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Hello everyone,

One of the things that we talk about all the time in the office, and rightfully so, is insulin resistance.

Again and again, we recite that insulin resistance increases your risk for heart disease, cancer, arthritis, autoimmune disease, Alzheimer’s, and chronic infections.

That’s why we recommend the Page Diet to just about all of our patients. If you haven’t taken the free course, here it is! (Some patients we recommend a stricter diet—the “Free Foods Diet to people who have severe insulin resistance/and or diabetes).

The Page Diet focuses mainly on vegetables, organic meats, and small amounts of seeds, nuts, and fruits. It tends to be lower in carbohydrates, or carbs for short.

Often, I’ll instruct patients to actually count the number of carbohydrates they eat during a day. Several researchers have indicated that we should stay under 500 carbohydrates per week (this one too), unless we have no insulin resistance, and perform a lot of exercise.

When people start counting carbs, they are shocked. They say things like, “But I’m not eating any carbs!” And yet, their carbohydrate content can be over 700 per week!

And then I asked the question, “Well, what foods contain carbohydrates?” The patient will often say the typical things, like breads, cereals, grains, sweets, pasta, cookies, cakes, pies, and sodas. And I asked them, “What about vegetables, fruits, beans, and fruit juices?”

It’s incredible how many people didn’t know that there are plenty of carbohydrates in fruits, vegetables, beans, and fruit juices—in fact, way more than we need.

I have many patients count carbohydrates so they can actually learn what carbohydrates are, and so they can minimize their intake (especially by minimizing their processed carbohydrate intake from refined grains and sugars). People are often shocked by how many carbohydrates are in rice, oatmeal, bananas—things like that.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all carbohydrates are bad for you, but here’s another misconception.

There are what are known as essential fatty acids and essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein), but did you know that there are no essential carbohydrates? Yup, you got that right, we don’t even really need them! We can make our own! The process is called “gluconeogenesis” literally meaning “new sugar making” in Latin. We make this glucose from fats and proteins.

Now I’m not saying that we should avoid all carbs, but I know there’s a lot of misinformation going around about how we “need” a certain amount of carbohydrates, and how “complex carbohydrates” are “good for us” (imagine me doing the air quotes here 😊). None of this is actually true. If you take a closer look, the most nutrient-dense carbohydrate sources are vegetables, not grains, and especially not processed grains.

So just to clarify, here’s the definition of carbohydrates:

Carbohydrates are a type of macronutrient found in many foods and drinks, and they are a primary source of energy for the body. They consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms and are broadly categorized into sugars, starches, and fiber. The body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, which is then used for energy or stored for later use.

I personally would like to add to this definition that at any one time, there is about 10 g, or 2 1/2 teaspoons of sugar floating through your bloodstream. In addition, we only should have about a maximum of 70 g, or 18 teaspoons per day of sugar from carbohydrates, and if we don’t get enough, we can make our own easily from protein and fat through the process of gluconeogenesis.

I would also like to add that when you start counting carbohydrates, it’s easy to see that we can easily over-consume carbohydrates by eating things like breads, cereals, beans, grains like rice, as well as the usual suspects like cakes, cookies, soft drinks, sodas, fruit juices, and other junk foods.

It’s very easy to minimize our intake of carbohydrates by cutting these foods out, while not cutting out fruits and vegetables, which are our nutrient-dense carbohydrate sources.

Also, if you’re not sure if you’re over-consuming carbohydrates, try counting them! Most people will reverse insulin resistance if they cut their carbohydrates down below 70 g per day, unless they’re diabetic, where the patient should get them as close as possible to zero (a doable level for most people is below 40 g per day for a diabetic).

Now you know what a carbohydrate is, how many a day you should have, and if you’d like to learn how to carb count, read our how-to here!

Happy carbohydrate awareness!

Yours truly,

Dr. Keith Sheehan

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