ELi5: if “Carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram, protein provides 4 calories per gram, and fat provides 9 calories per gram”, why are carbs evil?

Question

why are Carbs considered ‘fattening’ when they have the same caloric count as proteins ?

In: Other

Answer 1

Carbs cause insulin to be secreted in our body to deal with it. Insulin levels takes couple of hours to down once risen. With our lifestyle of having 3 main meals plus snacking in between, the insulin levels don’t get a chance to down. If this happens very frequently, our cells get used to the levels of insulin and become resistant. It now takes more insulin to deal with same about of carbs. Eventually it reaches a stage where the max insulin that our body can secrete is not enough to deal with carbs. Which means more glucose is now present in blood than normal. Bam, you’ve got type II diabetes.

Also type of carbs play a big role. Complex carbs digest slowly because of presence of fiber. It also causes less glucose to be absorbed. Simple carbs like sugar or refined flour cause a immediate massive spike in blood glucose levels.