Seeing a bowl of porridge compared with a bowl of sugar

This shits me to no end!
Whenever there is a high carb food (lets say it’s porridge ) mentioned there are always those people that say

 x amount of carbs/grains = sugar

What do you think about this how does this statement make you feel? freaked out?

I say…” So what” This statement makes me feel…. humoured in a sense… I usually feel puzzled as well… like they are comparing a bowl of porridge/grains to a bowl of sugar and thinking they are the same thing. Hmmmm, that’s a sad and weird way to look at food.

Well what is the difference you say?  All carbs get broken down to glucose so all carbs are just a bowl of sugar, pretty simplistic huh? No so fast.  When nature made carbs she puts the “antidote” with it. An exception may have been honey and other unprocessed sugars we have always eaten. Now what do I mean by this?

Some people describe carbs as “poison” and some carbs if eaten in large enough quantities might be poison. But mother nature gets her sources of carbs and makes sure there is the antidote which is fibre and/or fat/and/or protein…so we think potatoes they have fibre, we think oats there is fibre, protein and fat, we think fruit we have fibre. Fibre and fat and protein they slow down the absorption of glucose and/or give volume or raise glucagon. Glucagon works the opposite to insulin; this guy works in between meals and signals your liver to make glucose to keep blood sugar in a normal range.  There are a lot of other hormones involved in things like appetite control, hunger signals, fat storage etc… not just insulin and glucagon.

When foods such as grains are processed to death the antidote is taken away and all you are left with is the starch, which will make your blood sugar levels skyrocket! All the nutrition is taken out pretty much. Not to mention the unrefined food contain many vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients as well as can still have the fibre and fat- these carbs are NOT the same as a bowl of sugar and anyone that thinks it is…well….that’s their prerogative. It makes me feel like they are a carb phobe and thinks that carbs are unhealthy or something!  Or just plain doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to understand.

We all know that carbs raise blood sugar and therefore raise insulin levels. And some carbs raise it more than others. Amino acids (proteins) and some fatty acids don’t raise blood sugar but DO raise insulin. For example fish and beef raise insulin more than pasta, all bran and porridge! Generally porridge is a lowish gi food, the finer the oats the higher the gi rating (quick oats) so it won’t raise it as much as say, rice bubbles or cornflakes, and if you some “antidote” like coconut milk, butter, chia seeds etc…  then you can slow down the rate of absorption.

A person who has a normal response to glucose will have no problems using the glucose from a high carb meal, production of using fat as fuel will be shut down so the glucose can be used as energy or stored, then between meals it’s back to using fat. Of course (hopefully) you have a nice big fast from dinner to breakfast or whenever your next day meal is and this gives your body an opportunity to use stored glucose (glycogen from your liver/muscles and fat from your fat cells (adipocytes) Post meals spikes in insulin are a normal response to a meal and do not give you type 2 diabetes unless they are chronically elevated and insulin never gets a chance to go back to baseline or your liver is making too much glucose raising your blood sugar levels this way (there can be other factors involved as well)

Some will be full till lunch with porridge and some wont, it will depend on your individual response to glucose as well as what it is served with, the amount and the type of carbs consumed, the way I see if it aint broke then don’t fix it. If what you eat isn’t getting the results you are after then change it, don’t keep doing the same things over and expecting a different result! Eat to what suits YOUR body.

If you need any help with your eating then contact me today to make your appointment!  Available in person or by skype/email