). Additionally, the LCHQ diet includes fish, nuts, red wine, olive oil, and regular exercise, and these are also known to be anti-inflammatory. It’s also beneficial that LCHQ food is cooked at a low temperature, and it lessens the consumption of meat from cattle and livestock (read more on page 37).
A low glycemic index and the right number of carbs are therefore very important here.
