The Answer to Weight Management is in the quality of our plate

It's those extra Carbs, duh!

When I had just delivered my daughter in 2007, my well-meaning mother-in-law, in all her traditional wisdom, advised me to load up on “desi ghee” to help with the recovery process after the delivery. Having been a 90’s kid where fat was definitely the villain, I was horrified at the idea of eating large quantities of ghee.

A year later in 2008, when I was still struggling with the post-pregnancy weight loss – I have never believed in crash diets and wanted to find a sustainable way to weight loss – I came across this eye-opening research by Gary Taubes, where he explains how it is not fat in the food at all that causes weight gain, but the carbs instead.

We've all been hearing about how fat makes you fat for years and years. It is somehow conditioned into us, as most of us grew up in the era of fat being villainized. But now we also know recently, since the past decade as it turns out that was totally bogus. Instead, eating too many carbs is what's been making us gain weight and get sick since the 1970s, thanks to some half-baked research. Big Food Companies took the fat out of food and pumped in sugar so they could say stuff was "low-fat." But really, that just made everything worse.

Now we know that all those carbs are what's causing diseases like diabetes. Our bodies can't handle all that sugar, so the body makes too much insulin trying to store it as fat. That extra fat - especially around our bellies - messes up our hormones and makes us insulin resistant. So we get stuck in this nasty cycle of overeating carbs, gaining weight, and becoming more insulin resistant until we get diabetes and / or heart disease.

If we'd just kept eating regular (good) fats and proteins instead of shoveling down all those "fat-free" carbs and sugars, we could've avoided this whole mess. But at least now we know the truth. It's time to cut the carbs and get our health back!

The Obesity Epidemic: How Demonizing Dietary Fat Led to Chronic Disease

The Low-Fat Diet Craze Back in the 1970s, doctors wrongly believed that dietary fat caused heart disease. The Food Pyramid, that we are all familiar with from school, came out around this time, recommending that carbs make up the bulk of our diet, and the same food pyramid put fats at the top, meaning that we should severely limit or eliminate it, if we wanted to be heart-healthy. Food companies started pushing low-fat, low-calorie products. Simple carbs replaced fat in our kitchens and in packaged foods. We all began eating more and more carbs, believing "fat-free" meant healthy.

Blood Sugar Roller Coaster

The problem is, too many simple carbs spike and crash your blood sugar, straining your insulin response. The extra insulin tells your body to store excess blood sugar as body fat, especially around your middle. This fat then makes you overeat more carbs, and the cycle repeats. Over time, your body becomes resistant to insulin's effects, and insulin production itself reduces, as the pancreas are worn out from all the overwork.

The Road to Chronic Disease

Insulin resistance and excess body fat (not dietary fat) lead to obesity. Obesity increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. By removing energy-dense fats from our diet and replacing them with simple carbs, we've triggered an epidemic of chronic illness.

Time For a New Approach

It's clear now that fat isn't the enemy (wasn’t ever!) - excess carbs and sugar are. A balanced diet with moderate portions, lean proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbs is key. Reducing intake of processed foods, watching portion sizes, and staying active can help reverse insulin resistance and promote health. Our flawed advice of the past led us into this mess; it's time for a new approach to nutrition that can lead us out.

The Carbohydrate-Insulin Model: Why Eating Too Many Carbs Causes Weight Gain and Insulin Resistance

Eating lots of high-carb and sugary foods causes your blood sugar to spike, which forces your pancreas to pump out insulin to lower it.

Too Much Insulin

When insulin is released in large amounts frequently, your cells can become resistant to its effects. This means your body needs even more insulin to do the same job of controlling blood sugar. High insulin levels also tell your body to store excess calories as fat, especially around your middle. ###A Vicious Cycle The more body fat you gain, the more insulin resistant you become. This starts a vicious cycle of weight gain that's hard to break. Your pancreas has to work overtime to produce enough insulin, and over time it can become damaged. ###Diabetes and Heart Disease Constantly high blood sugar and insulin levels are a recipe for chronic health issues. Insulin resistance strongly predicts the development of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. ###Cut the Carbs To reverse this cycle, cut down on high-carb and high-sugar foods. Focus instead on lean proteins, healthy fats, and high-fiber, low-carb veggies. Losing excess fat will help restore insulin sensitivity so your body can start burning fat and carbs efficiently again. Limiting carb intake and practicing intermittent fasting can be very effective for weight loss and improving metabolic health.

In summary, the carbohydrate-insulin model proposes that overeating high-carb, high-sugar diets leads to excess fat storage and insulin resistance. By cutting carbs and losing weight, you can restore insulin sensitivity, improve health, and avoid disease. Moderation is key - find the right balance of nutritious carbs, proteins and fats for your needs.

Reversing Insulin Resistance and Preventing Type 2 Diabetes: Low-Carb Diets and Lifestyle Changes

Low-carb Diets

Low-carb diets are the bomb.com for fixing insulin resistance. By cutting out sugar and refined carbs, your blood sugar won't spike as much, so your body won't pump out as much insulin. This gives your cells a chance to become sensitive to insulin again. Studies show low-carb diets can even reverse prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.

Losing Weight

Losing some pounds, especially around your middle, is key to improving insulin sensitivity. Extra fat cells, especially in the abdomen, promote inflammation and insulin resistance. Dropping fat through diet and exercise helps reverse this process. Even losing 5-10% of your body weight can make a big difference.

Exercise

Working out is clutch for improving insulin sensitivity and preventing diabetes. Aerobic exercise and strength training both help. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days. Walking, biking, and swimming are all good options. In addition to the usual squats and pushups, try exercises that build muscle in your core and legs, such as lunges, sit-ups, and planks. Building muscle through exercise improves your metabolism and sensitivity to insulin.

The low-fat craze of the past led to skyrocketing obesity and type 2 diabetes rates. But the good news is, we now know that simple lifestyle changes involving diet and exercise can have huge impacts on health. By eating fewer refined carbs and more healthy fats, losing excess weight, and staying physically active, you can reverse insulin resistance, avoid prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, and significantly lower health risks. The choice is yours! Take control of your health today.

Conclusion

And so the bottom line is, we were lied to. They told us that fat was evil, so we cut it out. But that just made things worse. We filled up on all kinds of carbs thinking they were healthy. But really, they just made us fat and messed up our bodies' ability to handle sugar. Now we've got obesity and diabetes exploding everywhere. We gotta go back to the old ways. Eat real food, with good fats. Cut out the processed junk full of sugar and white flour. Get our health back, get our lives back. The answer's been here all along. We just forgot what grandma knew. Time to remember.