In our society, we are surrounded by diet culture and voices telling us what to do and what not to do when it comes to food. Many of these ideas are myths that are damaging to our mentality around food. After talking to doctors and taking a human biology class, I’ve learned a lot about what are myths about food and what is true. As a society, we’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with dieting, from Paleo to Whole 30 to overexercising and, at the extreme level, high rates of eating disorders.
Today, I want to address two pervasive myths that plague our society and permeate our approach to food: carbohydrates are bad and you need to exercise to “deserve” food.
We are often told that carbs are the worst macronutrient (there are a lot of myths about fat as well, but this is the primary one I want to address) and that you should eat more protein and fewer carbs. I was eating on a meal plan at one point, and when I showed it to someone, their response was confusion over the proportion of carbs/starches to other macronutrients because they, like many people, were under the impression that we should avoid starches as much as possible. I've even heard people say not to eat certain types of fruit because they have too many carbs. Fruit! I have fallen prey to this before and believed that carbs will make me gain weight. This is not true.
For women, the USDA recommends that their diet be 10% protein, 30% dietary fat and 60% carbohydrates. That’s right, 60%. The reason for this is that carbs are the body’s main source of energy. Fat makes you feel full and satiates your appetite and protein helps build muscle, but they are not primary, direct energy sources. For the most part, energy comes from breaking down and converting glucose- the building block of carbs -- into ATP. We vilify carbs but they are a vital part of our diet and we need a large amount of them to fuel our body throughout the day.
Now, to tie back to the brain. One of the most important roles of carbs is fueling our brain. Our brain needs an immense amount of energy and uses a large proportion of the energy we take in. And all of the brain’s energy comes from breaking down glucose, or carbs. The brain is very active and is constantly working, regulating mood, bodily systems and thought processes, using up about 60% of our daily glucose intake. If you are sitting in the library studying, you are using a lot of brain power to fuel your thought processes, and therefore using a lot of carbs, even if you aren’t moving your body around a lot. Your brain also needs food to regulate your mood and mental state. For example, people with restrictive eating disorders are often depressed because their brain doesn’t have energy from food to maintain their mood.
This all ties back to the idea that even if you are completely sedentary, you still need food. Your body has a resting energy expenditure of energy that it needs to fully function without any activity. You do not need to exercise to deserve food. We’ve all seen those infographics that say “if you eat x food, you need to exercise for y amount of time to burn it off”. This is a very flawed and damaging way of thinking because your body is constantly using calories, or energy, regardless of your activity level. You deserve food no matter what you’ve done that day because your body and your brain need that food to function at an optimal level, even at rest. So next time you start telling yourself that you can eat ice cream if you spend 30 minutes on the treadmill or that you can’t have bread because carbs are bad for you, take a moment to check the facts and remember that your brain and your body need and deserve all types of food.
