Diabetic Diet: Carbohydrate Free

On New Years Day, I was talking with my cousin briefly about my diet as she asked me about.  She said I could go carbohydrate free, but it is hard.  I acknowledge that it would be.  But there is one thing people don't realize.  Most of the things we eat have carbs.

Items we don't realize have carbs, even a small amount, have carbs.  Making breakfast this morning (January 2), I was thinking and wondering about what stuff have carbs.  So I started looking at various items and checking their carb content.  Bread is a no-brainer.  But comparing one type of bread to another, I found rye bread has the same amount of carbs as a whole grain/12 grain bread.  I've been eating 12 grain because it is supposed to be better for you.  But carb wise, it actually isn't.  In fact these ancient grain wraps I've been eating has more carbs than those two types of bread mentioned respectively.

Other items like milk, soups (canned or packet), crackers (ie: soda crackers, Triscuts), oatmeal, cereal, and a lot of other items have carbs.  I can't live on butter/margarine, pickles, bacon (I could actually, but seriously though...), eggs, and other such no/very low carb items, for example, for the rest of my life.  I could try, but it would be very hard for me.  I've grew up eating high carb items by choice.  Stuff like junk food, drinking pop, and other high carb items.  It would be a testament to my will power if I ate and drank low to no carb items.

I told my stepdad about carb content in those two breads I mentioned.  He essentially said that this healthy eating is non-sense.  What seems healthy might actually not be.  But than again, you have all those articles trying to tell you what is good and what isn't.  How do you know if these articles are legit and based on actual research?  One article might say, for example, that this vegetable is good or this vegetable is not as good for you as you think.  But how does one truly know?

Getting back to my point about carbs is that you will never truly escape them.  You can watch what you eat and look at the nutritional content of food.  But that might not truly rid you of carbs.  In fact, there are articles that state there are good carbs such as dietary fibre, and they apparently prevent some diseases and diabetes. But where does a person find out what has good carbs and what has bad carbs.  It is hard to know if you don't have that information.

Another thing about carbs is they give you energy.  But if you are not using those carbs through exercise, for instance, than eating carbs just turns to fat.  That is what happened to me growing up.  When I gained weight, I did very little to no exercise.  That meant that all carbs I ate turned to fat.

According to an article I read, it stated that the adage of carbs makes you hungry is a myth.  It goes on to state that that only happens in people who already have metabolic impairment, but not in healthy people that eat the appropriate amount of carbs for their needs.  This article doesn't actually state what research they've done to debunk this supposed myth.  So how do you know if they are right?

Talking about carbs with my stepdad and different articles, I told him what I read.  He said he could find articles that support something such as carbs make you hungry, for example.  He said that people get freaked out when it comes to carbs and automatically think they are bad.  I wholeheartedly agree. My mom is like that.  She automatically think carbs are bad.  But is that blind ignorance?  Or maybe she is one of people just think carbs are bad.  I don't know.

My stepdad said it comes down to moderation.  That is actually true.  You can have carbs if you moderate it with everything else.  If you don't moderate carbs, than of course it can become a problem.

For myself, being carb free is not something I could realistically do.  If you can do it, more power to you.  I will moderate my carb intake.  That is something I can realistically do.