Breaking Down Carbs: A Fresh Perspective on Healthy Eating

In this episode of 'Stance for Health,' Dr. Rodney and Karen delve into the complex world of carbohydrates. 

Transitioning from a ketogenic lifestyle, they explore the benefits of reintroducing healthy carbs for metabolic flexibility and overall wellness. They focus on whole foods, proper nutrition, and daily practices like exercise and proper breathing to maintain energy and health. 

The podcast emphasizes understanding the right kinds of carbs, the importance of metabolic health, and how to incorporate healthy carbohydrates gradually into your diet for sustained energy and vitality. 

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Transcript

[00:07] Announcer: Welcome to Stance for health podcast with Dr. Rod and Karen Worth, where becoming healthy is not complicated.

[00:16] Control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age.

[00:27] I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor, and Karen is an author, speaker, and longevity coach.

[00:34] We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your stance for Health.

[00:49] Dr. Rodney: Hi, and welcome to Stance for Health podcast. I'm Dr. Rodney, seated as usual next to the illustrious Karen Hope Lady Sebastian Wirth.

[00:59] Today we're talking about the subject of carbohydrates.

[01:04] Karen: Oh, good. Because that is such a hot topic. And we are changing our position a little bit.

[01:12] Dr. Rodney: Yes. 2020 is when we first thought we should just go ketogenic.

[01:19] Karen: Yes. And we went completely keto. 

[01:23] Dr. Rodney: Mainly for health reasons. And it was really out of the desire to just put a stop to the march of cancer. I was just a few years out of death of a spouse, and we were fresh off of a really potent seminar that got my attention.

[01:41] He did talk about sugar's role in cancer. It was called a Warburg effect. And I won't go into a ton of detail about that. All you need to know is it was a guy commissioned during World War II to find the cause of cancer, and he found it. It's just like so many things that got buried.

[02:01] Karen: Yes. And so we went after it like everything we do. Unlike most people that go gradually, we went all or nothing. Came home from that seminar and threw out half our pantry. It wasn't just the crappy carbs that we were looking at. We basically completely changed the way that we ate. And we all know what happened in 2020, so there wasn't much we could do to eat out. We began to eat all of our meals at home. And we did experience some good things with very low carb and say we.

[02:35] Dr. Rodney: Had a pretty dramatic weight loss. Certain pounds I haven't put back on yet.

[02:40] Karen: And that actually was what caused us to revamp our thinking about this way of eating, because we were so strict with it that you were continuing to lose. And we decided, what carbs can we add back in?

[02:57] Dr. Rodney: Right.

[02:58] Karen: And so we learned that there are healthy carbs. So that's what we want to talk about today.

[03:03] Dr. Rodney: We also want to talk about how the use of carbs can help balance the flexibility level in your metabolism. What we're really talking about is the way your body digests and the what. The way your body manufactures your own body from the food that you take in. Is that fair enough?

[03:23] Karen: That is completely fair because that is part of what happened as well. Is that in your case particularly, it seemed like there was some incident of leaky gut.

[03:36] Dr. Rodney: Yes. So you want to make sure that. Just remember what we're talking about today isn't medical advice as much as it is informational and something you might find useful. And in hopes that talk to your doctor, your chiropractor, maybe both, your nutritionist.

[03:56] Yeah. Or you just talk to yourself about it and say, hmm, is what I'm doing right now working for me? Just so you know, there's a lot of this research that's out there is also based on some of the things that I learned at Functional medicine University from Dr. Grishanti. Metabolic activity, or flexibility, allows your body to efficiently switch between burning carbs and fats based on energy needs. And so metabolic flexibility is linked to better insulin sensitivity. And you've probably heard the term insulin sensitivity relative to diabetes, which also will get stable energy levels and effective fat metabolism. Okay, so any thoughts about that?

[04:39] Karen: Well, I think that that's really important because I think a lot of people are not planning how they eat, so they just grab the closest thing. And most often that will either be fast food or that will be some kind of carb snack that is laced with the wrong ingredients.

[05:02] Dr. Rodney: So our thoughts, going back to what we were saying about avoiding carbohydrates that can actually reduce metabolic flexibility by causing insulin resistance and hindering proper carb utilization, because let's face it, if you want want to build muscle and you want to build endurance, you should have some good quality carbs.

[05:28] Efficient carbohydrate metabolism can increase carbon dioxide production. Why is that good? Because that actually helps deliver oxygen to your cells. So properly burning carbs can also boost NAD levels. In essence, NAD is some precursors in the Krebs cycle to ATP. You're going to want to know what to reach. We want to help you just grab stuff that God's already made and some good, safe carbohydrates, like whole food versions of it.

[06:08] And then also along with that, this article has to do with properly breathing there's at least two things here that you can talk about a little bit that both of us do every day.

[06:23] Karen: Exactly.

[06:24] Dr. Rodney: And what are those?

[06:25] Karen: I prepare all of our meals. With few exceptions, we don't go out very much because it's hard to find a restaurant that has the Right. Kind of fats. And so I think that that is something that, that I'm going to talk about in a minute. But as far as whole food carbohydrate sources, going to that produce section is full of the wonderful carbs that are from real food.

[06:55] Today I had the privilege of taking one of our current health partners who is wanting to get to the root cause of her health issues. And since Dr. Rodney is now a certified functional medicine practitioner, had the honor of taking her to shop.

[07:14] And so it was really good to go to the produce section and find good source food. The other thing is, one of the things that we bought for her were some good fats.

[07:25] Fat is not bad. We got her some avocado oil and she's going to be making her own salad dressings. And those are the things that are really important to your metabolic function.

[07:38] Dr. Rodney: Absolutely. So one of the priorities that we had when we started realizing after we read the Gundry book was the reintroduction of good, healthy carbs after a period of time of ketogenesis or going ketogenic. And that was primarily for the health reasons. It wasn't to drop weight.

[08:01] If you're listening to this and you've already dropped weight or you want to drop weight, not doing carbohydrates might be, you know, something to reconsider.

[08:11] Karen: And also intermittent fasting. We continued with that.

[08:14] Dr. Rodney: Yes. And we still do intermittent fasting and.

[08:16] Karen: We introduce good fats with that because we use MCT oil and have the whipping cream.

[08:22] Dr. Rodney: And that's our first exposure of the day, isn't it, to a nutrient. The first nutrient of the day isn't carbs, it's fat.

[08:31] Sometimes folks are doing as their first introduction of a donut.

[08:36] Come on. So what kind of a carb is that? Is that a better carb? Are there better carbs than that?

[08:42] Karen: I would hope so, yes.

[08:44] Dr. Rodney: Can you mention some of them?

[08:45] Karen: Well, what we have found is that the starch resistant carbs are the best because they take longer to break down in your digestive system and they keep you from hunger.

[08:57] Dr. Rodney: And. And if I can dovetail with that, usually they have a higher soluble and insoluble form of fiber.

[09:05] Karen: There you go.

[09:06] Dr. Rodney: Which gives your gut buddies a chance to live. And you're not feeding yourself only when you eat these things. You're also feeding the gut buddies.

[09:15] Karen: Absolutely. The other thing is exercise.

[09:19] Dr. Rodney: Wow. Okay. So when you exercise, you're actually.

[09:23] Karen: Well, let's rephrase that. Move daily movement.

[09:27] Dr. Rodney: Right.

[09:28] Karen: We do high intensity interval training at home and we Have a dvd. I know that sounds old fashioned, but we have a DVD we put in and it has lasted us for over 10 years now since we met.

[09:42] That was one of the first things we did together. I'd go over and we would do our high intensity interval training together. It's helping us with our metabolism and.

[09:51] Dr. Rodney: So we can actually have notes to some of our other podcasts regarding high intensity interval training.

[09:58] Karen: Another daily practice for us is our breathing.

[10:02] Dr. Rodney: What is your goal with a breath hold and then what are the side benefits? Some of the side benefits are obviously lengthening the copying end of your DNA. What you're doing is you're increasing CO2 or CO2 tolerance.

[10:18] What does that mean? That means you can handle more CO2, which as I mentioned earlier then actually helps to enhance oxygen delivery to your cells.

[10:28] Karen: That's so good because those cells are the ones that need to be kept awake, alive, functioning and well.

[10:37] Dr. Rodney: With that I think we're moving toward the statement of autophagy, which is the tendency with breath holds and stretching, your telomeres and things like that, those types of things that stretch your metabolic flexibility, those activities will actually create self cells that then have a tendency to voluntarily are then easier for your body to do away with.

[11:03] And when it's time, that's autophagy.

[11:05] Karen: One of the things that we do supplement and we encourage all of you to supplement is your magnesium because you cannot get adequate amount of that from the produce anymore because the ground is so depleted and it no longer is able to get those nutrients from the ground.

[11:22] So we take two magnesium just before bed every night. And that is also very important along with the B vitamins to help support that carbohydrate metabolism. As we look at that, then your ability to use the food that you are taking in so that it's used for energy is really what this is about.

[11:48] This is about feeling good. This is about having energy and the ability to get down on the floor and play with those grandkids and get back up on your own or play.

[11:57] Dr. Rodney: With your own kids.

[11:59] Karen: Yes, well, in my case it's the grandkids.

[12:02] Dr. Rodney: I wanted to make a side note here. We mentioned magnesium and we'll also have links to show notes and links to prior podcasts too about magnesium,

[12:16] because that's really important is the type of magnesium that you take in.

[12:23] Karen: One of the other things that we want to make sure with the root cause approach that we are taking now is that it's so important for your energy and for the foods that you eat to be Able to have a healed gut.

[12:41] It's just critical.

[12:43] Dr. Rodney: Absolutely. Let's think of it like this is. It's like when you eat food, it doesn't just break down in your stomach, it also breaks down in your duodenum, but also is partly digested outside of the stomach.

[12:58] It's where digestion begins in the mouth. So it's very complex. But it's simplified when you consider how healthy, when you talk about gut permeability and how that will actually affect in the general inflammation index in your body and then therefore absorption, when you consider how many diseases that happen to be triggered by increased gut permeability comes to carbohydrates.

[13:25] Karen: One of the things that we've started lately is the nine cup challenge.

[13:31] And on the days that we do that, we chew and chew and chew and chew those, those veggies.

[13:39] Nine cups of veggies per day.

[13:41] Dr. Rodney: Try half that first. I will tell you half that will make you pretty regular.

[13:47] Karen: The thing about it is that we've never felt better. And so I want to challenge you with that as well. To increase the vegetables that you're eating and make sure that you are taking care of putting the right foods in and eliminate packaged everything.

[14:07] Just eliminate it. Read the labels to see what's in it.

[14:12] And if you want a list of the packaged carbs that we do eat, write us a dm. I'd be happy to share a couple of really good sources. But on the whole, we are eating whole foods.

[14:27] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. You've really mastered nutritional preparation aspect of it.

[14:32] Karen: Fun. Of course.

[14:33] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[14:33] Karen: I have a sous chef sitting next to me and he also cleans up after me. So I have to give that cat.

[14:38] Dr. Rodney: I was gonna say, not bragging or anything, but I also wash the dishes.

[14:42] Karen: Yes, Yep. Thank you for that.

[14:44] Dr. Rodney: Of course. And something to mention here is that I used to think that all fruit were carbs and vegetables were vegetables. They weren't carbs or they didn't have carbohydrates in them.

[14:57] Not so. Yeah. Because vegetables actually do have carbs in them. So if you're out there and, and you're just eating protein and you're eating veget, thinking that you're not getting any carbs.

[15:07] Sorry, you're getting some carbs. They're just really well put together carbs. They're on the whole, well sourced, most of them. When you get veggies. Yeah, you're going to have some carbs.

[15:18] Karen: So eat whole food.

[15:19] Dr. Rodney: Yep.

[15:22] Karen: Good fats,

[15:24] daily movement,

[15:26] breath work,

[15:28] good nutrient intake and use low carb for short periods of time if you want to kind of give your body that opportunity to quickly move into less inflammation and weight loss, then gradually incorporate the carbs back in.

[15:49] Dr. Rodney: Wow. Really good summary, really good advice. And that's from somebody who's really living it. Well, thank you there, Hope lady.

[15:56] Karen: Thank you, Doc.

[15:58] Dr. Rodney: And we're really so glad to come to you today to discuss the subject. It's. It's a pretty broad subject. There's. There's a lot that we could talk about with carbohydrates, but I think that those.

[16:09] That was a,

[16:11] a different slant, a different way of looking at carbs today and hope that you found it interesting. If you like this, please share this podcast with somebody that you feel like could benefit from it and like it.

[16:25] Write us a review and we'll be more than grateful. We just, we want to help people with this information and as you take your stance for health. Thanks for listening.

[16:40] Announcer: Thank you for joining us at Stance for Health podcast, where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think. Subscribe now and discover steps and small changes that can increase your energy and open the door to vibrant health and longevity.

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