Carbohydrate intolerance, also called carbohydrate sensitivity affects about 70% of the human population. Supplements to increase insulin sensitivity and a carb cycling diet are two of the ways you can counteract this problem.
Evolution and Carbohydrate Sensitivity
The ability to handle carbohydrates efficiently is related to human evolution. The earliest humans survived on a diet of animal protein, fat, and what fruits, berries, roots, ect. They could gather. There was no farming or consumption of carbohydrates as grains.
These genes got passed on to modern humans, some of which are still adapted to thrive on the primitive hunter gatherer diet, devoid of the starchy carbohydrates, which were not around hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Conditioning expert Charles Poliquin estimates that approximately 75% of the population is carbohydrate sensitive to some degree!
Carbohydrate intolerance causes you to react negatively to carbohydrates. Some of the symptoms of carbohydrate intolerance are:
Carb Blockers Pro and Con
So called “carb blockers” like dietrine or hydroxycitric acid, are supposed to be able to block conversion of carbohydrates to fat. This will prevent carbohydrates from converting to fat, but can't make up for bad nutrition like eating too many sweets.
Hydroxycitric acid is made from the garcinia cambogia fruit, while dietrine carb blockers are made from a substance called phase2 from white kidney bean extract. There is no evidence they are harmful, but common sense should tell you that they can't make up for a bad diet full of junky carbohydrates and sugary foods.
At best, these carb blockers could be useful to help people start to lose weight, but again, you have to change your diet to succeed long term. Your diet has to reflect your individual biochemistry, and if you have Carbohydrate intolerance you will have to avoid starch or grain based carbohydrates and rely on fibrous ones instead.
Improving Insulin Sensitivity
There are nutrients that can help increase your insulin sensitivity and make it easier to deal with carbs in your diet. Again as with carb blockers, they will not make up for an overindulgence of sugary or starchy foods.
These are supplements like:
Please note: If you are a diabetic or have problems with low blood sugar, DO NOT USE ANY SUPPLEMENTS FOR INCREASING INSULIN SENSITIVITY, unless you are being guided by a doctor or a nutritionist trained to work with diabetics. These supplements could result in a dangerous drop in blood sugar if not used carefully and under professional supervision!
Carb Cycling Diet
Carb cycling, also called macro-nutrient cycling, consists of periods of low carbohydrate eating, followed by short periods of high carbohydrate eating. These are called carb depletion and carb loading.
A carb cycling diet is usually used by athletes and bodybuilders and probably isn't appropriate for the average person. It takes discipline and organization of your meals, but if you can manage to do this, it might just work for you.
A less formal version of this is where you avoid sugary or starchy carbs during the week and allow yourself a little bit of indulgence on the weekends (called a cheat day) by eating more carbohydrates including some sweets with your meals.
Good Carbs vs Not So Good Carbs
For the sake of comparison, good carbs are foods like:
Poor carb choices are for example:
Identifying carbohydrate intolerance can help you optimize your diet, making weight loss easier and improving your health a great deal. A good nutritionist or antiaging doctor can help you determine your nutritional type, identify carbohydrate sensitivity and put together a dietary guide to help you make the right food choices.
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