Eating carbohydrates spikes your blood sugar and therefore insulin response, which has several problems: one, it makes you hungry again very quickly, and makes your energy levels spike and dip more than if you avoid them. Enough simple carbohydrates cause diabetes.

It is also very easy to eat a large number of calories via carbohydrate. Essentially, carbs make you fat.

I can personally observe in myself that if I eat a chocolate bar in the morning, I will be more hungry in an hour or two than if I had eaten nothing at all.

This is very black and white and borderline incorrect. There's nothing inherently bad about carbohydrates. Eating anything will make you more fat; simple carbs are just easy to eat.

Unrefined carbs like in potatoes and (whole)wheat and oatmeal etc. are not bad; those foods provide many good nutrients and do not cause the negative carb effects you mentioned.

It's the same as fruits containing sugar (which is a carbohydrate actually I think) but not causing the same ill effects as eating the same amount of sugar from Sour Patch Kids (candy which is ~80% sugar by weight).

Potatoes have a pretty high glycemic index and glycemic load compared to whole wheat and oatmeal.

But without fat it's pretty hard to eat a lot of potatoes; they're just too bland.

That's the thing that everyone in this discussion seems to be missing: taste. There are good reasons to believe that better-tasting food may have physiological effects beyond just being pleasurable to eat [1]. This is not controversial when it comes to other substances but with food it's a much tougher battle.

[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/25/book-review-the-hungry...

A steak spikes your insulin harder than a plate of whole wheat pasta. Complex carbs, particular when eaten along with vegetables, are perfectly healthy.

The problems start when you refine all the fiber away and load them up with oil.

If you do not consume any fats, you can handle the blood sugar spike easily. With fat in your blood you become less insulin sensitive. Thus it is the combination of fat+carbs that it the diabetes causer.

> I can personally observe in myself that if I eat a chocolate bar in the morning, I will be more hungry in an hour or two than if I had eaten nothing at all.

Fasting is a powerful thing! So is refined sugar.

Maybe that's just a personal thing, I eat tons of carbs and I'm never hungry again shortly afterwards.

I only eat once a day M-F, fwiw.

Me, for one. I was burdened by about 80 pounds of excess weight before I realized that I had no safe level of consumption for carbohydrate-rich foods.

People who want to be healthy. I get fat if I even look a piece of bread or bowl of pasta. But I sure do miss the taste and would love a substitute.

Exactly, thats my problem especially after i stopped smoking.

No carbs works really well for me and makes me loose weight.

There are plenty of people who are on low/no carb diets. Keto being a notable example.

+1 beyond bread would be good addition to the beyond lineup

Whole wheat is still carb heavy.

But slower to digest thus less of a blood sugar spike.

Its carbs they make me gain weight really fast. Thats the problem i am having and why i would love a beyond bread/pasta solution.

Is it carbs or is it starches? We, as a species, are not used to eating starches as a main component in our diet. We as a species are used to eating much like bonobos, chimps and utangs: thus lots of carbs but from fruits instead of starches.

You sure bread and pasta make you gain weight because "carbs," not just because bread and pasta taste good?

Yes I am very sure about that. I have been doing this for 20 years now.

When I don't eat carbs I feel the best, has the most energy and loose weight.

It's pretty significant.

People who know that it is a myth that whole grains are healthy?

Any sources to back that up?

Start with unhealthy high-carb refined grains and add anti-nutrients like lectin and phytates, plus fiber that you would probably be better off getting from whole fruits and vegetables and you don't end up with something healthy.

Pretty much any of the myriad resources on paleo / low-carb / grain-free diets will cover most of the reasons and point to research backing up why whole grains are not healthy. Nutrition science is a weirdly controversial topic however so for every study that points in one direction you'll find someone passionately committed to a different theory who will dig up conflicting evidence.

Having read a lot on the subject over the years (and through personal experience) I'm persuaded by the evidence in favour of a low-carb, largely grain-free, high fat paleo style diet but I've largely given up trying to convince anyone who feels differently on the Internet as for whatever reason nutrition debates are as heated and futile as political ones.

“Lectins and phytates” are the black box doom and gloom ingredients of the paleo world. Let’s straighten up a couple misconceptions:

1. Lectins. Lectins are substances found in many raw foods, like tomatoes, lentils, beans, and whole grains. Some lectins are toxic (like those in kidney beans) and some are completely harmless (like those in tomatoes). Toxic lectins are completely destroyed by proper cooking. Some high lectin foods (like lentils and beans) are strongly correlated with longer lifespans, so diets suggesting they be avoided are probably worth scrutiny.

2. Phytates. Phytates can bind to vitamins and minerals and make them biologically unavailable in digestion. In practice, this is only problematic in already nutrient deficient diets. And like most dietary concerns, the picture is more complex. Phytates also have remarkable positive effects, such as decreased rates of cancer, kidney stones, diabetes, and heart disease.

The paleo diet (basically rebranded Atkins) runs contrary to every developed nation’s dietary guides. To believe it’s healthy is to believe in conspiratorial thinking as silly as flat earth or faked moon landings.

To believe the typical developed nation's dietary guidelines are the best advice on a healthy diet is to show a level of credulity and lack of critical thinking as silly as thinking paleo is rebranded Atkins.

I guess it goes to show the level of biodiversity but my blood work improved when I increased my carb intake above the 50% mark

From a carb point of view it is.

What is "healthy"? Whole grains provide me with carbs, carbs provide me with sugar, sugar is burnt for energy. Eat the amount you actually need and, unless you've got Celiac, you're gonna be fine.

Some of you people sound like you should just become Breatharians instead of burdening the rest of us with your tiresome dietary restrictions. For those of us that can eat real food without it ruining our lives, you're like so many annoying flies always pushing your strange food fads when the rest of us just want a reliable source of clean meat and bread.

If you don't think "healthy" can be quantified and you're satisfied with your demonstrated level of ignorance about nutrition then why are you engaging in a discussion about nutrition on the Internet? I don't give a crap what you eat. I do somewhat object to people spreading misinformation about nutrition but I also recognize that trying to stop it is a King Canute level exercise in futility.