Carbohydrates are one of the most hotly debated and talked about topics in nutrition. In the modern human diet, carbs constitute at least 40% of the average person’s calorie consumption. This is a considerable chunk, and in some ways, it makes sense. The body prefers to use carbs for energy as they are the easiest source of energy to digest and can be converted into glucose with little and in some cases no effort. Glucose, also referred to as blood sugar, floats around in the bloodstream and is pulled in by cells that need energy. Having too much glucose in the bloodstream can be a very bad thing, however.
To prevent this the body secretes a hormone called insulin which triggers the body to pull some of the sugar out of the blood and store it for later use, as fat. This process results in a variety of undesirable changes in the body, the storage of fat being just one. Recent research has suggested that cutting carbs can lead to a much healthier weight, blood sugar, and body. If you’re looking for ways to improve your health, then reducing your carb intake might be a great way to do it. Let’s take a look at 6 health benefits that cutting carbs can offer and see what the research says.
1. Drop in Appetite
One of the most unexpected benefits of cutting carbs out of the diet is that you actually get less hungry. For many people, this seems counter-intuitive as they assume cutting out carbs will lead to cravings for sugar or bread. While this may be true for the first few days there are actually some recently discovered chemical changes that occur in the body while cutting carbs that drastically reduce how hungry you are. It was found that insulin, the hormone released when you eat carbs especially sugar, negatively regulates a hormone called ghrelin.
Ghrelin is the hormone responsible for telling your body it is hungry, so with fewer insulin spikes, your body will actually secrete less ghrelin, making you less hungry. This effect is compounded by the fact that foods high in protein and fat are naturally more satisfying than carb-rich foods like bread. This means that by switching to a low or no carb diet you can not only effectively turn off the hormone that regulates hunger, but also, you’ll be eating more satiating foods overall. Once you get past the hump on the third or fourth day your body will adjust to the new diet and you’ll quickly find that your hunger and cravings disappear.
2. Weight Loss
Weight loss is what low carb diets are probably best known for, and for good reason. Avoiding carbs is much easier than counting calories and fits into most people’s lifestyles better actually. a 2014 study found that in overweight individuals low carb diets were more effective for weight loss than a low-fat one. This study was performed with 148 people over 12 months. The cause for this incredible weight loss efficacy is that without insulin your body isn’t signaling adipose tissue to store the glucose in the bloodstream, and is, in fact, tapping into glycogen for energy, a form of emergency reserve, and will ultimately turn to burning fat once there is no more glycogen.
3. Fat Loss
This ties very closely to the previous point, but more specifically a greater portion of the weight lost on a low carb diet will be fat. Other diets will actually burn away more muscle and less fat even if the same number of pounds are lost. This is because when on a low-carb diet the body can make a metabolic shift from preferring carbs and sugars for energy, to actually preferring to tear down fats for energy. On a diet that doesn’t restrict carbs when in a fasted state the body will tear down any tissue indiscriminately, whether it’s muscle or fat, in order to get the blood sugars, it needs. When in ketosis, the low carb state, the body will almost exclusively break down fat for energy.
4. Good Cholesterol
Recent studies have found that a reduction in carb consumption can actually produce an improvement in cholesterol levels. a 2012 study found that both low carbohydrate and low-fat diets improve overall cholesterol levels, but the participants on the low carb diet experienced superior improvements. Especially in regard to high-density lipids, or HDL, which is considered the good type of cholesterol and has been found to help protect against heart disease.
The low carb group also saw superior improvements to LDL, the bad cholesterol, as well as triglycerides. Triglycerides are how the body stores fat, and many people would expect an increased presence of triglycerides in the blood as the body mobilizes fat for energy, but it appears the opposite is true and that the body is capable of cleaning out the blood quickly when it needs the energy.
5. Balanced Sugar Levels
This may seem obvious to some people but reducing the amount of sugar you eat can have a huge effect on your blood sugar levels. Eating less sugar results in lower blood sugar levels overall and also meaning no spikes after a meal. The added benefit to this is that the body’s insulin response is largely mitigated when carbs are limited in the diet. Insulin triggers the body to store energy for later use and is commonly associated with the sugar crash people get after a big meal or eating lots of carbs. Without spikes and crashes, your body’s blood sugar stays within a healthier range throughout the day and causes your energy to vary less.
6. Lower Blood Pressure
In a very large and thorough 2007 study, participants were split into 4 groups and each group was administered a different diet. One of the groups was low carb while the others were either low fat or more typical diets with ample carbs and fats. All the groups were also given an exercise regimen, and at the end of 12 months, all groups saw improvements in their blood pressure. The low carb group, however, saw double the benefit or more compared to any of the other groups. On average participants in the low-carb group saw a decrease in systolic pressure of 5.7% and a decrease in diastolic pressure of about 2.9%.
