Carb Phobia? Connected to Weight loss or Adrenal Fatigue?

Are you one of those people who fear carbs?  Do you pee on sticks to see if you have keto?  Do you have stinky breath?  And it’s all for the sake of aversion to carbohydrates so you can avoid gaining weight. Atkins, keto, breatharian diet…all diets that if you stick to, you will most likely get some type of result. Until you don’t! 

As soon as you stop the restriction of a ‘diet’ you will be right back to where you were, perhaps even gaining weight, feeling out of control, and without a plan. So why not create a plan and that should include carbs? Let me explain why. It is the good carbs, the long-sustaining carbs that our thinking brains and strong muscles love for energy,  productive thinking, creativity, and general vibrancy. We see so many people rely on the energy from their undernourished adrenal glands to get through their busy lives.  Day after day, week after week, month after month, adrenals become exhausted.  

Perhaps you begin to believe you are iron deficient, have glandular fever, or had early-onset menopause. The reality is that you're completely drained of your adrenal fuel and feel extremely fatigued.  This is where some good carbs in your diet (I prefer to call it a lifestyle) come in.  Carbohydrates give you energy and help you retain muscle and good clear cognitive function.  But we need to be clear on what type of carbohydrates feed us as opposed to spiking and dipping blood sugar leaving us with the high and lows of a sugar roller coaster.

Think about your dipping blood sugar at 4 in the afternoon and the voice in your head demanding a chocolate or sweet -  only to put once again on a sugar ride. Good carbs are ones that are from whole real foods.  They are high in fibre and contain essential vitamins and nutrients.  Energising, good carbs: Root vegetables- sweet potato, beets, carrots, parsnip Whole grains- brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, millet Legumes- chickpeas, lentils, black beans, kidney beans Adding carbs to your breakfast and lunch will not only give you energy and clarity of thought but make you feel nourished, not punished. 

Too many diets make you feel like you are living in restriction and this is why we often see immediate weight gain when coming off a fad diet.  When you are feeling ’satiated’ with carbs, coupled with some protein and good fat, it stops the messages in our brain about feeling deprived.  This is how we create a habit because it becomes easy. When something is easy it becomes repeatable. Boom… a new habit is formed.

Carb tips:

1. Include 1/2 cup of carbs with your breakfast and lunch and perhaps skip them at dinner

2.  No carbs can put your body into starvation mode and preserve fat rather than losing

3. Avoid refined, processed carbs- be processed food phobic  Michele Chevalley-Hedge is a qualified nutritionist based in Sydney Australia and NYC.

She is the author of the best selling wellness book, Eat, Drink and Still Shrink… a joyful guide to living, The Healthy Hormone Diet, and Beating Sugar Addictions for Dummies.  Michele donates a percentage of her book sales to Deakin University, which is leading the way in nutritional research around mood and mental health.  Michele is the founder of  A Healthy View,  www.ahealthyview.com, a clinical practice where she and team of nutritional medicine practitioners consult and advise their clients.