Harmful effect of high carb diets
Many people only consider blood sugar level when talking about the effect of eating carbs. The truth, however, is vastly more than that.
After ingestion, glucose causes a spike in blood sugar, triggering the release of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin is a master hormone that plays many vital roles in the body. One of which is catalyzing the shoveling of sugar from the bloodstream into cells and effectively lower the blood sugar level back to normal. The more sugar enters the bloodstream, the more insulin gets released by the pancreas. Frequent consumption of high carb meals would eventually lead to insulin resistance, a condition many people don’t know or care about.
Insulin resistance is a condition, in which cells are not responsive to the usual amount of insulin released from the pancreas. Consequently, the pancreas makes more of it to overcome the problem. It’s like talking to a person with hearing problem. You talk gently at first, but the person can’t hear a word, and then you start talking louder and louder until he/she responses.
Too much insulin in the bloodstream is generally not a good thing, as it will trick the body into synthesizing and storing more fat, and slowing down fat metabolism. All of which are the foundations for weight gain, and obesity. Overtime, the pancreas gets overworked and couldn’t catch up with the constant stream of sugar entering the body. Consequently, not only does it lead to many pancreatic problems, but also does it make blood sugar raise without much of control. This is the cause for type 2 diabetes! The worst thing is that insulin resistance occurs without any sign or symptom until it manifests diseases.
AGEs – Advanced Glycation End-products
AGEs are protein and lipid molecules that get glycated or attached to a sugar molecule upon exposure to sugar. They can be found everywhere in the human body, and come from exogenous sources or synthesized endogenously. Their accumulation raises as blood sugar increases. The attachment to a sugar molecule destroys the structural integrity of proteins, and lipids and thus, making them more susceptible to damages.
- Cholesterol AGE – Glycated cholesterol can easily be damaged and oxidized; leaving to the buildup in the arterial wall (atherosclerosis), which leads to stroke, coronary artery disease and other dangerous heart problems.
- AGE in eyes and joints – AGE accumulation in these regions of the body can lead ocular impairment and osteoarthritis. These are two of the popular diabetic complications.
- AGE and kidney – Kidney is the organ that is solely responsible for eliminating AGEs out of the body. High level of AGEs can easily overwhelm the kidney and lead to many renal problems. Renal AGEs also affect kidney function and can effectively lead to chronic kidney failure.
- AGE and neurodegenerative diseases – AGE of protein of the blood-brain barrier can lead to the disruption of this physical separation, which cause inflammation in the brain. The harmful effects can be various types of neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, anxiety disorder, autism and schizophrenia.
Other problems
Having been on high carb diets for so long, one becomes dependent on it. Those following high carb diets can get hungry easily as carbs can be metabolized very quickly. Therefore, they have to eat constantly and often with snacks between meals. This worsens the vicious cycle of carb dependency and quickly leads to problems. Moreover, carb dependents tend to get tired, experience brain fog more often, and don’t have a consistent steam of energy throughout the days as their blood sugar rises and crashes at rapid pace.
Also, many dietary and nutritional believes have been built based on such dependency. For instance, one must eat at least 3 meals a day and preferably with snacks in between, or breakfast is the most important meal of the day, or carbohydrates are the most important sources of energy for the human body, one will suffer without carbohydrates, etc.
