Are you a Carb Addict? How To Beat Your Carb Addiction to High Carb Foods

Carb addicts have trouble understanding how their high carb foods and comfort foods – the breads, pastas, cookies, and cakes - are contributing to their weight problem. It makes sense to people to decrease the fat in their diets in order to lose fat (which, surprisingly, does not usually help), but the connection with grains and sugars is not as easy to understand.

High carb foods like grains and sugars like breads, cereals, potatoes, desserts, sweeteners, and pasta convert easily to fat, especially when you eat too much of them. Also, you’re more likely to eat too much starch because it tastes good, is not very filling, doesn’t trigger your satiety hormones (the hormones that tell you when you’re full), and has a pleasant texture in the mouth.

High carb foods tend to be foods that "trigger" overeating for many individuals because they taste good, are comforting, and they increase neurotransmitters in the brain that make you feel happy.

On the other hand, most people eat grains in the form of white flour, white rice, and pasta. These high-carb foods are processed and refined, which removes much of its natural fiber and vitamins. Fiber is extremely important in weight loss because it is filling and helps the digestive system to function properly.

White breads and pastas also have a high glycemic index, which means it converts to sugar (and then to fat) much faster.The result is a faster increase in blood sugar and insulin release. This release causes your blood sugar to quickly drop down, so you require another ’hit’ of carbohydrates to maintain your energy. Long-term insulin increase leads to greater fat storage and leaves you vulnerable to many chronic diseases.

Many people have a carbohydrate addiction which can lead to obvious problems like weight gain, but also to insulin resistance, diabetes, and heart disease.

Are you a carb addict? Ask yourself if any of the following statements apply to you:

1. I get tired and/or hungry in the afternoon.

2. I feel lethargic after a meal.

3. I have a hard time stopping once I eat my favorite high carb foods (starches, sweets, snacks).

4. When I feel stressed, my first response is to eat something.

5. I can’t live without my favorite carb foods.

6. I have a tendency to binge.

7. I frequently crave high-carb foods (sweets, pasta, bread, etc.)

8. I am a compulsive eater. I wish I could control my eating.

9. I am overweight even though I don’t really eat that much.

If you answered yes to any of these questions you are a likely candidate for carbohydrate addiction and unlocking your addiction will be part of the key to unlocking your weight loss.

Carb addicts need to minimize their grain and sugar intake in order to break their addiction. If you are a carb addict you should focus on getting your carbs from vegetables and eating a protein and fat based diet.

If you eat grains, it's best to eat whole grains that you cook (no more than 1 cup per day) such as brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, teff, amaranth, barely, oat groats, and kasha. These whole grains require a lot of chewing and the digestive enzymes have to work hard to get through the different layers of the grain to break it down.

Unlike flour based products (baked goods and pasta) which cause a rapid increase in blood sugar levels, whole grains are slowly converted into glucose and cause a more moderate increase in blood sugars.

This is beneficial for you because keeping blood sugars in the normal range is one of the keys to weight loss.

It is important to learn how to use healthy low-carb substitutions for high carb foods such as:

-Low-glycemic coconut flour instead of grain flour
-Shredded zucchini or kelp noodles instead of pasta
-Nori wraps instead of bread
 

If you are a carb addict (most people are) it helps to have support. Please sign up for our newsletter at the top of the page so we can send you helpful articles and classes that can help you become free of your carbohydrate addiction for good!