How “Essential” Are Carbohydrates?

I previously did an episode of Real Health Radio all about carbohydrates.

I upload my podcasts to Youtube and I noticed recently that there was a comment under it. The comments said:

“There are zero requirements for carbs. Your podcast is dangerous with bad info.”

That was it for the comment so I don’t have any more information on this person’s reason for saying this. But if I was to hazard a guess it has to do with the word “essential” that is used in nutrition and the misunderstanding of what this really means.

So there are three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein (amino acids) and fats.

In nutrition, we talk about “essential” amino acids. There are nine amino acids that fall into this category. We also talk about “essential” fatty acids. There are two of these.

But there isn’t an “essential” carbohydrates. And this is what I believe this person was trying to get at.

But it’s not quite so simple.

When talking about nutrition, the word “essential” simply means that the body isn’t able to synthesise this substance itself. If it doesn’t come in through the diet, that the body can’t make it.

This is a little different to how we normally think of the word “essential”. Normally it means “the most important”. Therefore things that are “non-essential” are less important.

But from a physiology perspective, just because something isn’t “essential” doesn’t make it any less important and often actually it points to it being more important, as is the case with carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates, and more specifically the simple sugars it breaks down to (like glucose), are so important to health that the body doesn’t leave it to chance that these are going to come through the diet.

It has mechanisms in place that if adequate carbohydrates aren’t coming in through the diet, it can convert protein and fat into glucose.

The fact that there aren’t any “essential” carbohydrates doesn’t prove it’s unimportant, more the other way around.

Now, this doesn’t mean everyone has to eat a high carbohydrate diet. Some people do better on more, others on less. But to say that as humans we have zero need for carbohydrates is misunderstanding physiology.

And the same line of thinking applies also with fats. If the only fats you ate were linoleic and alpha-linolenic acid, which are the two “essential” fats, then good health would not ensue. The body has incredibly important functions that are dependent on all the other types of fat.

And even if in theory the body can make these other types, it’s most unlikely it would be able to make them all in the quantities that are needed if you restricted yourself just to the “essential” fats.

Same with protein. Forcing the body to have to make lots of the amino acids because you are restricting your diet just to the “essential” ones is putting a burden on the body that could be easily removed by simply diversifying your diet.

Too often it feels like people are trying to give the body the bare-bones minimum to get by. When instead they should be giving it an abundance of good quality calories and nutrients to make its job as easy as possible.

It’s very common to twist nutritional ideas to fit a diet paradigm. If you feel better going low carb, then do it. But believing that eating carbohydrates is not important or even that they are dangerous is just that, a belief and not a fact.

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