Metzelaar is a Seattle-based dietitian<\/a> specializing in nutritional therapy. With patient eyes and a warm, easy smile, she\u2019s the kind of expert who helps her clients untangle their attitudes and beliefs about food. In her nine years of clinical practice, she says that 100 percent of her male clients have shared one fear: carbohydrates<\/a>. \u201cGuilt is a very common emotion associated with eating carbohydrates,\u201d Metzelaar says. \u201cAnd then if you restrict those foods, you\u2019re going to feel out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n Fear\u2014of carbs.<\/p>\n Except that when you look back at the millennia-spanning history of carbohydrates, their stigma makes total sense. More than fat<\/a>, more than artificial ingredients<\/a>, more than GMOs\u2014carbs have long been a scapegoat for ancient philosophers, class warriors, and creators of money-raking fad diets alike. Carbs will shorten your life, as the drumbeat goes. Carbs are blood-sugar-spiking empty calories. Carbs will make you fat, sick, and unhappy.<\/p>\n Over the past few decades, however, scientists have built a more evolved view of carbohydrates. This class of nutrients has been unfairly blamed for obesity<\/a>, diabetes<\/a>, and other health terrors. New research is showing that carbs are a driver for a long, healthy, and active life. And as it turns out, avoiding carbs can be bad for you, too. A few recent studies have linked low-carb\/high-fat diets with an increased risk of cardiovascular events<\/a> and shortened life spans<\/a> in men.<\/p>\n But still: the collective and ongoing freak-out about carbs. So if you\u2019re confused, skeptical, and\/or fearful about carbs, Metzelaar gets that. As she tells her clients, your anxiety toward carbohydrates likely goes way back.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s go way, way back.<\/p>\n UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN living under a mastodon for the past 2.5 million years, you\u2019ve likely heard of the Paleo diet<\/a>. The modern protein<\/a>-centric, starch-averse diet instructs its followers to avoid grains, legumes, added sugars,<\/a> and carb-dense vegetables such as corn, jicama, peas, and white potatoes<\/a>. Our fitter, stronger, healthier ancestors didn\u2019t eat these foods during the Paleolithic period, proponents of the diet argue, so neither should you.<\/p>\n But the diet isn\u2019t based in prehistoric fact. A groundbreaking 2021 study<\/a> in the journal PNAS found that our Paleolithic ancestors\u2014and their close Neanderthal cousins\u2014ate so many starchy foods. Their glucose-rich diet of grasses, tubers, and cooked barley fueled their brains\u2019 rapid expansion. And mounting archaeological evidence shows that calorically dense starchy foods were foundational to almost every culture, ever. Yes, carb-loading helped you evolve into the man you are today.<\/p>\n But there are early instances of carbohydrate avoidance, too. Ancient texts detail a practice known as \u201cbigu,\u201d which directed Chinese Taoist priests to abstain from grain, in what was arguably history\u2019s first low-carb diet. The goal wasn\u2019t weight loss but ascension to immortality. (Didn\u2019t work.)<\/p>\n Halfway across the world, in another century, a different foundational carbohydrate faced condemnation. The potato, an easily cultivated tuber from the Americas, was panned as \u201ctasteless and starchy\u201d by the influential 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot. To twist the paring knife deeper, he described the potato as a \u201creasonably healthy food for men who want nothing but sustenance.\u201d<\/p>\n “Carbohydrates” include a vast swath of foods, like bread and pasta, but also beans, legumes, vegetables, and fruit. <\/p>\n Diderot wasn\u2019t the only upper-class European to devalue the spud. Despite the fact that the potato eventually became a staple and effectively doubled Europe\u2019s food supply, the English disparaged the tuber because the Irish people they colonized ate so much of it. \u201cEven though the Irish were healthy and tall, the English insisted that potatoes were unhealthy and uncivilized,\u201d says Kimberley Connor, Ph.D., a culinary historian at Stanford University. <\/p>\n An 1846 editorial in The Times of London even suggested that the Irish were lazy and responsible for their own starvation during the famine. \u201cWhen the Irish cease to eat just potatoes they must become meat eaters. With the taste of meat will grow an appetite for more meat; with this appetite comes a readiness to earn the money to pay for the meat.\u201d (Never mind that meat was more expensive and the poor Irish didn\u2019t really have a choice.) In the aristocracy of food, protein<\/a> has long reigned as king.<\/p>\n Grain and white potatoes\u2014the underlying demonization of carbs was simmering before the word carbohydrates even existed. That classification happened in 1844, when German chemist Carl Schmidt used the term to describe the structure of a class of chemical compounds. From a chemistry standpoint, a carbohydrate is made up of carbon (the \u201ccarb\u201d part), hydrogen (the \u201chydrate\u201d part), and oxygen.<\/p>\n That\u2019s important, because the term carbohydrate encompasses a massive variety of sub-nutrients. There are simple sugars, such as glucose and fructose, which are found in fruit. Midsize molecules, such as stachyose, are found in legumes like chickpeas. Very large molecules make up starch (the main component of wheat flour) and pectin (an indigestible soluble fiber found in fruit like apples and lemons). This overarching classification was handy for chemists but also opened carbs up to overgeneralization\u2014and, eventually, structured trendy diets that banned them outright. <\/p>\n Grain and white potatoes\u2014the UNDERLYING DEMONIZATION<\/a> of carbs was simmering before the word CARBOHYDRATES<\/a> even existed.<\/p>\n Although there were earlier low-carb diets from around the same time period, the Banting-Harvey plan of 1863 was the first true low-carb craze. William Banting, a well-to-do Victorian retired undertaker, had tried and failed with numerous weight-loss methods. When his regular physician was unavailable, Banting met William Harvey, an ear surgeon with an enthusiasm for experimental medicine. Harvey put Banting on what amounted to a low-carb, high-protein diet, and Banting lost weight\u2014fast. Inspired by his own miraculous transformation, Banting penned a short pamphlet called \u201cLetter on Corpulence<\/a>\u201d that went on to be a runaway best seller. <\/p>\n \u201cMy impression is that any starchy or saccharine matter tends to the disease of corpulence in advanced life,\u201d he wrote. The medical establishment of the time labeled him a dangerous unscientific \u201cquack.\u201d But this criticism didn\u2019t dampen the passion of the diet\u2019s devotees, one of whom was so committed that he reportedly followed the Banting-Harvey plan to his death.<\/p>\n To call Banting\u2019s followers zealots wouldn\u2019t be far off. The diet owes its success to the way Banting connected Christian moral overtones with discipline, restraint, and peak health\u2014as defined by thinness, wrote<\/a> researcher Jaime M. Miller, Ph.D.<\/p>\n If all that sounds eerily similar to many modern fad diets, you\u2019re not wrong. The Banting-Harvey plan walked so that the most popular low-carb diet plan ever could run.<\/p>\n LONG BEFORE ROBERT Atkins, M.D., created the now legendary Atkins diet, he had<\/a> his own private cardiology practice in New York City. His early clinical work focused on finding an alternative to what he saw other doctors doing: treating overweight patients by prescribing them amphetamines. And like Banting before him, Dr. Atkins himself tried a low-carb diet, lost weight, and became an advocate.<\/p>\n In 1972, he published Dr. Atkins\u2019 Diet Revolution<\/a>, which told readers to not count calories<\/a>, to eat as much steak<\/a> and butter as they wanted, and that carbs are \u201cpoison\u2014don\u2019t forget it.\u201d While Dr. Atkins insisted his diet was based on \u201ccareful clinical observation of 10,000 obese subjects studied for nine years,\u201d he did not actually publish any measurable clinical data to support his claims.<\/p>\n What he lacked in scientific rigor, however, he made up for with his gift for drama. He dedicated Diet Revolution to \u201call of the diet revolutionaries who are not content merely to follow their own diet, but who are dedicated to carrying the message of the diet revolution to the world which needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n Atkins was more than a diet; it was a mindset of bold, antiestablishment individualism. Dr. Atkins\u2019s advice sounded in open defiance of the nutritional hard line of the time, that diets high in saturated fat were the cause of an unprecedented spike in heart disease<\/a>. In an echo of the Banting era, the medical establishment condemned Dr. Atkins\u2019s recommendation as \u201cunscientific, unbalanced,\u201d and \u201cpotentially dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n Dr. Robert C. Atkins, M.D., creator of the low-carb “Atkins Diet”.<\/p>\n Although Dr. Atkins\u2019s diet found modest success in the \u201970s, events in the \u201990s enhanced its popularity and powered a low-carb revolution. The World Health Organization declared obesity an epidemic in 1997, and the CDC was calling diabetes an epidemic by 2001.<\/p>\n In response, the U.\u2009S. ramped up public-health messaging in what critics described as a \u201cwar on [dietary] fat.\u201d But between 1971 and 2011, the percentage of overweight Americans increased from 42 to 66 percent. Diabetes rates climbed. Fat wasn\u2019t making us gain weight, so maybe carbs were\u2014a sentiment that only emboldened Dr. Atkins. <\/p>\n In the 2002 edition of his New Diet Revolution book, Dr. Atkins gloated that \u201cwidespread dissemination of misinformation about what constitutes a healthy diet had caused\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009twin epidemics [of] obesity and diabetes, clearly the result of the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet that was preached to the public as gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n The message for confused consumers eager to lose weight\u2014and reintroduce delicious fat into their bland, boring diets\u2014was now refreshingly simple (and Dr. Atkins approved!): carbs bad.<\/p>\n AS THE PUBLIC’S resistance to carbs proliferated and intensified in the \u201990s, confusion grew, too. \u201cWhen people think of carbs, the mental image they have is probably cakes and cookies with sugar frosting,\u201d says nutrition and obesity researcher Adam Drewnowski, Ph.D.<\/a>, who heads the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington. \u201cBut there is a hierarchy of carbohydrate qualities. On the lower end you have added sugar, and on the higher end you will have whole grains<\/a>\u2014it\u2019s a huge continuum.\u201d<\/p>\n The most well-known early attempt to untangle this hierarchy was the glycemic index (GI), a diabetes-management tool first developed by Canadian nutrition scientist David Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D., in the 1980s. To construct the GI, which is essentially a food scorecard, Dr. Jenkins and his team fed study participants various foods in controlled quantities and settings and then measured their blood-glucose level. <\/p>\n Foods that resulted in slight blood-glucose changes (avocados, peanuts) carried a low GI value, and foods that caused blood glucose to soar (beer, cookies) received a high GI value. Those examples make sense, but then there were the head-scratchers. Cooked carrots have a GI value of 85, which is ten higher than doughnuts. White rice scores a 70, while fettuccine has a 32. A white baked potato, ever the punching bag, was branded with a 95, just five points shy of white sugar.<\/p>\n This all formed a platform for Atkins-like low-carb proponents to reinforce their stance in the early 2000s. They took GI values and began labeling foods \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad\u201d for diabetes and extrapolated those judgments to weight loss. <\/p>\n The message for confused consumers eager to LOSE WEIGHT<\/a>\u2014and reintroduce DELICIOUS FAT<\/a> into their BLAND, BORING DIETS<\/a>\u2014was now refreshingly simple (and Dr. Atkins approved!): CARBS BAD.<\/a><\/p>\n This overgeneralization left out three crucial details: GI scores change when different foods are consumed in combination, in different quantities, and with different cooking preparations. In other words, for average people living normal lives and eating normal meals, it was impossible to calculate GI scores with any sort of precision. Dr. Jenkins himself even stated in 2004 that people should skip counting carbs and just eat more vegetables for better health. (We also now know that blood-glucose level alone has 42 factors<\/a> that affect it.)<\/p>\n GI confusion only magnified low-carb fever in the new millennium, as other diets entered the arena. The ketogenic diet<\/a>, which allots a measly 5 to 10 percent of your daily calories for carbs, surged in popularity around 1999. Nutrition researcher Loren Cordain, Ph.D., published The Paleo Diet in 2002. Rodale (the former parent company of Men\u2019s Health) released The South Beach Diet, which targeted \u201cbad carbs,\u201d in 2003. Whole30<\/a>, a diet known for banning added sugars entirely, emerged in 2009. <\/p>\n Low-carb evangelists even went so far as to help promote research backing their stance. In 2012, author Gary Taubes raised about $40 million to fund the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI). Taubes has stated that sugar\u2019s effect on insulin signaling, not net calories consumed, causes obesity and diabetes. NuSI\u2019s mission: to determine that eating carbs leads to weight gain. But the research never revealed a link. In 2021, NuSI shut down<\/a>.<\/p>\n In reality, scientific findings on low-carb diets and weight loss tend to be far more restrained. Weight loss may happen on a low-carb diet because without sufficient carbs, the body is forced to burn fat for energy, says Anjali Prasertong<\/a>, a Denver-based registered dietitian. But low-carb diets can be difficult to sustain in the long-term because our bodies are hardwired to prefer the easy energy we get from eating carbohydrates, she says.<\/p>\n And while it\u2019s true that Americans ate more carbs between 1970 and 2013, they were also eating more of everything, from cheese to kale to cooking oil. Coupled with increasingly sedentary lives, we don\u2019t often use all the calories we consume\u2014and that can lead to weight gain and the increased risk of the health issues that being overweight carries.<\/p>\n Drewnowski says that lower-income people gravitate toward ultra-processed<\/a>, calorie-dense foods (that also happen to be high in carbs) because that\u2019s what they can afford. \u201cCalories are cheap, and nutrients are expensive,\u201d he says. \u201cYears ago, when there was no money for food, people didn\u2019t eat. Now sugar, vegetable oil, and refined grains are so cheap that [even] if you can\u2019t afford the meat, the cheese, the fish, what\u2019s left? Refined [foods].\u201d Just like the poor potato-eating Irish of the 1800s, some people can\u2019t simply start eating lean meats and omega-3<\/a>-rich fish.<\/p>\n The real health benefits, nutrition experts are now saying, don\u2019t come from giving up carbs. They come from giving up the idea of giving up carbs.<\/p>\n THERE’S EVIDENCE OF a subtle public shifting toward carbohydrates. Yes, carb confusion remains rampant. Muscle-strapped celebs publicly blame carbs for their bloating. Dave Asprey<\/a>, an early keto proponent, now says carb-cutting has gone too far even as he decries oatmeal as \u201cpeasant food.\u201d TikTokers rave about eating cold pasta because of the supposed weight-loss benefits of resistant starch. Yet despite the noise, there\u2019s hope for clarity around carbs.<\/p>\n Nutrition researcher Layne Norton, Ph.D.<\/a>, says accepting carbs as part of a solid diet comes down to basic health literacy. \u201cWe have people out there saying vegetables are unhealthy [because they contain sugar]\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009Is it that? Or is it the fact that the average American takes in 3,500 calories a day? And less than 20 minutes of physical activities per day?\u201d Norton says. \u201cI\u2019m not even pro-carbohydrates. I\u2019m just anti-bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n In just the past five years, academic studies have connected low-carb\/high-fat diets with heart troubles and early death. Norton responds to these findings by cautioning against nutritional extremism: Isolating carbohydrates oversimplifies not only nutrition but also general health.<\/p>\n Low-carb diets work the way that many other restrictive diets do: By reducing the intake of carbs, or fats, or specific foods, people inadvertently lower their total caloric intake, which may lead to weight loss and better health.<\/p>\n Steamed, roasted, hash-browned\u2014any way you like them, potatoes are not the nutritional demon they\u2019ve long been made out to be.<\/p>\n Being healthy includes, but is not limited to, your history of smoking<\/a>, exercise, genes, environment<\/a>, sleep habits, relationship quality<\/a>, and mental health. In short, health is too complex for one food\u2014or even one food group\u2014to be demonized or granted sainthood. Instead of looking at which foods to take away for our health, we should be looking at what they add, Norton says. <\/p>\n In 2021, with this thinking in mind, a team of researchers (including Drewnowski) created a tool for rating the healthiness of carbohydrate-rich foods\u2014a more functional model than the glycemic index.<\/p>\n Rather than focusing on the body\u2019s insulin response to carbs and how that may affect weight gain, the Carbohydrate Food Quality Score (CFQS<\/a>) classified carbohydrate foods according to their nutritional quality. They specifically looked at potassium, sodium<\/a>, sugar, and fiber content. <\/p>\n Legumes, vegetables, fruits, and whole-grain foods came out as top CFQS scorers for their positive effects on overall health. Ultra-processed cakes, candy, and chips scored low. The general finding: When eaten in moderation, many carbohydrate-rich foods are really good for you.<\/p>\n Carb critics have pointed out that the study has disclosed conflicts of interest. (Some of the researchers sit on or have accepted funding from grain and potato boards.) Yet even the American Diabetes Association<\/a>, which recommends carb counting or meal planning with carbs in mind for blood-glucose management, states, \u201cOpt for whole foods that are unprocessed and in their natural state, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean proteins.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown rice and white rice, chickpea flour and wheat flour, peanuts and, yes, even peanut-butter cookies\u2014the best diets include all forms of carbohydrates. That\u2019s because each carb brings its own nutrients to your health, not to mention the joy that comes from a sustainable diet that doesn\u2019t shame you for eating what you \u201cshouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Oh, and that includes potatoes, too. <\/p>\n Paleolithic early humans\u2019 consumption of starchy foods rapidly expands their brains.<\/p>\n Humans begin to grow wheat in and around the Fertile Crescent.<\/p>\n Humans in Asia start cultivating rice, a crop that goes on to become the staple carbohydrate for half the world\u2019s population.<\/p>\n alamy\/getty images Taoist priests in China practice the avoidance of grain to help them achieve immortality.<\/p>\n Jean-Baptiste Dumas coins the term glucose for the sugar obtained from honey, grapes, and starch.<\/p>\n Wonder Bread\u2014white, sugary, and enriched\u2014hits the market.<\/p>\n Otto Frederick Rohwedder invents a bread-slicing machine, the best invention since\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009?<\/p>\n alamy\/getty images Dr. Robert Atkins publishes Dr. Atkins\u2019 Diet Revolution.<\/p>\n Diet Coke debuts with zero calories and sugar (and carbs).<\/p>\n The first USDA Food Pyramid recommends six to 11 servings of grains a day. (Some critics say this approach leads to weight gain.)<\/p>\n Interest in the low-carb ketogenic diet begins to grow as a weight-loss plan, after a Dateline episode on the topic.<\/p>\n The Voorhes The FDA defines \u201cadded sugars,\u201d versus natural sugars. (Both are carbs.)<\/p>\n Dr. Shawn Baker publishes The Carnivore Diet, a no-carb diet based entirely on meat.<\/p>\n Courtesy Victory Belt Publishing During Covid lockdowns, a study in Frontiers in Public Health warns of the immunity-damaging effects of too much carbohydrate consumption.<\/p>\n The \u201cresistant-starch\u201d trend takes over TikTok, and we\u2019re now all eating cold spaghetti, apparently.<\/p>\n A version of this article appeared in the May\/June 2024 issue of Men’s Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"divider\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/carb-divider-664629c806a0f.png\" "\\"divider\\"")
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Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/hlh050124feacarbohydrates-021-1-664b75ac44c19.jpg\" "\\"dr")
Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/p>\nA WHOLE NEW UNDERSTANDING<\/p>\n![\"potato\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/gettyimages-1133003506-664b7d6b820d5.jpg\" "\\"potato\\"")
Getty Images<\/p>\nCarbs: A Timeline!![\"600,000](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/600-000bc-664796c5df8e8.png\" "\\"600,000")
600,000 B.C.<\/p>\n![\"10,000](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/10-000bc-6647972534cb5.png\" "\\"10,000")
10,000 B.C.<\/p>\n![\"5,000](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5-000bc-664797e88dc35.png\" "\\"5,000")
5,000 B.C.<\/p>\n![\"168](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/168bc-66479c61b9de7.png\" "\\"168")
168 B.C.<\/p>\n![\"jean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1838-66479cbd635aa.png\" "\\"jean")
1838<\/p>\n![\"wonder](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1921-66479d0b88062.png\" "\\"wonder")
1921<\/p>\n![\"otto](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1928-66479d88deb6f.png\" "\\"otto")
1928<\/p>\n![\"dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1972-66479e1ba90ef.png\" "\\"dr")
1972<\/p>\n![\"diet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1982-66479e5bb8adb.png\" "\\"diet")
1982<\/p>\n![\"food](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1992-6647a32f929d7.png\" "\\"food")
1992<\/p>\n![\"1994\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1994-6647a36ced8ff.png\" "\\"1994\\"")
1994<\/p>\n![\"2016\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2016-6647a3af6e22f.png\" "\\"2016\\"")
2016<\/p>\n![\"2019\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2019-6647a644c8be3.png\" "\\"2019\\"")
2019<\/p>\n![\"2020\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2020-6647a822d31ed.png\" "\\"2020\\"")
2020<\/p>\n![\"2023\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2023-6647a84c120a6.png\" "\\"2023\\"")
2023<\/p>\n
![\"Headshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2d9f171b-be1e-49a3-98ed-727695e14d15_1633615132.jpeg\" "\\"Headshot")
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