ARE CARBOHYDRATES REALLY THAT BAD?

Greetings Tribe! Let’s talk carbs! Yay!

See the thing is, although carbs are your body’s main energy source, like everything else, too much of it can do more harm than good!

Here are some of the consequences of eating carbs, excessively, daily, multiple times a day, at night, when nobody is watching:

 

  • UNWANTED WEIGHT GAIN:

Unwanted weight

Eating carbs every day will inevitably result in you exceeding your recommended daily calorie intake, hence unwanted weight gain especially in places that you don’t want. The recommended daily calorie intake for us as adults is 2,500 Kcal (10,500 kJ) for men and 2,000 Kcal (8,500 kJ) for women. 1 cup of white rice is about 223 Kcal (49.6g carbs) and someone (like me) will probably eat about 2 cups of rice (jollof rice of course!) in one sitting. And let’s not forget the chicken + beef + the stew on top of the rice for those with trust issues + salad + salad cream + coke! Choiii! All these consumed together will amount to at least 1,300 Kcal in just one sitting. That’s all.

 

  • ELEVATED BLOOD SUGAR:

diabetes

Do you know that sugars are a form of carbohydrates? High blood sugar (glucose) is especially detrimental to our diabetic patients as an uncontrolled elevation of blood sugar can result in a life-threatening complication called “Diabetic Ketoacidosis”. Carbs are the major culprit in the postprandial elevation of blood sugar. In non-diabetics, elevated blood sugar can be a contributory risk factor for developing diabetes in addition to many other cardiovascular complications.

 

  • SUGAR ADDICTION:

Sugar addiction

I was just reading a study the other day – “Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care”- which was conducted in 2013. It stated that sugar being a variation of carbs can be as addictive as illicit/recreational street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and so on. An addiction to sugar with time can result in excessive weight gain/obesity in addition to various nutritional deficiencies. Overcoming sugar addiction has proven to be a very difficult task complicated by possible symptoms of withdrawal. Imagine! See me see sugar ooh!

 

  • CORONARY HEART DISEASE:

Heart disease

Triglycerides are the major form in which fat is stored in our bodies and excessive consumption of carbs can cause your blood triglyceride levels to rise. This is commonly referred to as carbohydrate-induced hypertriglyceridemia, which in turn can result in coronary artery disease (the most common type of heart disease).

 

  • FATTY LIVER DISEASE:

fatty liver

Carbs promote the eventual development of fatty liver disease. This is a condition where huge amounts of triglycerides accumulate in our liver. This can, in turn, lead to liver cirrhosis (end-stage liver disease) in a number of cases, and the worst-case scenario- need for a liver transplant or even worst- death!! Ok it’s not as serious as it sounds and I don’t want to scare you BUT prevention is better than cure right? Better safe than sorry right?

 

Hope you found this info helpful! Till next week…..

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