6 Health Benefits of Cutting Carbohydrates
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.
