Permalink Reply by Peter Csere on Short answer: Carbs are sugar, and no.
Long answer:
Carbohydrates are sugar, and we sometimes refer to them as either sugar or starch, even though starch is still sugar. There are "simple carbs" such as in fruit, which are single- or double-sugars. (mono- or di- saccharides.) "Complex carbs" are polysaccharides - i.e. any sugar with 3 or more sugar molecules. Raw starchy vegetables such as potatoes have complex carbs, but when you cook them, the starch is converted into sugar, i.e. the complex carbs are converted to simple carbs, i.e. the polysaccharides are broken down into monosaccharides and disaccharides. So whether you're eating fruit or cooked potatoes, you're eating mostly simple carbs (granted, the potato still has some starch.) Unripe bananas are starchy and the starch converts to sugar as it ripens. Hopefully that confused you a little bit.
When you eat carbohydrates i.e. sugar, they are converted into glucose (if they aren't already) and used for energy. The glucose that's not used for energy is converted into glycogen and stored. When you can't store any more glycogen, the glycogen is converted into triglycerides (fat.)
However, there is another element - it's called dietary thermogenesis. in the digestion/convertion process, heat is released. As we know from highschool science, no conversion is 100% efficient. So in reality, on the 811 diet, excess carb calories are burned off as body heat. The amount of carbohydrates you'd have to eat to get the excess converted into fat gain - that would be a physically impossible volume to consume.
Permalink Reply by Gretchen A. on Thanks for clearing things up for us Peter!
Permalink Reply by Peter David Ebdon on Hi Pete,
If they did, Durianrider would be a world champion sumo wrestler by now!
Carbs from fruit, however, are completely different from sugar in processed foods, for example.
As D.R says, 'fruit is your friend!' and in his opinion, the best source of carbs... (organic if at all possible)
All the best,
Peter
Permalink Reply by Peter Csere on Congratulations you are the third Peter in this thread.
Permalink Reply by Durianwriter on Unfortunately its not that simple. It appears that the way that fructose is metabolized in the liver produces triglycerides, which is blood fat.
This is something I'm very confused about myself, as the point of avoiding overt fats is to keep fat out of the blood. We've all seen Jeff Novick's youtube vid (I think its this one) about how fat thickens and slows blood.
I would really appreciate it if someone like Adam or Dr. Gosia could give us a good explanation of why this happens and why fruit is good for us anyway :P
Permalink Reply by Peter Csere on Cool bit of knowledge; do you know how much X amount of fructose affects blood trig levels? Compared to overt fats? Without that data, the knowledge about the liver producing triglycerides from fructose metabolism is pretty irrelevant. For all I know, it produces a miniscule amount of triglycerides.
Get a glucometer and measure your blood sugar on a fruit diet. If the liver was producing a significant amount of triglycerides from that amazing quantity of fruits, surely the glucometer would reveal?
Permalink Reply by Durianwriter on Peter, I don't know why a glucometer would reveal triglycerides. Glucometers measure the sugar in your blood stream, not the fat.
Wild fruit are actually high in fructose than more domesticated fruits, which are higher in sucrose. Sucrose is just disaccharide, which means 2 sugars stuck together (glucose-fructose). So there is still fructose in all of our fruit. I have no idea how many triglycerides are created from the metabolism of one fructose molecule, but its a good question.
As far as the corn syrup thing, fructose is a molecule. The molecule fructose is the same in corn syrup as it is in fruit. This doesn't mean that corn syrup is good for us - its got all kinds of other things that are bad - like whatever toxins are created by GMO. It could be that when in the presence of the stuff in corn syrup, fructose is more likely to turn into triglycerides. I don't know. I'm no scientist. That's why I'm calling on the smart folks to help us out.
Permalink Reply by Peter Csere on Oh Lindsay I thought of something else. I believe the profile of sugars in modern/hybridized fruits is significantly different than it is in wild fruits... Perhaps less fructose in wild fruits and more of the other stuff? I'm not quite certain what the difference is but I remember reading about it a while back. Interesting subject!
Permalink Reply by Nathan on Most/all of the studies done on fructose are done on high fructose corn syrup, which is obviously bad. I think a lot of people extrapolate from them to conclude that all fructose is bad.
Permalink Reply by Ben on I'm about to do a long video on my blood tests on 811 versus my blood test on a higher fat non-vegan whole food diet for 2 months. It will show the change in fasting blood sugar, LDL, HDL, total cholesterol, omega 3 breakdowns, and mineral levels. It might shed some let for you and even surprise you.
Permalink Reply by Chris Califano on Calories are calories in some fundamental ways however.
Interestingly, simple fruit carbs- mono or disaccharides- can put weight on your body in the fat site areas such as the abdomen and even chest for men, and the hips and thighs for women (these are the general fat sites for the majority of males and females, as opposed to muscle sites, which are very last to add fat to when the body consumes too many calories than it burns or stores as glycogen.
While these stored "triglyceride fats" are easier to get rid of by reversing the process (consuming less calories than the previous amount), they still appear as "fatty deposits" on the body. I know, I did a one year experiment with eating more calories just from fruit, greens, and very little overt fat and only from avocado or brazil nuts. I did not consume ANY overt fats during June, July or August. Okay maybe I had a few tiny tastes, since I do run a raw food service, but hardly any overt fat at all for one year. I put up the exact calories, percentages, and even a picture of my midsection (which really showed how much of a "fatty layer" I added. Also, it was obvious to see that I had diminished my muscular definition, which even vascular in my thighs when I ate less carb calories. But the post was removed.
As a serious student of nutrition, certified physical fitness specialist and trainer for 45 years, I like to actually test things out thoroughly. I have read and researched for decades, but there is nothing like experiencing something for myself to know for sure.
Words can confuse. What most people want to know is "Do I look fat in this dress" and how it is added, and taken away.
Permalink Reply by Justin Lovenow on 
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