Carb tolerance has been a big topic of discussion in this newsletter lately and for good reason. Maintaining carb tolerance, or insulin sensitivity, plays a huge role in our overall health.
In my last newsletter, I addressed the question, “are carbs bad?” In that newsletter, I discussed how the answer to that question is not black and white and is even dynamic within an individual person. If you haven’t read that yet, go back and check it out.
For those who have maintained carb tolerance or have worked to restore or improve their carb tolerance through various health strategies, the answer to the question, “are carbs bad?” changes. For these individuals, carbohydrates can be handled just fine by their body and in some cases even be additive towards better body composition and human performance.
However, it is important to note that just because your body handles carbs better now, doesn’t mean that the answer to the carb question is an automatic yes. There are still many subtle nuances to consider such as the number of carbs you are eating, the type of carbs you are eating, the frequency in which you are eating them, and even when you are eating them.
You hear so often that people say that a keto diet or a low carb diet doesn’t work because when you stop you gain all the weight back. What these people mean to say is that if you stop and go back to eating the way that got you unhealthy in the first place that you will return to your unhealthy state. That seems obvious, doesn’t it?
The point here is that just because you have restored or maintained some carb tolerance doesn’t mean you should embrace the standard American diet chalked full of delicious processed carbs just because you can. This is not a strategy that will allow for the maintenance of carb tolerance. This is not a strategy that is sustainable.
If you have healthy carb tolerance, strive to maintain it. Remain mindful of your carbohydrate intake. Be sure not to overeat carbohydrates frequently. Strive to get whole-food carbohydrates and avoid highly processed carbs. Be intentional with carb intake so that you are consuming them during times when you can put them to good use and actually get something out of them. Through self-experimentation, you will find how to apply these strategies specifically to you and this will be what it takes to maintain your carb tolerance and most importantly, your health.
Thanks for reading!
Chris Irvin
P.S.
If you want to learn more about insulin sensitivity and how to maintain it, check out a past newsletter I wrote on a concept I call the Insulin Sensitivity pressure gauge.