Depending on who you follow online, carbohydrates are either an essential part of a healthy diet or they're responsible for just about every metabolic problem imaginable.

Weight gain? Carbs.

Insulin resistance? Carbs.

Inflammation? Carbs.

Can't lose weight? You probably need to cut carbs.

We've spent years making carbohydrates the villain in nutrition, and I'm not sure we've gotten any healthier because of it.

I get questions about carbs all the time. Should you eat them? Should you avoid them? Are they making your blood sugar spike? Are they the reason you can't lose weight?

And my answer is usually the same.

It depends.

I know that's not nearly as exciting as someone telling you to eliminate an entire food group, but nutrition is rarely that simple.

Because here's what I want you to think about.

Blueberries contain carbohydrates. So do lentils, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, broccoli, soda, cookies, and candy.

Are we really going to pretend all those foods are doing the same thing in your body simply because they contain carbohydrates?

Of course not.

So rather than asking whether carbs are good or bad, let's talk about what actually matters: where those carbohydrates come from, how much you're eating, what you're eating them with, and what's going on with your own metabolic health.

First, Let's Clear Up the Confusion About Carbs and Insulin

Carbohydrates are one of the three major macronutrients, along with protein and fat.

You'll find them in fruit, vegetables, grains, beans, lentils, and dairy. You'll also find them in soda, candy, pastries, chips, and all kinds of highly processed foods.

When you eat carbohydrates, many are broken down into glucose, which your body can use for energy.

And yes, when your blood glucose rises, your insulin generally rises in response.

That's supposed to happen.

Somewhere along the way, we've turned a normal physiological response into something people think they need to avoid at all costs.

Insulin helps your body use and store nutrients. It plays an important role in regulating blood sugar and metabolism.

The concern is when someone develops insulin resistance, meaning their tissues become less responsive to insulin and their body has to compensate.

That's a very different situation from your insulin increasing after a meal.

So when someone tells you that carbohydrates cause insulin to rise and therefore carbohydrates are bad, they're leaving out an enormous amount of information.

An Apple and a Soda Aren't the Same Thing

Let's compare two foods.

You eat an apple.

Or you drink a large sugary soda.

Both contain carbohydrates.

But that's about where the similarities end.

The apple comes with fiber, water, vitamins, and plant compounds. You have to chew it, and the fiber helps slow digestion.

The soda delivers a concentrated amount of sugar in liquid form, with little fiber and very little nutritional value.

Your body doesn't experience those foods in exactly the same way.

And this is why I keep coming back to carbohydrate quality.

The World Health Organization recommends getting carbohydrates primarily from whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and pulses such as beans and lentils.

Notice what they're emphasizing.

The foods.

Not simply avoiding carbohydrates.

When someone tells me, "I stopped eating carbs and I feel so much better," one of my first questions is:

What carbohydrates did you stop eating?

Because if you eliminated soda, pastries, candy, sugary cereal, chips, and processed snacks, you didn't just reduce carbohydrates.

You changed the quality of your entire diet.

That's an important distinction.

What Does the Research Say About Low-Carb Diets?

Here's where things get interesting.

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at dietary patterns among more than 37,000 adults, comparing lower-carbohydrate and lower-fat eating patterns.

If carbohydrates themselves were the primary problem, you'd expect the lower-carbohydrate group to clearly come out ahead.

But that wasn't what the researchers found.

Overall, neither low-carbohydrate nor low-fat eating patterns were significantly associated with lower total mortality simply because of their macronutrient distribution.

What mattered was the quality of the diet.

Healthier versions of both dietary patterns were associated with lower mortality, while less healthy versions were associated with higher mortality.

Think about that for a minute.

We can spend all day arguing about whether someone should eat 30%, 40%, or 50% of their calories from carbohydrates.

Meanwhile, we may be missing a much more important question.

What foods are those calories actually coming from?

Someone eating a lower-carbohydrate diet built around vegetables, quality protein, nuts, and healthy fats is eating very differently from someone whose low-carb diet consists mostly of processed meats, cheese, and butter.

And someone eating a higher-carbohydrate diet full of vegetables, beans, fruit, and whole grains is eating very differently from someone getting most of their carbohydrates from sugary drinks and processed snacks.

The carbohydrate percentage doesn't tell us the whole story.

What About Blood Sugar Spikes?

This is where people tend to get nervous.

You eat a carbohydrate, your glucose rises, and suddenly you think you've done something wrong.

But remember, blood glucose is supposed to rise after eating carbohydrates.

What matters is how your body handles that glucose.

And there are a lot of things that influence that response.

The type of carbohydrate matters. So does the amount, the fiber, how processed the food is, and what else you're eating with it.

Your muscle mass, physical activity, sleep, and metabolic health matter too.

Think about eating a bowl of berries with plain Greek yogurt and walnuts.

Now compare that with drinking a giant sweetened coffee that contains 70 grams of carbohydrates.

Those are two very different nutritional situations.

This is why I don't love simply telling people to avoid carbs.

I'd rather teach you how to build a meal.

Start with a good protein source. Add vegetables or another fiber-rich food. Include an appropriate portion of minimally processed carbohydrates and some healthy fat.

Now we're talking about a balanced meal that provides actual nutrition.

That's far more useful than making you afraid of a potato.

We Need to Talk About Fiber

One of my concerns when women start aggressively cutting carbohydrates is what happens to their fiber intake.

Because some of our best sources of fiber are foods that contain carbohydrates.

Beans, lentils, berries, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, and fruit.

And fiber does a lot more than help you go to the bathroom.

It supports digestive health, helps with satiety, and provides nourishment for beneficial bacteria in your gut. Higher-fiber eating patterns are also associated with better cardiovascular and metabolic health.

The World Health Organization recommends that adults consume at least 25 grams of naturally occurring dietary fiber daily.

And I can tell you that many of the people I work with aren't getting anywhere near that amount.

Now imagine someone decides to eliminate most fruit, beans, lentils, and whole grains because they've been told carbohydrates are bad.

They may have just eliminated some of the very foods that could help improve their overall nutrition.

Can you eat a lower-carbohydrate diet and still get adequate fiber?

Absolutely.

But it takes some thought and planning.

If your version of low-carb means mostly meat, cheese, butter, and a handful of vegetables, I'd want to take a closer look at what you're missing.

Low-carb doesn't automatically mean healthy. And higher-carb doesn't automatically mean unhealthy.

Do Carbs Make You Gain Weight?

This is probably one of the biggest reasons women avoid carbohydrates.

They've been told that eating carbs causes insulin to rise, insulin causes fat storage, and therefore the only way to lose weight is to stop eating carbohydrates.

But weight loss is more complicated than that.

Can reducing carbohydrates help you lose weight?

Of course.

For some people, it's a very effective approach.

You might naturally reduce your intake of calorie-dense processed foods. You may find your hunger easier to manage. Your protein intake might improve, and some people find that a moderately lower-carbohydrate approach helps with glucose management.

Those can all be useful changes.

But that doesn't mean carbohydrates themselves uniquely cause body fat gain.

Long-term fat loss requires an energy deficit, and the way you achieve that needs to be something you can actually maintain.

And this is where I want you to be realistic.

How many times have you gone on some kind of diet that worked for a few weeks, but you couldn't imagine eating that way for the rest of your life?

Someone can lose weight eating a lower-carbohydrate diet.

Someone else can lose weight eating a Mediterranean-style diet that includes beans, fruit, vegetables, potatoes, and whole grains.

The question I care about is whether the approach is improving your health, giving you adequate nutrition, and fitting into your actual life.

Because if you can't maintain it, we need to rethink the strategy.

Your Carbohydrate Needs May Be Different From Someone Else's

This is something that gets completely lost in nutrition advice on social media.

I wouldn't give identical carbohydrate recommendations to every person I work with.

Someone with type 2 diabetes and significant insulin resistance may benefit from a different carbohydrate approach than someone who's highly active and training for an endurance event.

A woman strength training several days a week has different fueling needs than someone who is mostly sedentary.

Someone experiencing reactive hypoglycemia may need to pay particular attention to meal timing, carbohydrate portions, and what she's pairing those carbohydrates with.

I've experienced reactive hypoglycemia myself, so I understand how important those details can be.

And if you're someone who feels great eating oatmeal, potatoes, fruit, and beans, why would you eliminate those foods just because somebody on TikTok told you insulin is making you fat?

That's what I mean when I say nutrition has context.

We have to look at the person eating the food.

Your health history matters. Your blood sugar regulation matters. Your activity level matters. Your goals matter.

There's no reason to pretend one carbohydrate recommendation is going to work equally well for everyone.

What Carbohydrates Should You Be Eating?

Here's how I'd like you to start thinking about carbohydrates.

Instead of looking at a food and asking, "Is that a carb?" ask yourself:

What else am I getting when I eat it?

If you're eating berries, you're getting fiber, water, vitamins, and beneficial plant compounds.

Lentils provide fiber, plant protein, minerals, and resistant starch.

Potatoes contain potassium, vitamin C, and other nutrients.

Oats provide a type of soluble fiber called beta-glucan.

Vegetables give you fiber, vitamins, minerals, and all kinds of plant nutrients.

Now compare those foods with candy, soda, pastries, and many refined snack foods.

Take a look at the nutrition labels.

What are you really getting from those products?

They may provide plenty of calories without offering much fiber or nutritional value.

Does that mean you can never have a cookie or a piece of cake?

No.

But those foods shouldn't make up the foundation of your diet.

And putting all these foods into one category labeled carbohydrates doesn't tell us much about how nutritious they are.

Please Stop Being Afraid of Every Glucose Spike

Continuous glucose monitors have made blood sugar a much bigger conversation.

And while they can be valuable tools, particularly for people managing diabetes, I think we've also created some unnecessary fear around normal glucose responses.

I hear people saying they ate a banana, saw their glucose rise, and now they're convinced bananas are bad for them.

But a glucose increase after eating carbohydrates isn't automatically a problem.

We need to look at the bigger picture.

How high is your glucose going? How long does it remain elevated? What's your fasting glucose? Your A1C? Are you insulin resistant? How active are you? What else did you eat?

And what's happening with your metabolic health over time?

One glucose reading doesn't tell us everything.

I don't want you turning a normal physiological response into a reason to be afraid of fruit.

That's how nutrition becomes unnecessarily confusing.

Maybe You Don't Need to Cut Carbs. Maybe You Need Better Ones.

So here's what I'd like you to try this week.

Take a look at the carbohydrates you're currently eating.

Not to judge yourself or start another restrictive diet.

Just pay attention.

Maybe your sugary breakfast cereal becomes oatmeal with berries.

Maybe you replace an afternoon snack of crackers with an apple and some nuts.

Maybe you add lentils to your soup.

Maybe you keep the potato at dinner, but eat it alongside chicken or salmon and a big serving of vegetables.

And maybe the thing you actually need to reduce isn't carbohydrates at all.

Maybe it's the ultra-processed snacks you've gotten into the habit of eating every evening.

Those little bags of crackers, chips, popcorn, or other snack foods that are easy to keep reaching for without thinking much about them.

That's a very different conversation from telling someone they need to eliminate fruit, potatoes, or oatmeal.

I don't want you afraid of carbohydrates.

I want you to understand them.

Because once you understand the difference between carbohydrate quality, quantity, and how your body responds, making food choices becomes a whole lot less complicated.

The healthiest carbohydrate intake isn't necessarily the lowest. It's the amount and type that make sense for your body, your health, and your lifestyle.

And that's where I'd rather have you put your energy.

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