As a vegan people often ask me whether I believe eating organic is important etc. While I do think eating local, organic, whole foods should be at the top of ones priority list when it comes to diet for health reasons. I do not recommend going over your budget strictly to eat the most expensive produce at whole foods. The main focus should be eating a low fat high carb diet. Here are 5 reasons why.

1. Calorie Density

One can start by looking at the energy density of certain macro-nutrients.

One gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories.
One gram of protein = 4 calories.
One gram of fat = 9 calories.

It is easy to see that in a world of scarcity, perhaps like the one our ancestors inhabited 10,000+ years ago, that fat was an easier way to reach our daily energy requirements. Nowadays many of us in the first world live in luxury, and calorie over-consumption is more of a concern than starvation. because of this many of us are in the restriction mindset, limiting the amount of foods that we eat, not the type of foods that we eat.

Oreo Cookies

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 100 grams (100 g)

Per Serving% Daily Value*

Calories 474

Calories from Fat 174

Total Fat 19.412g29%

Saturated Fat 6.176g29%

Cholesterol 0mg0%

Sodium 421mg18%

Potassium 184mg6%

Carbohydrates 72.059g24%

Dietary Fiber 3.529g15%

Sugars 40.294g

Protein 3.529g

Vitamin A 0% · Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 3% · Iron 26%

Potatoes - baked with skin, without salt

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 100 grams (100 g)

Per Serving% Daily Value*

Calories 75

Calories from Fat 1

Total Fat 0.116g0%

Saturated Fat 0.058g0%

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.058g

Monounsaturated Fat 0g

Cholesterol 0mg0%

Sodium 10mg1%

Potassium 419mg12%

Carbohydrates 17.572g6%

Dietary Fiber 1.329g5%

Sugars 0.694g

Protein 2.023g

Vitamin A 0% · Vitamin C 31%

Calcium 1% · Iron 4%

This is an example of how much fat can add up. It would take just over 400 grams of Oreo cookies to exceed the 2000 calorie mark (36.7% calories from fat). On the other hand it you need to eat 2.6 kilograms of potatoes to have consumed 2000 calories. Which one can you eat more of without feeling guilty? The potatoes! There is the misconception by a lot of people that 'carbs make you fat' but I believe it is just the opposite. While you CAN overeat carbohydrate foods, it is the hidden fat in junk food, oils, and animal products that accumulates and makes up a huge chunk of our calories. When we look at pastries like donuts and cake, our automatic reaction is limit ourselves because we don't want to overdose on sugar. But often times pastries can be 30 - 40% calories from fat, which is the same problem as the Oreo. The energy density is simply too high and we are then caught in this neurotic mode where we 'restrict'. You want the food, but you tell yourself "Oh no I can't have that" and all the rest. If you fill yourself up on carbohydrate rich foods you won't get the cravings that most of us all believe are inevitable.

2. Dietary Thermogenesis & Fidgeting

Lets say your daily calorie expenditure was 2500 calories, and you had a dessert at night that brought your total calories consumed to 3000 calories. That is an excess of 500 calories and if you repeated this for a week you could expect to gain around a pound of fat. But if you over consume low-fat high carb foods, there are two things your body wants to do before storing those calories as fat.

First it will burn a decent percentage of those excess calories as heat energy. I provide a link to a study below.

Stimulation of Thermogenesis by Carbohydrate Overfeeding

Second is the phenomenon of non exercise activity thermogenisis (NEAT) or fidgeting. Which increases with overfeeding and decreases with underfeeding. This could be as simple as tapping your foot or twirling a pencil in class, or walking back and forth to the kitchen to fill up your cup with water from the tap. In some cases you can burn up to 700 extra calories a day over your basal metabolic rate just from NEAT!

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis – It’s NEAT!

3. Fiber

Fiber increases the volume of food without increasing the calories it provides. All whole plant foods have fiber and it is essential to our digestion and gut health. Barring any exceptional health and digestive issues, when eating fruits and vegetables you can never have too much fiber as long as you stay hydrated. All high carb plant foods are packed with fiber so they are naturally lower on the glycemic index because their digestion is regulated and slow. And come on, who doesn't want to be a 4 on the Bristol Stool Chart.

4. Energy

If you want to step up the intensity in your exercise or simply get more shit done. Then eat a high carb diet because it will help refuel your glycogen stores and the fiber will slow down the digestion enough to keep you satiated so you don't get hungry again until you would normally have your next meal.

5. Taste

This is a simple one, high carb foods are tasty! I'll be posting healthy recipes in the future.

Remember don't limit yourself from how much you eat, but what you eat. I often hear this as one of the complaints of eating a healthy diet... it goes something like this.

Breakfast: 1 banana, 1 apple, 1 orange
Lunch: 2 pieces of avocado toast
Dinner: 12 donuts, 4 slices of pizza, and 3 beers

The example above is common, people set out to eat healthy but they are still in the calorie restrictive mindset and don't realize they are only eating like 250 calories for breakfast and maybe 450 for lunch. Even a petite and completely sedentary woman needs at least 1500 calories to break even. Only eating 700 calories before dinner is a recipe for disaster and cravings galore! Our stomachs tune into the dense, high fat, high calorie later in the evening and we find ourselves stuffing our faces and feeling like shit afterwards. Without knowing it we are recreating that scarcity mode by restricting our carb calories and it almost always leads to overeating fat. Here is an example of a better diet, one that still allows for the fun flavors and tastes of the previous example.

Breakfast: 3 bananas, 3 apples, 3 oranges
Lunch: 2 pieces of of avocado toast
Dinner: 1 whole veggie pizza (no cheese)

For the same petite woman who only needs 1500 calories a day, this will provide all of her needs and fill her up without overeating and being overcome with feelings of guilt or bloating etc.
List of some high carb foods...

1. Sweet potatoes/Yams
2. Potatoes
3. Rice
4. Bananas
5. Dates
6. Pasta
7. Oats & Grains
8. Bread

After all is said, I do not want you to go and count your macronutrients or to count your calories. If anything this should give you confidence in knowing that as long as you eat high carb foods till you are full, you are probably getting enough calories. And even if you overeat a little... no big deal! So I urge all my readers to carb the fuck up and live a life of purpose.