Carbohydrate Intolerance

Carbohydrate intolerance, also called carbohydrate sensitivity affects about 70% of the human population. Supplements to increase insulin sensitivity and a carb cycling diet are two of the ways you can counteract this problem.

Evolution and Carbohydrate Sensitivity

The ability to handle carbohydrates efficiently is related to human evolution. The earliest humans survived on a diet of animal protein, fat, and what fruits, berries, roots, ect. They could gather. There was no farming or consumption of carbohydrates as grains.

These genes got passed on to modern humans, some of which are still adapted to thrive on the primitive hunter gatherer diet, devoid of the starchy carbohydrates, which were not around hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Conditioning expert Charles Poliquin estimates that approximately 75% of the population is carbohydrate sensitive to some degree!

Carbohydrate intolerance causes you to react negatively to carbohydrates. Some of the symptoms of carbohydrate intolerance are:

• Feeling tired, or sleepy after a meal high in carbohydrates
• Feeling bloated or having gas after a high carb meal
• Putting on weight around your abdominal area
• Difficulty losing weight
• Craving sweets and being unable to resist eating them

Carb Blockers Pro and Con

So called “carb blockers” like dietrine or hydroxycitric acid, are supposed to be able to block conversion of carbohydrates to fat. This will prevent carbohydrates from converting to fat, but can’t make up for bad nutrition like eating too many sweets.

Hydroxycitric acid is made from the garcinia cambogia fruit, while dietrine carb blockers are made from a substance called phase2 from white kidney bean extract. There is no evidence they are harmful, but common sense should tell you that they can’t make up for a bad diet full of junky carbohydrates and sugary foods.

At best, these carb blockers could be useful to help people start to lose weight, but again, you have to change your diet to succeed long term. Your diet has to reflect your individual biochemistry, and if you have Carbohydrate intolerance you will have to avoid starch or grain based carbohydrates and rely on fibrous ones instead.

Improving Insulin Sensitivity

There are nutrients that can help increase your insulin sensitivity and make it easier to deal with carbs in your diet. Again as with carb blockers, they will not make up for an overindulgence of sugary or starchy foods.

These are supplements like:

• Chromium Picolinate
• Alpha Lipoic Acid
• Resveratrol – red wine extract
• Cinnulin – water soluble cinnamon extract
• Vanadyl Sulfate
• Fish oil

Please note: If you are a diabetic or have problems with low blood sugar, DO NOT USE ANY SUPPLEMENTS FOR INCREASING INSULIN SENSITIVITY, unless you are being guided by a doctor or a nutritionist trained to work with diabetics. These supplements could result in a dangerous drop in blood sugar if not used carefully and under professional supervision!