Roots to Health with Dr. Craig Keever
Welcome to Roots to Health—where we dig deep into the foundation of lifelong wellness! Hosted by Dr. Craig Keever, Northwest Arkansas’ first and only plant-based pediatrician, this podcast unearths the power of nutrition, lifestyle, and holistic health to help kids, families, and adults thrive.
What can you expect?
Dr. Keever breaks down the science of nutrition and disease prevention in a way that’s simple, practical, and life-changing. From raising healthy kids to optimizing adult wellness, each episode delivers key insights that challenge conventional wisdom and empower you to take control of your health.
Whether he’s debunking nutrition myths, explaining how food shapes long-term well-being, or sharing actionable tips for disease prevention, Roots to Health is your go-to guide for vibrant living—one bite, one step, and one conversation at a time.
Get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about health—and discover just how powerful roots can be!
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Roots to Health with Dr. Craig Keever
Demystifying Carbs: Why Your Body Needs What You've Been Avoiding- Episode 4
Carbohydrates have been unfairly demonized in modern diet culture, but this eye-opening exploration of the science behind our body's preferred fuel source challenges everything you thought you knew about nutrition.
We dive deep into the macronutrient balance that actually supports optimal health: roughly 15% protein, 30% fat, and 55% carbohydrates for the average healthy person. This isn't just theory – it's how our bodies are designed to function. While trendy diets might suggest otherwise, the existence of "keto flu" (with no equivalent "carb flu") demonstrates how unnatural ultralow-carb approaches truly are.
The key distinction emerges between complex carbohydrates (fiber and starches from whole grains, legumes, and vegetables) and their refined counterparts (white flour, sugar). When carbohydrates are consumed in their natural state, complete with fiber and nutrients, they provide sustained energy without problematic blood sugar spikes. The processing of these foods strips away their nutritional value, transforming wholesome nutrition into something that barely qualifies as food.
Perhaps most fascinating is the discussion around diabetes and carbohydrates. Contrary to conventional wisdom that often recommends carb restriction, high-fat diets actually worsen insulin resistance by allowing fat to infiltrate muscle and liver cells, blocking insulin receptors. For many diabetics, a low-fat, plant-based diet rich in complex carbs dramatically improves insulin sensitivity and reduces insulin requirements – a counterintuitive approach backed by compelling evidence. The episode concludes with a powerful examination of fiber's crucial role in supporting our microbiome, which produces chemical communicators essential for brain function, mood regulation, and hormonal balance. Ready to transform your relationship with carbohydrates? Visit ozarkpediatrics.org for more resources on plant-based nutrition and join our supportive community!
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The information provided in this video is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have seen or heard in this video. Dr. Craig Keever is a licensed pediatrician, but the content shared here is general in nature and may not be applicable to your individual health needs.
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And I'd like to welcome everybody to Roots for Health. Is it Roots for?
Dr. Craig Keever:Health Roots to Health Roots to Health, can't even remember the name of my own podcast, and today we've discussed a little bit about protein, a little bit about fat and I'm going to hit the third major macronutrient that we have.
Dr. Craig Keever:And when you think about macronutrients and how we look at our diet, what you've got to remember is that because we have just these three macronutrients, when you make a change in one, that'll automatically somehow make a change in one or both of the others. Okay, I say that because when we're talking about protein and I don't know if I mentioned this statistic before, but generally speaking, protein consists of somewhere between 10 to 15 percent of our total calories in the diet. Okay, for a normal, healthy individual, that's about the right range. There's, again, some flexibility with that. Generally speaking, with fats, as I mentioned in the last one we're talking in your average healthy adult with no metabolic disease, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% to 35% of your total calories should come from fats. All right, so what does that leave? Well, if you've got about, let's say, on the top end, 15% protein and let's say, 30% fat, that leaves 55% carbohydrates.
Amy Keever:Aren't carbs the enemy, which is always so taboo in the standard diet?
Dr. Craig Keever:Holy cow. What about all these low carb things? And oh, the keto diet and the carnivore diet and carbs are bad. Wrong answer. And here's the deal. All right, we're talking about a sustainable eating habit. Ok, I know for a fact. Keto is not sustainable. All right, there's a condition known as the keto flu. Yeah, okay, there is no condition called the carb flu. Okay, our bodies.
Amy Keever:Maybe a funnel cake carb Right.
Dr. Craig Keever:Our bodies are made to burn carbs. Okay, that's what we do. Carbs are a major source of of energy and you'll see it. When you get on the right carbs, you'll feel it, you'll know yeah, oh yeah your body will tell you absolutely, yeah, I mean it's just the right answer for our bodies nothing is sustainable when it loads your whole system down on proteins and then eliminates carbs right like you, can't function like that.
Dr. Craig Keever:Yeah, it's just not yeah, and I would offer that in. You know, in my mind, a keto diet is setting you up for death. It is Now.
Amy Keever:There are some things that a keto diet can, on a short-term basis, seem to help with, and that's important for people to see, because they'll always say things like that Well, my efforts went down, yeah.
Dr. Craig Keever:There are some things that initially seem to get better. A keto diet can promote a fairly rapid weight loss. I would contend that a rapid weight loss is not healthy for you. Yeah, okay, a sustained, slow and steady weight loss to the tune of about two to four pounds a month is a healthy, sustainable weight loss. Ok, why am I talking about this with carbs? Well, there is a form of carb that is the enemy. Ok, the good carbs there is the good carbs are complex carbohydrates.
Dr. Craig Keever:The good carbs are complex carbohydrates, okay, and that comes in the form primarily of fiber and starches. There are some amount of simple carbohydrates, if they come straight from the plant, that are also healthy Okay.
Amy Keever:The problem comes when we get into the refined carbohydrates refined sugar, refined flour okay, those are really some of the biggest offenders so isn't it like the complex carbs has that fiber in it where it the body knows how to kind of break it down and it and so it's taking a little bit of that away exactly, and, like we talked about with the production of oils with fats, all right.
Dr. Craig Keever:The problem is, I mean, they use in. As for an example, we'll take wheat Okay, wheat, the whole grain. Wheat is good for you Okay, and it's got several layers, and some of them contain more fiber and some of them contain more starches and micronutrients, and all of that. The problem is with refined flour. They take two of those layers away, they strip away all the goodness and all you're left with is this glob of carbohydrate that gets immediately absorbed into your bloodstream and causes sugar spikes and that's a problem you talk about a little growing human.
Amy Keever:You talk about a toddler or a baby. It's like that's so important for the little brains to be getting the right things to feed.
Dr. Craig Keever:I mean, nutrition is everything that's right that growing child refined sugar does the same thing. It's absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Causes causes sugar spikes in your bloodstream, which causes an insulin spike in your bloodstream. Inflammation Inflammation you know, insulin is definitely a hugely important hormone in our body, but you don't want too much of it, which can you touch on just a little bit?
Amy Keever:I know we've talked about this before, but when someone's taking all those carbs out and they're high protein high protein that they're setting themselves up, they might not have blood sugar spikes because they're not taking a carb in, but they are. They have a lot of insulin resistance.
Dr. Craig Keever:That's right Because of the fat cells. Yeah, yeah, so I may be getting you off topic.
Amy Keever:No, no.
Dr. Craig Keever:I mean, I think you're exactly right in terms of you know, a lot of diabetics have been taught by either physicians or other people who don't understand where insulin resistance comes from, that you need to avoid carbs and you need to focus on fats and avoid fruit, Right? Well, the problem with that is, over time, that fat leaches into our muscle and liver cells and creates insulin resistance. It blocks the insulin. It blocks the insulin. So In a type 2 diabetic, that's all that's going on. We've experienced the standard American diet with 60 to 70% of our calories coming from fat. It's gotten into places where it doesn't belong. It blocks our insulin receptors. The problem is type 1 diabetics, who don't make insulin as the cause of their initial problem, get stuck on that and then they develop insulin resistance as well. Crazy chaotic sugars. So, yes, so when they develop insulin resistance and they don't make their own, what that means for them is they keep having to increase the dose of insulin hence mastering diabetes hence the the book mastering diabetes.
Dr. Craig Keever:I'll put a plug in for that. That's where I learned a lot about my sugar metabolism type 1 diabetics.
Amy Keever:yeah, the authors Two type 1 diabetics.
Dr. Craig Keever:Yeah, the authors are two type 1 diabetics who were having trouble with their blood sugars, and Cyrus Kambada went and got his PhD in biochemical nutrition and figured all this out that what we need, as diabetics either type 1 or type 2, is a diet very low in fat to reverse our insulin resistance and he eats a tremendous amount of fruit.
Amy Keever:He lives in a tropical area. You are living proof of this. I've watched it.
Dr. Craig Keever:He eats tons of carbs and his insulin dependence has dropped dramatically.
Amy Keever:That is so important for moms that have kids that have insulin.
Dr. Craig Keever:It's huge.
Amy Keever:Yeah, both types of ones.
Dr. Craig Keever:So yeah, so, and we've digressed a little bit about the specific carb.
Amy Keever:I got you on topic. That's quite all right.
Dr. Craig Keever:But it's a fascinating topic. Yeah, but all this is related to kind of carbs, and so we're talking about kind of. The title of this is talking about demystifying the plant-based energy for life. So again, welcome to this section of the podcast. I'm a little late in that, but bottom line is, as we've discussed, I mean, carbs are not bad for you. Carbs are what our body thrives on and, as we've said, the issue is the processed carbs and, as I mentioned before, for proteins, we get four calories per gram of protein we take. We also get four calories per gram of carbohydrate we take and we get nine calories per gram of fat that we take in.
Dr. Craig Keever:So what are the types of carbs? I've mentioned them a little bit. There's the simple carbs, which are glucose and fructose basically single molecules and then the complex carbs, which are the starches and the fibers. These are primarily found in whole grains and legumes and vegetables. These are primarily found in whole grains and legumes and vegetables. So commonly held myth carbs make you gain weight. Not true? Okay, the combination of too much fat and refined carbs will make you gain weight.
Amy Keever:Guaranteed. I mean, I almost don't want to call that a carb. You know, refined carbs are so beaten down Exactly to call it food even is a little bit of a stretch. That's exactly right. I saw something last week that said 100 years ago, 90% of what is our grocery stores didn't exist, and 100 years ago, 90% of our chronic disease did not exist. There it is and there is a correlation. There is a definite correlation.
Dr. Craig Keever:So where do we find these healthy carbs? So the primary sources are going to be whole grains, to include quinoa and oats and brown rice and farro and millet. These things are high in fiber, high in B vitamins all kinds of goodness for you. You can also find a good amount of healthy, complex carbohydrates in lentils and chickpeas and all kinds of things like that. And then there's the starchy options to include potatoes and sweet potatoes and favorite peas and corn.
Amy Keever:So you know, something I really realized that helped me the most was to get the textures of the foods we used to like, you know, to get be able to get that crunch. I miss the crunch of things, so, being able to slice, I'm going to be doing some carrot bacon pretty soon.
Dr. Craig Keever:Well, and then another source of the more simple carbs are going to be your fruits, you know, and again, these are not the enemy. I mean to point back to Cyrus Combato of Mastering Diabetes. He does not get blood sugar spikes just because he eats a banana or he eats an orange. Okay, and that's because his body knows how to metabolize that. Our bodies, again, we're made to metabolize carbs. They are good for us, just not the wrong kind of carbs.
Amy Keever:And not that I'm totally against juicing, but juicing does take out the fiber and it is a little bit more of a hit to your liver. It is. You know it's not the thing to do on the daily. I do occasionally do it just for fun. But Again, if you've got a, healthy liver.
Dr. Craig Keever:It's not a problem to do, sometimes it's kind of fun. So other options for carbs You're going to be looking at whole grain bread, pasta and sprouted grains. I would offer you want to be careful with some of those because, particularly the breads and the pastas, you got to watch where their flours are coming from, the enriched flours again, they're not going to be really good for you All right Particularly if you're a type 2 diabetic, diabetic, um, what I have found, uh, like it or hate it, I love it.
Dr. Craig Keever:Actually, ezekiel bread, um has been my savior. I was missing bread for a long time and finally found that ezekiel bread has a glycemic index of 36.
Amy Keever:And your blood sugar just doesn't seem to be affected by it. And I toast almost on the daily now.
Dr. Craig Keever:Yep, yep that's wonderful, you know, and it's fabulous, so, all right. So what's the big deal with carbs and how do they affect our blood sugar? Well, like I said, it gets absorbed in and we burn. Our cells burn these carbohydrates to produce energy for motion and everything. And, um, when we take in a few too many carbs, as I've mentioned, uh, you know, our body has a system for that. I mentioned that in one of the last two uh podcasts. But our body has a system for that and we store extra carbohydrates in the form of a substance called glycogen. And what glycogen does then is when we reach a point, um, if we're exercising or haven't eaten for a while, or whatever, and our blood sugar starts to drop a little bit, then our body mobilizes the right enzymes and it breaks off some of that glycogen, which then produces glucose, which is what our body needs, right, you know, our brain functions on glucose, absolutely, and so that's.
Amy Keever:And it's so important to know how one affects the other. You know, as far as, like a fruit, you can't just say OK, a fruit never elevates your blood sugar. It does if you have insulin resistance because your fat content is too high or you have weight to lose, and things like that exactly. They really do affect each other. They do all right.
Amy Keever:But it's really important where you get your information, because I know a lot of diabetics that have been told they hadn't had fruit in 15 years. You bet, and it's like the fruit's not the enemy.
Dr. Craig Keever:Yeah, fruit's not the enemy, Well, and so, as we talked about a little bit ago, you know the average healthy person's diet should be ballpark 15% protein, 30% fat, 55% carbohydrate, protein, Well, as a type 2 diabetic, what I've found is working very well for me if I can keep my fat content to 10 and my protein content to about 15, that leaves me 75% of my diet is complex carbohydrates, 75%. So that's where I get my stuff, man.
Amy Keever:You know, and it's like you're, you're lifting weights and you're doing just fine with all of that and chronometer. When you're like doing this, and if someone's like, oh my gosh, this is so overwhelming, you can actually change what chronometer says, cause they're going to say something different to the standard diet, that you need this much more protein. You can change your settings to where it's already in there and, yes, it's not fun initially to put your recipes in, but you can share, we share recipes. It'll go on both of our things. So that might really help somebody. If they're. The Daily Dozen is not necessarily something that I get every day, but it's kind of a good way to get around it. Dr Greger's Daily Dozen app is a kind of a way to get an idea of what you need.
Dr. Craig Keever:So I would say, as a take home point for the carbs podcast you know, just remember that carbs are not the enemy. What is the enemy? It's the processed carb. You know, processed foods are the scourge of the world, yeah, and I should say I throw a little bit about fiber in here too, because fiber is a carbohydrate. All right, why is fiber so important?
Dr. Craig Keever:Well, well, I've recently made a short video for my website on ozarkpediatricsorg that discussed a little bit about fiber, so I won't rehash that whole thing, but suffice it to say that our intestinal microbiome needs all different kinds of fiber to be healthy and, um, super important, super important, I like to. What I've heard is that it's now, in some circles, being referred to our microbiome and our intestinal tract is being referred to as a second brain, because when our microbes come in contact with and digest the right types of fiber, they create all kinds of chemical communicators. Most importantly, that I've learned about. There's probably more, but the one that's the hot topic these days is short chain fatty acids, which then communicate with your brain for mood stabilization, intellectual function, communicates with all your glands for hormone uh stabilization. Um, just an infinite number.
Amy Keever:It's been said that 90 of our body is made up of these bugs and and we're, we're the. It's my understanding that if, if we're pounded by the omega-6s, we're losing a lot of those bugs, because that if, they're kind of.
Dr. Craig Keever:Well, and yeah, and, and. So what I would say about that is, you know, as I started this series with the protein and recognizing that most non plant-based eaters will say where do you get your protein? Well, my favorite question in response to that is where do you get your fiber? And I like to refer back to Facebook, because we learn everything from Facebook these days. One of my favorite memes about this topic shows an empty hospital ward with all these empty beds, and the statement under it is this is the number of people that have been hospitalized in the United States from protein shortage. It's so true, though. Lack of protein. And then, next to that, it shows a hugely busy intensive care unit with people having lots of problems from heart disease and whatnot, and this is a picture of lack of fiber. Yeah, so true, because lack of fiber is at the. It's a big deal. It is a big deal, it's a big deal.
Amy Keever:It is a big deal, I think people think of it. As for irregularity, but it's like it is the brain, like you said to your whole body. That's right. Yeah, we've seen that too.
Dr. Craig Keever:So I would like to encourage everybody to eat your healthy carbs. To encourage everybody to eat your healthy carbs and tune in to our website, ozarkpediatricsorg. At the top of the first page you'll see a plant-based resources tab, and so we'll have all kinds of links there to plant-based eating stuff and, like I said, I'm creating some shorts for the website and other areas about all my plant-based experiences and little tidbits that hopefully everybody will get to have a Facebook community so you can find that on the plant-based resource, so you can join that group.
Amy Keever:So because it we just kind of we want to help anybody who's in transition, who's trying to figure out for their kids, you know, what's healthy diet.
Dr. Craig Keever:Exactly so in closing, carbs aren't the enemy.
Amy Keever:That's right.
Dr. Craig Keever:They're your body's best friend. Embrace the power of plant-based carbs and fuel your life. Thank you.
