DAY 2 | Today’s FIRE Map

FALSE FRIENDS (PART 1): CARBOHYDRATES, SUGARS, STARCHES & SWEETENERS

In a Matchbox:

Insulin resistance can be likened to an “allergy to carbohydrates,” prompting us to question why healthcare professionals advise individuals with diabetes and insulin resistance to continue consuming carbohydrates and relying on prescription drugs, when simple dietary and lifestyle changes can address the issue effectively. Carbohydrates encompass sugars and sugar-derived compounds, classified into two types: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates, such as table sugar and fructose, swiftly convert to glucose within the body, causing insulin spikes and potentially leading to weight gain and insulin resistance. Similarly, complex carbohydrates, comprising long sugar chains, can also trigger insulin responses. The FIRE lifestyle recommends limiting both simple and complex carbohydrates to minimize insulin secretion. Additionally, we offer a comprehensive list of foods and their corresponding teaspoon equivalents of sugar. It is advisable to avoid excessive sugar intake, as the body can develop an “allergic” response to it. Instead, opting for low-sugar or sugar-free food alternatives is encouraged, eliminating the reliance on medication.

Watch:

https://youtu.be/uQ2q3hPuUls

Listen:

Read:

False Friends – Carbohydrates Sugars Starches & Sweeteners

False friends – Carbohydrates, Sugars, Starches & Sweeteners

ALLERGIC TO CARBOHYDRATES

What is insulin resistance? In simple terms, insulin resistance can be described as being allergic to carbohydrates – or if you want to be fashionable: you are carbohydrate-intolerant.

What do you do when you have a peanut allergy? Do you eat peanuts every day and then rush of to the doctor for a steroid and adrenaline injection? Just to feel better and eat the peanuts again?

No, you don’t do it! It is unethical for a doctor or dietician to tell you it is fine to eat peanuts again because they can give you medicines to make it better! So why on earth do we tell people with Diabetes and insulin resistance that it is OK to eat carbohydrates, because we have all the drugs needed to treat “carb allergy”.

Have a look at this impressive list of medicines, all developed to treat “carb allergy”:

• Diabetes medication
• High blood pressure pills
• Cholesterol pills
• Weight loss pills
• Mood stabilisers
• Reflux meds
• Hormone treatments 
• Chemotherapy

Guess who’s laughing all the way to the bank?

It is a non-brainer, isn’t it? Just FIRE the carbohydrates and get over with it!  Why spend your life taking medication when the solution is so simple? Because, if you stop eating carbohydrates, nobody is going to make money off you (or your medical aid).

As we explained yesterday, carbohydrates are one of the three main macronutrients; the other two being protein and fat.

In simple terms, carbohydrates are sugars and sugar-derived molecules. In order to understand how the FIRE Diabetes diet works, it is important to understand carbohydrates and what they do inside the body.

There are two basic types of carbohydrates, traditionally classified as simple and complex.

Simple carbohydrates are those made from only one or two sugar (saccharide) chains. All simple sugars and starches are converted to glucose in the body, except sugar alcohols and insoluble fibre. More about those later, for now let us focus on simple sugars.

Types Of Simple Sugars

• Sucrose refers to table sugar or cane sugar and all items made with it
• Glucose is found in some fruits and starchy vegetables
• Fructose is the sugar in all fruits and honey and is also used to make many processed food products because it is cheap (produced from genetically modified maize). It is about as sweet as sugar.
• Galactose is the sugar that occurs naturally in milk. It does not occur free, but is bound to glucose to form lactose.

Naturally occurring sugars are those found naturally in a food or in the ingredients used to make a food, for example fruit, milk and vegetables. Added sugars refer to those added during cooking or manufacturing, and include corn syrup or table sugar. Table sugar and “foods” made with it are considered to be an empty calorie food. This means it provides energy, but delivers little or no nutritional benefit to the body.

Simple carbohydrates Include: candy, table sugar and anything made from it, soda, white flour, juices, fruit, milk, honey and syrup just to name a few.

Simple carbohydrates require no break down as they enter the body to be absorbed so they digest quickly to flood the bloodstream with glucose, causing insulin spikes to occur.  

Important note: Fruit in its natural form presents simple carbohydrates bound to fibre. Since fibre is hard to digest, this means the sugar is absorbed slower, compared to fruit juice, for example, where the fibre has been removed, or mechanically shortened. Honey is rapidly absorbed, but not as rapidly as syrup, even though on paper they look almost identical.  So, not all simple carbohydrates affect the body in the same way.

Glucose spikes trigger the release of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin sends glucose into cells, and any leftover sugar is stored as fat in fat cells, which contributes to weight gain and obesity.

Constant stimulation by insulin leads to insulin resistance, a condition known as type 2 diabetes. It’s a bit like the boy who cried “Wolf!” too many times.  People became resistant to his joke and, when the wolf really came, they ignored his cries.

TAKE AWAY: Simple sugars are insulin triggers that can promote weight gain and increase risk factors for type 2 diabetes. Avoid them if you can, or use them sparingly if you must.

Complex carbohydrates

Sugars are chemically active molecules and can cause harm to the cell if left unchecked.  Cells have found various ways to deal with this threat, by chaining glucose molecules together.

Complex carbohydrates are made up of thousands of sugar chains hence the name complex. 

Complex Carbohydrates: any starch including but not limited to maize, potatoes, beans, rice, grains, cereals, and bread.

While some may argue that complex carbohydrates are “better” than simple carbohydrates, low carb diets, like the Ketogenic diet, take a different view. In ketogenic (or simply “keto”) diets, both simple and complex carbohydrates are seen as insulin triggers to be avoided.

TAKE AWAY: The FIRE Diabetes diet limits carb intake – both simple and complex carbohydrates –  to reduce insulin secretion by the pancreas.

Teaspoons

A simple way for me to understand the poisonous nature of carbohydrates is to measure it in terms of the number of teaspoons of sugar it breaks down to.

Did you know?

• “Healthy” breakfast = ±16
  • All bran flakes = 5
  • Brown toast = 3½
  • Pure apple juice = 8
  • Milk = 1
• Slice of white bread = 4
• Oats = 4½
• Cornflakes = 8½
• Cocopops = 7½
• Weetbix brick = 4½
• Rice = 10
• Potato = 9
• Chips = 7½
• Pasta = 7
• Banana = 6
• Grapes = 4
• Fruit juice = 8-10

Sugar can be hidden in the ingredient list of these foods without you even realising it. This is because sugar has more than 60 names. Although some may sound more “natural”, they are still classified as sugar.

Some common alternative names for sugar include the following: cane juice, palm sugar, beet sugar, corn sugar, glucose, caramel, malt sugar, maltose, molasses, dextrose, to name but a few.

Summary

Sugars are natural substances, but we were not meant to eat them in large amounts, or in unnatural formats.  Once the body has become allergic to sugars, the best solution is to avoid them altogether.  This is not easy, since sugars are hidden in most factory-produced foods.  Over the course of the next weeks, we will show you how to find or make low-sugar or sugar-free foods that still taste great. 

Eliminate, don’t medicate!