Usually, carbohydrates found in our diets are considered to be healthy and current dietary recommendations suggest that people should be eating a lot of carbohydrates, especially grains. However, are carbohydrates really benign or healthy, or do they perhaps harm our health and promote aging? As you will be able to read below, dietary carbohydrates actually promote aging. Let’s take a look.
Whole grains – there are no evidence of significant benefits
Dietary guidelines specifically suggest eating whole grains, and we have all been told countless times that eating them is also healthy. However, there is little, almost no evidence that whole grains have health benefits for our bodies. The evidence that exists is mostly epidemiological, meaning that the evidence is made from a connection between better health and the use of grains in our diets. People who consume whole grains are likely to exercise more, smokeless, and have a more health-conscious, have a higher IQ, and lower chances of obesity – basically, they are more motivated to be healthy. This is actually the healthy effect that it has on users.
There is no evidence from RCTs that provide an effect of a whole grain diet on cardiovascular outcomes or the CVD risk factors, such as blood pressure or blood lipids. Various studies were at an unclear or high risk of bias will short-term interventions and small sample sizes, and the overall level of the evidence was quite low. There is a need for a high-quality, properly powered randomized controlled trial with a longer duration time, which will assess cardiovascular events and cardiovascular risk factors.
If the grains do not have an effect on the cardiovascular risks, it is likely that the health benefits are minimal or almost non-existent. In any situation, there is a lack of evidence that whole grains have various benefits on our bodies, they increase insulin response, as well as raise blood sugar, and cutting them out of our daily diets might make more sense.
Dietary Carbohydrates do, in fact, promote aging
According to the experts from aaamed.org, most carbohydrates are made up from long chains of glucose molecules, which means that when we break them down by digestions, glucose results, as well as a raised blood sugar and insulin level, and this whole process is related to greater mortality rates and aging. Taking the evidence, from both model organisms and human epidemiology into consideration, it is believed that current dietary recommendations regarding macronutrients, regarding sugar and carbs, should be completely reconsidered. Lowering the glucose in our bodies, by restricting carbohydrate or by using medicine like metformin and acarbose can, in fact, increase the lifespan, as well as hinder the aging process.
Conclusion
Aging can be defined as a tendency to worsening health. Carbohydrate, consumed in normal amounts, worsen our health. Hence, carbs promote the aging process. While trying out a keto diet is beneficial, any carbohydrate restriction is good, hence, you do not need to implement a diet that has zero carbs in order to gain the benefits, however by implementing an ultra-low-carb diet can offer more advantages. Also, keep in mind that sugar is the worst carbohydrate that you can consume, so you should cut that out first.
The author of this study is Dr.Saad AlSogair, a Saudi dermatologist based in Khobar, Saudi Arabia
