If there’s one thing most of us wish for ourselves and our loved ones, that’s to age well inside out. We all know by now that the meaning of life is to be well and feel well and not to just be alive. This is also my goal as a professional, as a dietician-nutritionist specialized in autoimmune diseases, inflammation and clinical nutrition with plant-based education, who deals with incidents that jeopardize our health every-day -from obesity to serious diseases. We need to use the tools we have at our disposal, tools that don’t cost more and that can support our overall health and immunity, so as to live our best life in our best possible health.
What we do know really well is that animal fats are linked to certain types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, while on the other hand, a variety of plant foods of all colors provides us with vitamins, antioxidants and essential fiber that “feed” our gut microbiome for better overall health. Nevertheless, there are many types of nutrition, such as ketogenic, which exclude carbohydrates of any kind from the daily diet plan. This means that along with bread, desserts, pasta, etc., fruits, vegetables, legumes are also excluded from such a plan.
But we do need (good) carbs after all
This is where I’d like to add one more research published in Journal of Internal Medicine that proves once again that a diet high in good carbs and low in fat –especially saturated fat- can be the key to a good, healthy life later on, as the years pass by. The aim of the study was to check on the long term link between a diet high in good carbs and low in saturated fat with mortality in middle-aged and older people.
371.159 people 50-71 years old took part in the study and were followed through the decades based on their scores concerning a diet high in carbs and low in fat and how much they stuck to it, calculating the consumption of carbs, fat, protein etc.
During the follow-up of 23,5 years, there were 165.698 deaths recorded and according to the data, participants that followed a diet low in carbs and high in saturated fat had a significantly greater risk of mortality from any cause, but also from specific causes.
On the other hand, a balanced diet rich in good carbs and low in saturated fat had lower mortality rates: more specifically, 18% lower risk of mortality from any cause, 16% lower risk of mortality from cardiovascular reasons and 18% lower mortality risk from cancer. It’s important to also note that replacing 3% of energy consumption from saturated fat with other sources of macronutrients of equal calories was linked to lower risk of mortality from any cause and specific causes.
When it comes to low quality carbs, the mortality risk was seriously lower when they were substituted with plant protein and good (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) fat.
So, what do we get from all these data? Sure thing is that carbs are not the enemy. We just need to pick them right, through plant foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, quinoa, and combine them with lower saturated fat from animal foods. This is how we can get to a… 100-candle cake and still feel and be healthy.
Resource
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37132226/
