Whole Grains & Carbohydrate

So popular and so misunderstood, are whole grains really healthy or do they cause inflammation? Is it just carbohydrates or is there something else hidden in those little grains?

When I talk about brown rice, oats, quinoa, rye, pasta or whole wheat flour or when I post a recipe containing grains on a social media, I often get questions like: "I don't eat any grain, it's pure carbohydrate, isn't it?"

Common sense, people. We live in what we now call in the midst of integrated health as Carbophobia. Where a large part of the population does not know exactly what carbohydrate is, what it is used for in the body and what types of it are. Just heard from various sources that potatoes are bad, rice no way, whole wheat flour, never in life!

- Is there carb in that potato? No way I'm going to eat this!

- But what about fast food, do you never eat a hamburger with soda?

- Oh, man, sure! This one I don't live without!

Source: dialogues heard in the streets.

Carbohydrates are not the same.

You know when you were a kid and you wanted to go somewhere where all your friends would go. Then your mom or dad wouldn't let you go. And you said "but everyone will go!" And the classic answer: "but you're not everybody."

So, carbohydrate is not everyone. It's not all flour from the same bag (did you like it, flour, carbohydrates?! ok, moving on).

Carbohydrate is a macronutrient, a nutrient found in most foods. Keep in mind that all plant foods have carbohydrate percentages! Now are you going to say that all vegetables are bad? That would be a little dramatic and unreal. Just as a food - let's use the potato as an example - it has carbohydrates, it also has proteins, fiber, minerals, antioxidants and inclusive vitamin C! (Orange, you didn't expect this!).

If the idea of carbohydrates being bad comes to your mind, know this is not your fault! Because of this carbophobia, people started to believe that protein is the master of the time! Want to be healthy, protein is the key! (Not my statements, protein is an important macronutrient and should be in our diet. But in smaller proportions. Subject for a next post!).

But what is carbohydrate and what does it do anyway?

• Carbohydrates are fuel for every tissue in the body.

• Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in your muscles for use during exercise or physical activity.

• Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in the liver to provide the brain with a 24-hour glucose drip feed.

• Carbohydrates are converted to fat, but that's at a terribly slow and inefficient rate in the human body, with no need to worry that they're morphing into extra pounds.

All of this is amazing and necessary for the proper functioning of the body.

Carbohydrate = whole foods and vegetables: whole grains, fruits, legumes, etc.

And if we compare real foods carbohydrates, like vegetable foods, with white flour (processed) and all those foods with colorful packaging, huge ingredient list and most ingredients with such a scientific name that even reading aloud is difficult ? Is it a fair battle, where opponents are of the same 'category'?

We now know that highly processed food, where the main ingredient is far from looking like its original form, is unhealthy in any way of life.

Would it be fair to compare a diet based on processed foods, fast food, rice and processed flour with a diet based on vegetables, fruits, whole grains and say that both are full of carbohydrates and that carbohydrates are all the same?

I hope your answer was "no, that's nonsense! These are totally different foods!"

Phew, let's go! :)

But believe that there are studies - financed by monetary interests - that make this type of claim, labeling carbohydrates as being only one food category, using the example of the most nutrient-poor carbohydrate possible, and comparing it with other foods to then conclude: 'carbs are bad for human health'.

No one here has time to waste on studies that indicate that a hamburger or a greasy donut is like a banana, so let's get serious and committed to showing what's real. We need to separate the wheat from the chaff!

Let's go to the data

I'll start well, with some strong evidence: the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Care Professionals Follow-up Study, both conducted by Harvard, accumulated nearly 3 million person-years of data, and in 2015 it was found that participants who consuming more whole grains tend to live significantly longer, regardless of other dietary and lifestyle factors. ¹

Is it a surprising result? Not for the researchers, as it is already proven that whole grains reduce the risk of heart disease, obesity, stroke and type 2 diabetes. They also calm inflammation, and it was estimated in another study that each daily serving of whole grains has the ability to reduce CRP (C-reactive protein) concentrations around 7%². For this fact, we can also say that whole grains reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases.

With these data, are whole foods that also contain carbohydrate really as bad as processed foods that contain carbohydrate?

We have the power of choice in our hands: do we want to focus our diet on whole foods that support the overall health of the body, or do we want to continue to believe that these health facilities are comparable to the worst-class processed foods?

1. WU, H.; FLINT, A.J.; QI, Q. et al. “Association Between Dietary Whole Grain

Intake and Risk of Mortality: Two Large Prospective Studies in US Men and Wo-

men.” Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine. Chicago: 2015;

175(3): p. 373-84.

2. LEFEVRE, M.; JONNALAGADDA, S. “Effect of Whole Grains on Markers of Sub-

clinical Inflammation.” Nutrition Reviews. Washington, D.C.: 2012; 70(7): p. 387-96.