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Carbs make you fat. Carbs are essential. Keto is the answer. No, plants are the answer. Dr. Barrett cuts through the noise and breaks down carbohydrates... the good (energy, gut health, brain function, micronutrients), the bad (modern processed carbs and insulin resistance), and a practical green/yellow/red-light hierarchy for choosing sources. He closes with specific carb targets based on activity level, from sedentary adults to competitive athletes, built around one simple rule: earn your carbs.
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Watch the episode on YouTube here!
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
. . .
Watch the episode on YouTube here!
- (00:00) - Intro
- (01:27) - Nutrition Philosophy
- (02:08) - Energy, Performance & Gut Health
- (10:13) - Brain Serotonin & Micronutrients
- (14:10) - The Problems with Modern Carbohydrates
- (17:38) - Sedentary Life & Processed Food
- (20:21) - Green, Yellow & Red Light Foods
- (22:13) - How Many Carbs Do You Need?
- (24:32) - Closing Thoughts
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
Creators and Guests
What is The Real Health Podcast?
You've tried everything: extreme diets, expensive specialists, and medicine with side effects. Yet you're still stuck. This show is for you. The Real Health Podcast is hosted by Dr. Barrett Deubert, a practicing chiropractor and functional medicine provider who treats patients dealing with exactly what you're dealing with: weight that won't move, energy that never comes back, chronic symptoms doctors can't explain. Each week, he digs into the actual root cause behind things like weight loss resistance, hormone imbalance, autoimmune flare-ups, and metabolic dysfunction. No fad diets, no miracle supplements, no blaming you for not trying hard enough. Just real, evidence-based answers for why your body hasn't been working the way it should, and what actually helps.
On the latest episode of the Real Health Podcast, we are talking about carbohydrates, the good, the bad, the ugly. Should you consume them? How much should you eat? What are the best forms of carbs? And does an athlete need more carbs than someone who's sitting on a couch?
Dr. Barrett:Do we need to be paleo, keto, carnivore, or vegan? We dive deep into everything about carbohydrates. Welcome back to the latest episode of the Real Health Podcast. You know, in in podcasts in the past, we've talked a lot about protein, and protein is the building block. Today, we're going into energy.
Dr. Barrett:We're going into carbohydrates. You know, I think there's just so much misinformation when it comes to carbs. There's fear, right? Like carbs are gonna make me fat. I think we hear that a lot.
Dr. Barrett:And is that true? Is that a true statement? It's a great question. We also look at carbs and sometimes we say, Well, is 20 grams of carbs in this item the same as 20 grams of carbs in another item? Does it really matter where I'm getting my carbs from?
Dr. Barrett:Those are great questions. And so on today's episode of The Real Health Podcast, we just talk about carbohydrates. Who needs them? Who doesn't? How much is too much and how much is too little?
Dr. Barrett:We talk about the benefit of carbohydrates from a brain and gut standpoint as I give you a few reasons why we need to be consuming carbohydrates, and then I give you some potential dangers when it comes to carbs, as well as I give you the green at the end, yellow, and reds when it comes to carbohydrates and which ones are ideal for everyday life. Right. Today, we're talking longevity based research. We're not talking about athletic performance, but we will spend a little bit of time talking about that mom, dad who's hammered in the garage every day and where carbohydrates fit into that menu. All right, let's get into it.
Dr. Barrett:You know, one of the main things I hear a lot about is does, you know carbs make you fat cut them out? And you know someone else says your body needs carbohydrates, you need 300 grams of carbs a day to properly fuel and recover. And I think both sides oversimplify the conversation. And they, in a way, they... There's such a gap between paradigms nowadays.
Dr. Barrett:I mean, one camp will say, Hey, keto is the way to go. Another camp will say, You need to be on plants only. This is what we would call a vegetarian diet or vegan diet. Well, then we've got the person in the middle. And the person in the middle is me.
Dr. Barrett:I subscribe, if you were to boil my nutrition down, to a diet. I subscribe to the paleo diet. I think it gives you the mindset of whole food consumption with prioritization of proteins, healthy fats, and healthy carbs. I do think we should consume meat, and I do think we should consume plants. I think we should be consuming meat and plants virtually with every meal.
Dr. Barrett:I am not fearful of carbohydrates and I'm not fearful of red meat. And I think when consumed properly, we can have a beautiful, diverse diet that benefits the entire human, especially those little microscopic bacteria in the gut that need variety, right? So the question is, should I eat carbs? I'm gonna give you the good. Four things carbohydrates do for the brain and body.
Dr. Barrett:When we look at a carbohydrate, we have to understand that carbs support energy. When you look at inside of a cell, there's a power plant. That power plant's called the mitochondria, and it makes ATP, an energy molecule. In order for that molecule to be made, it needs either really fats or carbohydrates. Now, amino acids can do it to some degree, but really the fuel source is fats and carbs.
Dr. Barrett:The building blocks are proteins and amino acids. So when it comes to carbs, carbs support energy. They support performance. And your muscles and liver in particular are the biggest storage organs of an energy molecule we call glycogen. Glycogen is like the energy molecule that when you're sprinting, when you're lifting, when you're doing CrossFit or playing soccer, It is the energy fuel to allow that activity to continue instead of feeling depleted, instead of, you know, being five to ten minutes in and feeling exhausted, or feeling sore for multiple days.
Dr. Barrett:If you've ever fasted before and gone on, you know, or even keto and gone carb restriction and you do high volume work, I mean, could be sore for days because you don't have that repletion of glycogen. And so when we look at sports nutrition literature, it supports carbohydrate intake for maintaining and replenishing lost glycogen stores. Now, I always say in our house, you gotta earn your carbs, right? What does that mean? Hey, if you're not training, if you're not working out, if you're not burst training, if you're not sprinting, if you're not playing soccer or basketball or getting your heart rate up, your carbohydrate need is probably significantly less than what most people who are working out three to five to seven days a week than what they need.
Dr. Barrett:And the issue really is where when we look at fat, fat is an incredible fuel, But when you ask your body to produce horsepower, right? Like when you're looking at driving across the country at 60 miles an hour, fat is great. When you're looking at going zero to 60 in two seconds, you need carbs. Carbs are essential for that burst, that quick heart rate elevation, 160 beats a minute, 180 beats a minute. I mean, you're just, you're burning through that glycogen, right?
Dr. Barrett:So the context of how we eat and what fuel source we use is really dependent upon the person and what their lifestyle looks like. There are people that run ultramarathons, hundreds of miles of distance with no carbohydrates. Why? Because their heart rate stays at a certain level. That's incredible to me.
Dr. Barrett:And yet we have other athletes that are playing sports like soccer and football and basketball and they're sprinting and recovering. Their need for carbohydrates are significantly different. So what does this idea of the good of carbohydrates mean? It means carbs are necessary for performance. Carbs are necessary for output, and carbs are necessary for energy.
Dr. Barrett:That's the good. Another thing that carbs do is they feed your gut microbiome. Inside your gut, there's billions, trillions of bacteria, and in order for those to be healthy, complex carbohydrates and fibers aren't primarily feeding you as a human. They're feeding these little bacteria, right? So what happens is when your gut bacteria, they ferment fibers, certain fibers, we call them resistant starches, and it produces these incredible molecules called short chain fatty acids.
Dr. Barrett:And short chain fatty acids are now being linked to longevity research. They help you live longer. It's like this really powerful antioxidant, this metabolic byproduct that is essential to life. And short chain fatty acids is one of the greatest benefits you get from consuming carbohydrates by feeding your gut bacteria, those gut bacteria fermenting that carb, and then that carb turning into short chain fatty acids. When we look at carbs and how they feed your gut, I mean, a lot of it built off of fiber and every plant feeds a different type of bacteria.
Dr. Barrett:Honestly, if kind of keep it simple here, you look at food and food should be diverse in color because every food item, let's just say it's a purple beet, a red beet, or a purple beet, or a purple carrot, or orange carrot, or yellow carrot, or yellow pepper, or green spinach, Every color of the rainbow, in a sense. When you eat color, you eat diversity. You feed diverse bacteria. One of the just rules of thumb here in gut health is you need a lot of bacteria and you need a lot of diverse bacteria. Quantity and diversity.
Dr. Barrett:When you have quantity diversity, you have a healthy gut. You have a healthy immune system. You have a healthy brain. But when you are super picky, you only eat one food, two foods a day, eat the same plant, you only eat an apple, you're only feeding one group of bacteria. And sooner or later, you are monocolonizing these bacteria.
Dr. Barrett:You're creating a dominant strand, and that is unhealthy in every situation. We want diversity. So when we look at, the benefit of carbohydrates, not only is it an energy source, fuel source, it's gonna feed your intestinal bacteria. And how do you feed your intestinal bacteria? Well, a lot of diversity of color.
Dr. Barrett:And when you eat a lot of diversity of color of plants, you're feeding a lot of different organisms. And when you have a lot of diverse organisms, you have a healthy immune system, you have a healthy brain, you have a healthy gut. Number three is carbs directly help the brain. By what? By helping serotonin get to the brain.
Dr. Barrett:Well, what is incredible, kind of physiology in the body is that carbs allow tryptophan to pretty much get carried to the brain that then turns into serotonin. When you think about serotonin as beneficial hormone to the brain, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, something that's gonna help you feel good, good mood hormone, Carbs help that system get replenished. Whenever you consume carbohydrates, especially at night, actually helps you sleep deeper, more restorative sleep, because it helps that tryptophan or serotonin system, get supported. So one of the cool things is outside of the gut is carbs directly affect the brain, specifically through a mechanism of serotonin. So carbs are a fantastic end of day fuel source before bed so that you get healthy blood sugar stabilization at night and you get proper serotonin production.
Dr. Barrett:And carb intake can influence tryptophan or serotonin levels directly. And it's not an answer. It's not an answer to say, hey, well, I'm depressed. I should eat sugar, right? That's not going to be the solution here, right?
Dr. Barrett:Serotonin obviously is used as a lot of in the antidepressants. So you don't eat sugar when you're depressed, but eating clean carbohydrates do help the brain synthesize more serotonin. Number four is whole food carbs deliver fiber, phytonutrients, but more specifically micronutrients. Carbohydrates from clean sources like blueberries, for instance, is going to give you a specific antioxidant. Carbs coming from specific plants, like spinach is going to give you certain nutrients, micronutrients that's essential for physiology, for health.
Dr. Barrett:So, when you look at, Hey, are all carbs are the same? It's just not the case. There's a vast difference between a candy bar of sugar, carbs, and a plate full of vegetables and fruits. You're getting so many more micronutrients and phytonutrients in whole foods compared to processed carbohydrates and candies and sugar. Not all carbs are created equal.
Dr. Barrett:There are empty carbs, empty cal... Like just empty calories full of sugar that is gonna spike your blood sugar, create inflammation, give you no nutrients, and there are complex carbohydrates full of nutrients, full of phytonutrients that's gonna help your body function better. Not all carbs are the same. There is a big difference between sugar and plants. So we don't want to confuse the fact if you have...
Dr. Barrett:If you need 200 grams of carbohydrates a day, you're like, well, I can get those carbs from anywhere and any source. Hey, if you're trying to live longer, healthier, you don't want to just confuse stick within my macros and it doesn't matter. Fiber, polyphenols, vitamins, minerals, prebiotic compounds, short chain fatty acids, bioactive compounds are all found in plants. When we look at carbohydrates, we want to look at it from a plant standpoint giving us the micronutrients we need. That's really where you get your micronutrients.
Dr. Barrett:That's actually sometimes where you get your beneficial bacteria. It's not sprayed and full of pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals. You're going to actually get some friendly bacteria from growing that whatever it is outside your backyard. So, eat some plants. Whether it's fruits, whether it's vegetables, plants is what's going to give you those micronutrients.
Dr. Barrett:Let's talk about... There's four good things. Let's talk about three problems with modern carbohydrates. And one is that we removed the food and kept the carbohydrate. We removed the nutrients, the whole foods, and now it's just carbs, right?
Dr. Barrett:And you look at the nutrition label and it just says 26 of carbohydrates. You're like, well, that fits what I need. It's perfect for post workout. But there is a vast difference between fruit, plants, and granola bars, crackers, chips, sugar drinks, Gatorade, Powerade, post workout like vitamin waters or whatever. Massive difference, guys.
Dr. Barrett:And there's a big issue in our culture today with insulin resistance, and it's driven through processed foods. Inflammation and easily absorbing carbohydrates are at the forefront of an epidemic of chronic disease, specifically type two diabetes. A lot of people in their 30s and 40s are insulin resistant. A lot of people in their 40s and 50s become diabetic. A lot of people are walking around with belly fat.
Dr. Barrett:What's the issue? Insulin resistance. What's the solution? Get off the powders. Get off the granola bars, get off the chips and the crackers, and eat whole foods.
Dr. Barrett:You hard know it is? Really, you know how hard it is to eat a thousand calories of blueberries or a thousand calories of broccoli? It's like, it's impossible. You know how easy it is to eat a thousand calories of pizza? It's pretty easy.
Dr. Barrett:Processed foods are a problem because what we see is modern carbs make overconsumption really easy. So it's just so much easier to get a thousand calories of empty, empty carbs from bars and snacks that are processed and non satiating, so we eat more, versus sit down, eat 50 grams of white chicken, eat another 100 grams of plant based carbohydrates, you're going to be stuffed for a long time. And so one of the biggest issues with carbohydrates is that modern carbs make overconsumption of it really easy, and now we're getting into a carb overload for sure. This is a crisis problem for sure. So when people say, yeah, carbs are bad, really it's in this category, it's in this space that carbs are bad because these carbohydrates are easily overconsumed.
Dr. Barrett:You can drink probably 16 ounces of lemonade and just get 60 to 70 grams of sugar right there and not feel full from it at all. Yet spike your insulin, create resistance, destroy your brain. It's just not an ideal source of carbohydrates. So the modernization of carbs are a big, big problem. Number three, the modern society, it's created a carb, it's like a mismatch.
Dr. Barrett:You look at high concentrated energy and modern life gives us unlimited availability, minimal movement, poor sleep, and chronic stress. This person doesn't need carbohydrates. If you're sedentary, okay, so the problem is the person that's sedentary, sit at the desk, doesn't get 10,000 steps a day, doesn't train, stressed out, sits on a device all day. The issue is that this sedentary lifestyle combined with processed foods is creating chronic disease. Earn your carbs.
Dr. Barrett:Great. The mismatch is you're not earning your carbs. My suggestion would be look at your day of productivity. Did you train today? Did you move more than eight to 10,000 steps?
Dr. Barrett:Well, then you earned your carbs. Enjoy them. But if you didn't, you don't need that extra granola bar, that muffin, that cookie, that cracker. You don't need that sweet potato even. You're like, well, I thought sweet potatoes were great.
Dr. Barrett:Yeah, but you didn't earn your carbs. Your glycogen system is already repleted. You already have enough glycogen in your muscle and liver. You've already stored enough. You haven't used any from today.
Dr. Barrett:So why do you need more? You don't. If you don't use it, you store more. If you don't use it, you store more glycogen. Now what happens when you store more glycogen?
Dr. Barrett:It doesn't store his glycogen anymore. What does it store as? It stores his fat. The belly fat patient, okay? The modern belly fat person walking around where the stomach sticks out or you're storing, you start to see fat around your midsection, fundamentally is your glycogen storage is too high and you're not burning it.
Dr. Barrett:You need to burn those carbs. You need to get it off the body. And so, I would suggest to you that if you didn't use your carbs for the day, don't eat any carbohydrates. Will a handful of blueberries spill you over? No, that's not going spill you over.
Dr. Barrett:But we don't need to be slamming 50 grams carbohydrates with every meal. That's a problem. And that's what's getting us into a crisis. So, and some people are carbs bad? Absolutely.
Dr. Barrett:And some people are carbs good? Absolutely. I think there's a fundamental premise here that not all carbs are created equal. You want to get all your carbs from plant based sources. But how many carbs do you need?
Dr. Barrett:Right? So should everyone eat carbs and how many carbs? Here's some rules of thumb. Okay? And this is my hierarchy.
Dr. Barrett:So this is what I wrote out for you. Green light, yellow light, red light. Green light means these are ideal carbohydrates. Go to these first. Yellow light is alright we can play with these if energy systems need to be repleted, if you've used your carbs, let's go for it.
Dr. Barrett:And then red is like let's away from these which most of you know what those are. But green light vegetables, berries, whole fruit, squash, this is a season. We had acorn squash, that's fantastic. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, beets, plantains, all good. Yellow light.
Dr. Barrett:Good carbs, but less nutrient dense. Less phytonutrients, micronutrients. Rice. I rice. It's great.
Dr. Barrett:It's a great source of carbs. If you need carbs, go for some rice. Oats, good source of carbohydrates. Not a lot of nutrients in them, right? Minimally processed like your sourdough bread for instance, right?
Dr. Barrett:Not gonna give you a ton of nutrients, but hey, it's gonna give you a good source of carbohydrates. Did you earn your carbs today? Those are three carbs that I would regularly consume that adds carbs to my plate, but I earned them. And then red light. I mean, soda, candy, pastries, bars, granola bars, sweetened cereals, right, refined snacks, and those are just very rare should you be consuming those.
Dr. Barrett:Can you have, some flourless chocolate cake, for a birthday? Absolutely. Right? Once a month for a celebration, go for it. But if consumed once a week or more, those are just carbs that are just adding into the body of already a stored system and then just being stored as fat.
Dr. Barrett:I've got some general carb rules for you in the sense of quantity. So that's quality. What about quantity? All right. So if you're sedentary, insulin resistant, got some belly fat, you know you're inflamed, you know whether your 40 year old dad's got too big of a belly, I'm gonna tell you, you only need about 50 to 100 grams of carbs a day.
Dr. Barrett:Low carb. What if you're sedentary? You sit at a desk but you're pretty lean, pretty fit in a sense. You're not overweight, but you're just sedentary. You're not even getting more than three or 4,000 steps a day.
Dr. Barrett:A 100 to 150 grams carbs a day, probably the max I would suggest. What if you're a moderately active adult? So you're in your 30s and 40s and you move your body intentionally. You're at least 8,000 steps a day and maybe train once, twice a week. All right, now we're closer to that 125, 200 grams, depending upon your body weight, your size, male, female.
Dr. Barrett:It's a general rule of thumb. What if you're strength training three to five days a week, right? You're earning your carbs, okay? All right, now we're pushing absolutely 200 grams of carbs a day. Two fifty grams of carbs a day is perfectly fine.
Dr. Barrett:And then what your daughter, your son is an athlete, right? They're training five days a week, six days a week. They've got two, three soccer, baseball, football games. They're... Okay, 300 grams of carbs a day.
Dr. Barrett:400 grams of carbs a day is perfectly fine in these cases, right? Now, we've got to make sure we're getting these equality sources. But see, that's the difference. Not all carbs, are created equal. Not everyone needs the same amount of carbs.
Dr. Barrett:There's no one size fits all diet here. And we've to be mindful of how we're refueling. And the fundamental question you ask yourself at the end of the day: did I earn my carbs? And if you did, enjoy some good, plant based, clean sources of carbohydrates, some greens daily, maybe yellows a couple times a week, hey, we're checking the longevity box. And if we didn't, well, let's work tomorrow.
Dr. Barrett:Let's get eight to 10,000 steps a day. Let's get this... Get into the gym. Let's burn those carbs off so you can enjoy the refueling later on. I hope this added a lot of value to you.
Dr. Barrett:This podcast streams on all platforms including YouTube. So if you wanna see the video version of it, jump on to our YouTube channel, and we'll catch you next time.