Words of Wellness with Shelly

Shelly's Shares: Back to Basics: Why Carbohydrates Shouldn't Be the Enemy

• Shelly Jefferis • Season 2 • Episode 99

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Feeling confused by nutrition advice? You're not alone. In a world of conflicting information, sometimes we need to return to fundamental principles.

This episode dives deep into carbohydrates and fats – two essential macronutrients crucial for health that are often misunderstood. Shelly explains the difference between simple carbohydrates (quick energy sources like fruit juice) and complex carbohydrates (sustained energy from foods like whole grains). We explore why the recommended 40-65% of daily calories from carbohydrates makes sense physiologically, and why extreme low-carb approaches might not deliver sustainable results.

Most importantly, Shelly emphasizes that many carbohydrate sources like fruits and vegetables provide essential fiber – something most Americans lack in their diets. When it comes to fats, she breaks down the differences between saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats, and why about 20-30% of your daily calories should come from healthy fat sources like avocados, nuts, and olive oil.

The conversation highlights how macronutrients serve essential functions: carbohydrates provide energy and fiber, fats insulate and protect organs while carrying fat-soluble vitamins, and protein (covered in a previous episode) builds and repairs tissues. Rather than following extreme diet trends, I advocate for balanced nutrition based on individual needs.

Remember, the ultimate goal isn't adhering to strict ratios but feeling good with abundant energy and vitality. Your wellness journey should be guided by how your body functions when properly nourished, not by temporary diet fads or restrictive eating patterns.

Want to learn more about nutrition fundamentals? Subscribe to Words of Wellness, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who might benefit from cutting through nutrition noise and returning to evidence-based basics.

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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless!
And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!

In Health,
Shelly Jefferis

Speaker 1:

The main thing is to be in a healthy range and then, ultimately, with all of this, the main thing is that we are feeling good, we have energy, we have vitality, our bodies are operating in a healthy manner. That is ultimately what we want to strive for. Do you get confused by all of the information that barges us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or should not be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more to share tips, education and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will we all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives, full of energy, happiness and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today.

Speaker 1:

Hi, my friends, welcome back to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly and I will be your host, and I want to jump right into today's episode. On Mondays, I share with you Shelly's shares and I, on Mondays, I share with you Shelly's shares and I share something that maybe is a personal experience for me, or I give you some information that can help you. That is more on the educational side of wellness, whether it be in regards to nutrition, fitness or just wellness in general, and today I am piggybacking on what I shared with you last week. I talked about the six basic essential nutrients, and what does that mean? It means that those are nutrients that we need to consume daily because they are essential. We must get them from our food intake, and I realized that we don't always go back to the basics, and when I would lecture at the college with my students and we would discuss nutrition, I always would start with the basics and I thought you know what. I want to do that here for all of you, because there's so much noise in the world nowadays about every single topic right, and so I thought it would be helpful if I just kind of brought it back to the basics. And the last episode of Shelly's Shares I spoke about protein. Today I want to dive in and just briefly talk about carbohydrates. So just to do an overview, there are six basic essential nutrients that we want to consume daily through food and supplementation. Those six nutrients are protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and water.

Speaker 1:

And, like I mentioned, I want to just briefly touch upon carbohydrates today, and many of you probably already know that the important role that carbohydrates play. They provide our bodies with energy. Now there are two simple forms of carbohydrates and we break carbohydrates down into different classifications depending on the number of sugars that make up that carbohydrate. But for our terms, I just want to talk about simple carbohydrates and complex, and when we talk about simple, we're referring to those carbohydrates that provide us with quick energy. They get into our bloodstream, energy is released pretty immediately. So an example would be a glass of fruit juice. That is a simple carbohydrate. It has sugar, it's digested pretty quickly, it's absorbed quickly, it gives us quick energy. So anything that is going to be sweet, a little bit sweeter in nature whether it's fruit, fruit juice and also candy those are simple carbohydrates.

Speaker 1:

Now for complex carbohydrates. Those are the foods that still provide us with energy, but it takes a little bit longer for those foods to be broken down into energy in our bodies. So we're talking more about foods that are like starchy foods, breads, maybe pastas, those foods that take a little bit longer to break down, but they still provide energy. So it really is important to consume a variety of foods. I'll just put that out there. We know that already, and especially when it comes to carbohydrates, you want to consume a variety of carbohydrates and we need both. Right, we need the simple, the quick energy, and then we need the complex. That's more of that stored energy that we rely on later, and it takes a little bit longer for our bodies to utilize those carbohydrates, to digest those carbohydrates, and they're still important to consume.

Speaker 1:

Now there's also something that many of you have probably heard of, called the glycemic index, and that is a rating that we give certain foods and basically what it's doing is it just rates foods that depending on how quickly they're digested and how quickly they raise our blood glucose levels. Now, this can be important for those who have diabetes and and it can also be beneficial for athletes, and it can also just be beneficial for all of us in general to be aware of what those foods are and you can look up the index and see where a would be. Like some of the breads or dairy products, those have a higher glycemic index level, whereas something like a I don't know like a vegetable, like maybe like a tomato or something like that, might have a little bit of a lower glycemic index. And, like I said, it's really, I believe, more helpful to know about this glycemic index when it comes to those who have diabetes. So you really want to pay attention to that more intently, of course, because you're monitoring your blood glucose levels more intently throughout each given day.

Speaker 1:

Now, when it comes to the requirements, when it comes to how many grams of carbohydrates should I consume, this is kind of a tricky one, because there are individuals who are on keto, there are individuals who are on keto. They follow the keto diet, where they consume very, very low amounts of carbohydrates, and some people don't consume any at all. I'm not a really big proponent of this because a couple reasons. One, the main reason is that we do get energy from our carbohydrates. But two, you know we have carbohydrates. It's a macronutrient, it's one of the essential macronutrients that our bodies need. And you know people have differing views on this, because some people are really into the ketogenic diet because they've had really great results. But I also do hear many that follow that and their results kind of go back and forth. It's kind of like a roller coaster, you know, comes in waves, they might have really good results and then they don't and their energy levels dip, and then they go back up and they dip.

Speaker 1:

So I just, if you follow this, I just want to say be cautious with it. It might be something that works initially and kind of is a good kickstart, but it's not something that I would recommend long term. So when it comes to the requirements you need, roughly I would say anywhere from 50 grams to maybe 100 grams. It's going to be different for every individual, but the general recommendation is that 40, approximately 40 to 65% of your total daily intake should come from carbohydrates. And you know, I think that for the longest time, when we thought of a carbohydrate, we immediately thought of bread and potatoes and pasta and rice. And a lot of people go oh, I don't want to consume that, I want to cut that out because I don't want to gain weight or I'm trying to lose weight or whatever the goal might be. And yes, those are carbohydrates. However, I think sometimes we forget that fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates as well. And I'm not a proponent, I'm not saying cut out the breads, cut out the rice, cut out the potatoes. I would recommend consuming those sparingly and focus more on the vegetables and then a little bit of fruit, and that's kind of my just recommendation when it comes to your overall carbohydrate intake. But again, it's a personal choice, it's a personal decision, but I will always be a proponent. I will always promote carbohydrate intake.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't have to be a high amount, but it does need to be a part of your day-to-day intake because, again, it is an essential nutrient. It is an essential macronutrient and it does provide us with energy. The other benefit that we do gain from carbohydrates is fiber and, let's face it, we do need fiber. Fiber is really recommended daily and sometimes, if we're not getting enough fiber, some individuals might need to supplement. But it can be found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, whole grain bread, oatmeal, popcorn, and those are all carbohydrates, right. So that's another thing to really think about. Fiber is another really important part of our day-to-day intake. Most Americans don't get enough fiber, so, again, it's important to remember that we're getting fiber from carbohydrates. So I just wanted to jump in and talk about this today, and I will also share just briefly the other macronutrient that is important is fat.

Speaker 1:

We need to have fat in our day to day intake. Why is fat in some bad body fat important? Well, it's necessary for insulation and protection of our organs and for hormonal regulation. We also need some fat in our day-to-day intake because it also helps serve as a carrier for the fat soluble vitamins, which include vitamin A, d, e and K. Now, when it comes to fat in our diet, there's saturated and there's monounsaturated and there's polyunsaturated. It's really been recommended for years.

Speaker 1:

As far back as I can remember is to keep the saturated fat at a minimum. If you think of saturated fat, a saturated fat is solid at room temperature, so like a stick of butter. Now I'm not saying don't use butter, but do so sparingly, because the saturated fats if we consume too much saturated fat, those can build up in our arteries and create issues because of the fact that it's solid at room temperature. If we consume too much of it it's going to build up and potentially clog up our arteries. So you have to be really cautious about that. Actually clog up our arteries. So you have to be really cautious about that. But we do definitely want to consume fat. Approximately 20 to 30% of our daily intake should be from fat.

Speaker 1:

Now let's think about this though for a minute. I want to remind everyone that fat is also another form of energy. Provides us with long-term energy because the fat is stored. But we want to still be aware of what forms of fat we are consuming. So there's been a ton of information out recently about the concerns of seed oils and I'm not going to dive into that in any detail right now because I want to keep this brief and to the point. But when you're looking at healthy forms of fat, nuts provide fat, among other nutrients. Avocados are excellent. You have avocado oil and then also olive oil, we know is another very beneficial form of that. So this is what I want you all to just kind of think about not to become obsessed by it in any way, but to be aware of what it is you are consuming, because that's really important and you know there's so many different.

Speaker 1:

How should I say this? Programs that people follow, and I know the 40-30-30 has been really popular for years and that I think I can get behind. I think people have really found a lot of results with that because you're getting a little bit more balanced intake of the different macronutrients. But again, everybody's body is different and everybody has different goals and that can determine how much fat intake, how much protein, how much carbohydrates and I talked about protein on the last episode of Shelly's Shares and talked about the fact that many people aren't consuming quite enough and you want to consume approximately a gram per your body weight If you're at a healthy weight. If you're overweight, then you want to adjust it. If your weight is an unhealthy amount, then you want to be aware and you don't want to consume so many protein grams that match that weight that you're at now if you are overweight. But if you are at a healthy weight, then you consume approximately one gram of protein per pound that you weigh.

Speaker 1:

And when it comes to fat, again it's important for energy. It's long-term energy and it can be very important for athletes, athletic performance, but it's also just important for our day-to-day lives. Like I mentioned, it provides protection and insulation. Now, of course, there is such a thing as too much body fat, right, and we do know that visceral body fat, which is what is in and around our organs. If we have too much, if we carry too much of that, then that can be actually very dangerous. So we want to be really aware of that. If someone has too much belly fat or visceral body fat, then that is concerning and can lead to severe health issues. So you really want to be careful about that. There's also what we call subcutaneous, which is right underneath our skin, and then there's also storage fat.

Speaker 1:

So different types of fat, and probably the best way to determine if you are in a healthy zone is to have your body fat tested. If you're concerned and you're not sure, then I would recommend whether it's in a lab, in a university setting or some gyms can do some body fat testing. You just want to make sure that it's an accurate form of testing. In other cases we used to do they still do the fitness testing at the colleges and we would test body fat with a certain machine that we had, and I would always tell my students it was really more of a tool. I said use this as a tool, because we're going to test you now and then we're going to test you again at the end of the semester and you can see what happened with your body fat. If you need to reduce your body fat, we're going to measure that. If you don't, then we'll know that too.

Speaker 1:

So it's easy for some people to take it too far, but the main thing is to be in a healthy range and then ultimately, with all of this, the main thing is that we are feeling good, we have energy, we have vitality, our bodies are operating in a healthy manner. That is ultimately what we want to strive for, and there are different tests that we want to go through, and I'm not going to get into that today. Those are tests that you can have run blood tests, you can have taken all of the different things we have done when we go have a physical and that can help direct us as to what we need to do, if anything differently, with our food intake and our day-to-day activity, but for our purposes today, I just wanted to touch upon the other two macronutrients carbohydrates and fat. I hope you found some of this valuable. Again, just getting back to the basics and I think it's really important to do that on occasion get back to just the basic information to help guide us with our daily food choices and food intake. So, with that being said, I hope you all have a blessed rest of your day and week.

Speaker 1:

Do something for yourself and your wellness today, and I will see you next time on Words of Wellness. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did, and if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review words of wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness, on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy and blessed week. Thank you.