How do you speak the truth about the role of carbohydrates in nutrition and keep your grant money flowing? Bury it on page 275 of a 1300-page report sporting a large panel of well-credentialed scientists as the authors.
Here's what you'll find if you have the patience or curiosity to get that far:
Here's what you'll find if you have the patience or curiosity to get that far:
The lower limit of dietary carbohydrate compatible with life apparently is zero, provided that adequate amounts of protein and fat are consumed.
There's more:
There are traditional populations that ingested a high fat, high protein diet containing only a minimal amount of carbohydrate for extended periods of time (Masai), and in some cases for a lifetime after infancy (Alaska and Greenland Natives, Inuits, and Pampas indigenous people) (Du Bois, 1928; Heinbecker, 1928). There was no apparent effect on health or longevity. Caucasians eating an essentially carbohydrate-free diet, resembling that of Greenland natives, for a year tolerated the diet quite well (Du Bois, 1928). However, a detailed modern comparison with populations ingesting the majority of food energy as carbohydrate has never been done.
That last sentence is telling. No one wants to do the definitive study for fear of what it will say. They don't want to know. On the other hand, the experiment is ongoing in trailer parks across the U.S.
See:
DIETARY REFERENCE INTAKES FOR Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. The Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
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