Someone that I know taught me extremely valuable advice. They urged me to look at a topic subjectively rather than objectively. They emphasized to do your best to avoid having a preconceived idea or a bias on any subject. I thought I was open minded before, but she taught me that you should always strive to learn more, even if you’re familiar with a particular subject.
She also taught me that it’s okay to change your stance on an issue when you find out more details. Being stubborn with your convictions does you a disservice when you make new discoveries that may contradict your original beliefs. She is a very wise woman and am grateful for having crossed paths with her.
Although I’m on a carnivorous diet(I’ll make a post on that fairly soon) I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bath water when It comes to vegetables and plant based foods. There is some nutritional value that can be found in these foods, but ultra-processed carbs can be harmful if they’re eaten on a regular basis.
Leafy green vegetables do have carbs, however they’re loaded with valuable nutrients: vitamins like vitamin b9(folate), minerals like magnesium and potassium as well as soluble fiber(dissolvable in water) in addition to insoluble fiber(not dissolvable in water). Even complex carbs that are moderately high on the glycemic index (sweet potatoes) have a decent nutrient profile and can be a good addition to someone’s diet that has an active lifestyle. Sweet potatoes are high in vitamin C and have vitamin b5, vitamin b6, manganese, beta-carotene(the precursor to vitamin A), a few grams of fiber, and even trace amounts of protein.
Ultra processed carbohydrates on the other hand, are often devoid of nutrients and stripped of much of the fiber. Fiber blunts the effect of sugar and by taking away the fiber from a food, it causes blood glucose levels to spike through the roof.
I don’t like to demonize entire food groups, but observing the role carbohydrate rich foods play in obesity it’s difficult not to be critical of the damage they’re capable of inflicting. Over consumption of carbohydrates can cause: insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and hypertension, just to name a few.
Since researching medical information is one of my hobbies, sometimes I have a hypothesis I develop and do a search online for studies and articles that either concur or disprove my theory. One of the topics I looked up was: “does elevated blood glucose influence blood pressure levels?”. What I found was interesting! When blood glucose is elevated(normally after consuming a high carbohydrate food/s) the pancreas secretes insulin to store the energy and reduce the amount of sugar in the blood. While insulin levels are elevated, it causes nitric oxide production to be suppressed. Here is an article from healthcentral.com explaining the relationship between, blood glucose, insulin, and nitric oxide.
Nitric oxide is a vasodilator, meaning it widens the arteries so blood flows through with less resistance. Nitric oxide induces diureses, which causes fluid: water and urine to be excreted from the body. Nitric oxide is a naturally occurring diuretic. This causes less fluid volume and a lower blood pressure because of a lesser force on the arterial walls. It isn’t possible to have both insulin and nitric oxide levels elevated at the same time.
In other words, insulin and nitric oxide are opposed to one other. If insulin levels are high, the nitric oxide levels are low. If insulin levels are low, nitric oxide is either elevated or at a base level.
