It Makes Perfect Sense That We Do Not Need Carbs

As a gross generalization, we can say everything in nature has a purpose and is made as efficiently as possible. As humans, we have managed to withdraw ourselves for a significant part from the influences of nature.

Our brains provide us with intelligent solutions which made us independent. We can make a shelter, make fire, make sick people healthy again, and provide our own food. This has a lot of advantages and has placed us more or less outside the evolutionary pressure. Survive of the fittest has turned into survival of the smartest. There is also has a downside; there is the endangerment of our environment through pollution, animals go extinct, and we are disconnected from nature.

One of the aspects in which we have lost connection with our natural way of living is our food. We have turned to processed food, we use intensive agriculture, and we have moved far from the hunters we once were. In another article, I wrote about why we as humans eat meat. Now we will look at the three main components of food; carbohydrates, proteins, and fat. We can deduct what was natural for us from these three components and what made homo sapiens develop in such a unique way.

What Cows Do Best

Cows, and more in general ruminants, are capable of a very unique thing, they can digest cellulose. They are very efficient in transforming carbohydrates from grass into fat, and they can transform plant-based proteins and other nitrogen sources into high-quality animal-based proteins. Another feature is their possibility to transform unstable, polyunsaturated fatty acids into stable monosaturated fatty acids. Cows are also able to produce vitamin B12 and other vitamins, and they enhance the bio-availability of essential minerals. At least half of the diet of cows cannot be digested by people; for grass-fed cows this is even 100%. In essence, ruminants increase the availability of food sources for humans. Ruminants are also far more effective in transforming plant-based proteins into animal-based proteins; this means that a ruminant creates more high-quality proteins out of plant-based proteins than humans do. Or, as Ballerstedt said: ruminants eat plants so that we don´t have to. (Ballerstedt, 2017)

What Humans Do Best

Our brains need glucose; to be more precise, it is the only fuel they run on. This could make you think that therefore intake of carbohydrates is essential, it would be logical, isn´t it? Nature is very efficient and evolution makes that, in general, the best solution to a problem gives a survival advantage. If we were dependent on carbohydrates, this could get us into problems when there are no carbohydrates available, for example, in winter. Nature provided us with gluconeogenesis, or put more straightforward, our bodies are capable of making our own glucose without the need for an external source. Gluconeogenesis is one of the little biochemical miracles in our body and mostly takes place in the liver; it is beyond the scope of this article to describe the process, but if you want to read more about it, click here.

What we need for gluconeogenesis is proteins or fat, which is no coincidence because we already need those in our diet. We need the essential proteins and essential fats, and being able to make glucose made that we were not dependent on carbohydrates. Our bodies react to our need for glucose; if there is a need for glucose, our body will start gluconeogenesis and produce glucose from proteins and fat. Our body regulates this process, and therefore it ensures a very stable glucose level, and it doesn´t give the highs and lows we get when we eat carbohydrates. This metabolic state is called ketosis, and there is a myriad of literature showing the positive effects of ketosis.

Keep It Simple

Nature is efficient and spills no resources. We have cows that need carbohydrates and produce proteins and fat very efficiently. And we, humans, need proteins and fat and produce carbohydrates efficiently. It is a perfect balance and explains ruminants’ unique position in relation to humans and their food sources throughout time and many cultures.

Related Articles:

Why We Eat Meat

3 Important Reasons Why You Should Avoid Gluten

References

Ballerstedt, P. (2017). What if it´s ALL been a big fat lie? Ancestral Health Symposium AHS17. Seattle. https://ahs17.sched.com/speaker/dulcimerpete

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