What are Carbohydrates?

Bleu:
All right, so we’re going to talk about carbohydrates today.

Bo:
Carbohydrates.

Bleu:
That’s a big subject.

Bo:
Yeah. Like evil/amazing/we don’t really know where they fall, kind of depends on which religious nutrition, religion you fall into, kind of what carbohydrates mean. There’s some people say you shouldn’t eat any, some people should say that’s all you should eat. So let’s kind of dive into what it means and what’s our philosophy.

Bleu:
Yeah, I think, and something important is we kind of break food into, I look at four things. Carbohydrates, protein, fat-

Bo:
What’s the fourth?

Bleu:
Vitamin and minerals.

Bo:
Vitamin minerals, okay.

Bleu:
That’s kind of how I see it.

Bo:
Yeah.

Bleu:
So when we dive into this carbohydrates, what we’re hoping to do is kind of give you an overview of what they are. I always think of, let me just kind of, the way I think of it. Sugar, definitely is a carbohydrate, and it’s more of a simple carbohydrate. Then you got more, I wouldn’t call it complex, but more complex is like glycogen, starch. Starches, for example, the storage in fruits and vegetables. Look at it that way.

Bo:
Yeah.

Bleu:
Okay. Then you’ve got even more complex carbohydrates, which are fiber and in fruits and vegetables.

Bo:
Yeah.

Bleu:
But to me, the one that’s most relevant in this conversation is sugar.

Bo:
Yeah. And I think along those same lines, the way I break it down is natural carbohydrates and very unnatural, manufactured carbohydrates. Natural meaning fruit, vegetable and then within fruit and vegetable you can talk about simple and complex and fiber and starch. And then there’s just-

Bleu:
A great way to look at it.

Bo:
… and then there’s just totally made up sugar, whether it’s from sugar cane, beet sugar. What are the other manufactured sugars out there?

Bleu:
Yeah. A lot of the sweeteners, kind of manufactured sugars.

Bo:
Yeah. So natural, unnatural. So I think it’s safe to say, no matter if you’re talking to a vegan or a carnivore, manufactured sugar is not healthy for you. It’s probably the biggest killer in America, in the world. Right?

Bleu:
And we’re talking about that. We’re talking about sucrose. We’re talking about any added sugar to anything.

Bo:
Sucrose being table sugar.

Bleu:
Table sugar.

Bo:
That white stuff that you’re putting in your coffee, that’s added to every pastry, that’s added to everything to make it edible.

Bleu:
So we’ve quoted this before. “Average American consumes over 130 pounds of sugar per year.”

Bo:
Not this average American.

Bleu:
No. 200 years ago it used to be less than six pounds.

Bo:
Yeah well, sugar, if you look at just sugar, and I mean we’re getting deep here, but just the progression of the world. I mean sugar was king. If you had a country that could grow sugar, I mean you had something, right? The atrocities, the blessings of the world all kind of revolved around sugar-

Bleu:
Sugar.

Bo:
… in Rome for a lot long time.

Bleu:
It’s an interesting history to read, actually.

Bo:
Yeah, and now, so it used to be the thing of royalties, the thing of wealth. Now it’s like the cheapest filler that manufacturers put into our food to make it edible. So kind of backing up a little bit. Natural stuff. Unnatural stuff. And some people would argue, well that sugar came from beets and sugar cane, so it’s natural. No, no, no. If it takes a process to extract it, that’s not natural.

Bleu:
And that’s where the differentiation is. So if you go and take for example, sugar cane, okay? In its natural form, it’s wrapped up in a bunch of fibers, so if you’re going to sit there and munch on some sugar cane-

Bo:
Oh, I tried to get a meal out of sugar cane once it lasted about-

Bleu:
… you’re not going to eat much of it because it’s a bunch of fiber and that’s how nature designed this. It meant to wrap what we call sugar with fiber around it and natural fruit and in vegetables. Therefore, you don’t really get much of a dose of it when you’re eating a whole apple, for example. But if, okay, this is a good example. So I’m going to eat an apple versus apple juice.

Bo:
Yeah, that’s where I was going to go next is just, that’s the way of thinking about it.

Bleu:
So it takes basically, you squeeze probably 10, 12 apples.

Bo:
You’re totally pulling that number out.

Bleu:
Yeah, I am. To get a cup of apple juice and basically you refined that to pretty much just now sugar, but no fiber. That’s the unhealthy part.

Bo:
Yeah. Unopposed, in my mind, unopposed sugar intake. Unopposed being not equally matched with fiber to offset that absorption. So you eat, say you’re going to eat, totally making this number up, but X amount of sugar in a cup of orange juice. Well, you would’ve had to eat 12 oranges to get that same amount of sugar by actually eating the orange.
And then once you squeeze it and pulverized it, because then some people come like, “Well, I drink orange juice with pulp in it.” Well, it’s been broken down and denatured and warmed and so it’s really not functioning in that same capacity. But I think that’s a great example to say, all right, well there’s foods where there’s carbohydrates you get that are paired up nicely with the appropriate ratio of fiber that makes it much healthier for you.
And then there’s sugar that isn’t matched. I think the biggest one of those, and I think you probably know more about this than me, is fructose, high fructose corn syrup, which I think every mom 10 years ago was on a war path. You think about autism, you think about all these things kids are dealing with. And so they kind of launched this campaign against high fructose corn syrup, but what manufactured food does not have it in there?

Bleu:
Yeah. So kind of explain that. So when we talk about sugar, it’s made up of two molecules, fructose and glucose. And what Bo’s talking about is high fructose corn syrup. So basically it’s more fructose than just glucose. It’s like a 55% fructose, 45% glucose. And what we’re starting to see is fructose is really driving a lot of the disease process in us, and we’ll talk about this in a little while, but we’re going to talk about what’s called the fat switch. And they’ve kind of figured out that fructose drives a lot of the metabolic issues in our body. Not to say that the other-

Bo:
Don’t be given that segment away. Yeah.

Bleu:
I won’t give it away.

Bo:
But I think, I can’t remember what source I saw this in, but in nature, fructose is never found by itself.

Bleu:
It’s always with fiber.

Bo:
It’s always almost like 50/50. It’s cross link. You think about an apple, you think about berries. Now I think the real challenge here when it comes to fruit, since we’re on the subject of carbohydrates, is what is the fruit we’re eating now versus the fruit of 50 years ago? And what have manufacturers and producers done genetically to these fruits or engineering to these fruits that makes them different than they were 50 years ago?

Bleu:
They’re probably sweeter. More fructose. A lot of data’s shown that.

Bo:
Well, I think they would freely admit that, that they’ve manipulated bananas. So we have banana trees growing up and how big do you think the banana was?

Bleu:
Little bitty.

Bo:
It was about that big, right? And you go to the grocery store. I mean, I bought a banana at Sam’s the other day. I think it was like this long. I’m like, “Where does this happen naturally?” And it’s through cross-breeding and genetic modifications that they are breeding these fruits… Do through fruits breed?

Bleu:
Yeah.

Bo:
I mean you’re an ag guy, but they’re making these fruits to have higher fructose in them, higher sugar levels, but they’re not engineered to have the same amount of fiber. So you go bite into a natural apple. How does it taste? Bitter, sour, right?

Bleu:
Tart.

Bo:
Now you go in and have you guys bought apples lately?

Bleu:
Yeah. They’re sweet.

Bo:
But now they label them like, “All right, if you prefer an apple that’s more tart, this is your apple. If you prefer an apple that’s more sweet, this is your apple.” And they have all these like cosmo apple and all these crazy names to them now. And grapes. I mean, when was the last time you had a grape?

Bleu:
And they’re all sweet.

Bo:
Oh man-

Bleu:
They’re most all sweet.

Bo:
And they’re like that big and they’re just pure, they’re pure sugar.

Bleu:
And one thing I was thinking about when you’re talking about that. Even between fruits, I see it as a spectrum on the fructose and glucose content. So for example, always think of this, berries like strawberry, blueberries, raspberries, they tend to have less of the fructose sugar in them-

Bo:
And higher fiber.

Bleu:
… versus bananas, grapes, more your melons, pineapples one. And so if you’re trying to lose weight, I always tell my patients, try to stay more towards the berries side, then this side. Would you agree with that?

Bo:
Yeah. And that’s the advice I give to everybody. When it comes to fruit berries on the eat list. Do what you want. If you need something sweet, berries are fine. Bananas to me are a no-go. And melons get a bad wrap I do think.

Bleu:
They’re a lot of water.

Bo:
But so we’re not going to dive into this, but there’s a whole section on it.

Bleu:
Yeah.

Bo:
Glycemic index, glycemic load, insulin index. So the glycemic index of melons is really high. So if you give 50 grams of sugar from a watermelon to somebody, it will spike their insulin superfast.

Bleu:
But you got to eat the whole watermelon.

Bo:
Right, yeah.

Bleu:
Right.

Bo:
But who’s going to eat 50 grams of sugar from a watermelon? You had to eat the whole watermelon to get that. So they do get a little bit of a bad wrap. I think one thing we can universally say is fruit juices in any way form, fashion or shape are not good for you.

Bleu:
So this is my story. This last year. I used to do a protein shake for about, I did it probably seven to eight years.

Bo:
You told me about it.

Bleu:
And I used to put pomegranate juice in it. And I always, I thought pomegranate juice the healthiest thing in the world until I started wearing a glucose monitor and it shot it through the roof. And so any fruit juice, it’s a no go.

Bo:
Well, and do you actually need the pomegranate juice or just the seeds?

Bleu:
Now I’d rather eat the whole pomegranate.

Bo:
Yeah. Yeah, there you go.

Bleu:
Another thing to kind of think about carbohydrates. Bread.

Bo:
Bread.

Bleu:
So-

Bo:
Well, tell us about bread. What are your thoughts?

Bleu:
So here’s my thoughts is-

Bo:
I mean, when it comes to taste, I’m for it.

Bleu:
Yeah. Oh, bread’s awesome. Bread’s awesome. So here’s what the issue is. And this goes back to what we do to our fruits and vegetables and grains. So wheat grain by itself, now we can get into the genetic engineering over time and how that’s changed. But when we process all these grains, we strip the fiber out and we’re left with just the starch, which is what drives our glucose response, insulin response, and causes us to have weight gain.
So it’s all about how we refine our grains to get bread. That’s what causes the metabolic or unhealthy aspects.

Bo:
Yeah.

Bleu:
So what does that look like? Should it be unadulterated whole grain bread that’s real seedy?

Bo:
Yeah.

Bleu:
And I definitely know that’s better than your white bread, but-

Bo:
Yeah. I’d say even in my own life, and anybody I’m counseling on trying to lose weight, bread should be minimal. And then when you are going to eat bread, there’s two things I tell people. If you make it yourself, you can eat it. If you make your own bread, go for it. Just because I know a lot of people don’t make bread. And if you’re making it at home, you’re usually using better ingredients.
If it’s going to be a commercially bought bread, and I really don’t know the genetics, I don’t know the science behind this, but I do tend to push people towards those whole grains. Those, I trying to, I can’t even think right now, but as far as-

Bleu:
Killer Dave’s.

Bo:
The Killer Dave’s the… They’re probably a little bit more expensive, but I think this is what we can say, right? Wheat bread, white bread, it doesn’t matter. They’re both bad for you. Right?

Bleu:
Yeah.

Bo:
And it’s mainly because all of the beneficial ingredient… Here, I’ll tell you this. Anybody that has to put added niacin as a health benefit or they have to say, “We’ve added these things back into this bread to make it healthy.” That’s a red flag.

Bleu:
I saw this on the, it may be on the… Hold on, I’m blanking on it. But either their insulin response or glucose response of white bread versus actually the equivalent amount of sugar.

Bo:
Same?

Bleu:
It’s almost the same.

Bo:
There we go.

Bleu:
And so kind of look at it that way.

Bo:
I guess the big take home when it comes to bread, the more natural unadulterated ingredients, the better it’s going to be for you. So if you’re using whole grains and don’t eat the bread to get your whole grains, but if bread’s going to happen, that’s the way I’d go. But if you think about most bread that people eat, right? It’s going to come in the way of a hamburger bun, which I mean, nobody’s really going to give you a really healthy, I mean healthy, nobody’s going to give you a high quality piece of bread for a hamburger.

Bleu:
Yeah.

Bo:
Right? Sandwiches, white bread, wheat bread, cheap, not good for you. Restaurants, before your meal comes out.

Bleu:
Oh, that’s what they bring you.

Bo:
Yeah.

Bleu:
And I just think that if you’re trying to lose weight, bread’s got to go. I think that’s one that would really help you lose weight.

Bo:
Yeah. I think two other sections I want to talk about before we wrap this up. Number one, chips because I feel like that’s like the achilles heel of everybody.

Bleu:
Especially in the panhandle.

Bo:
Everybody.

Bleu:
We all love Mexican food.

Bo:
Yeah. And then number two is things that have manufactured carbohydrates in it that are packaged as healthy, like a protein bar or a granola bar or those types of things.

Bleu:
You want to make that section two?

Bo:
Section two?

Bleu:
For carbohydrates.

Bo:
Okay. Yeah.

Bleu:
Because we do. We need to talk about tortillas, like you said, chips.

Bo:
Okay.

Bleu:
Because that’s a rough one.

Bo:
Okay, we’ll be back in section two.