How Much Sugar Can I eat? Defining Low Carb

I am a sugar addict in early remission. 

What is helped me to increasingly lower my sugar intake and now comfortably stay in ketosis for several weeks has been the increasing insight into the negative effects on (refined) sugar) on human health and wellbeing and the personal experience of how sugar affects me.

From what I can tell, our Western diet is characterized by a high carbohydrates intake. The differences between my diet in Germany when I grew up and the so called Standard American Diet (SAD - nomen est omen) are probably marginal. Both had high carb contents, the use of high fructose corn syrup was probably higher in the US but Germany has been catching up over the past decades. 

There are numerous lines of evidence (=published, peer controlled, large scale studies, including randomized clinical trials) that demonstrate the plethora of positive effects of lowering your overall carb intake. I shall post more about that in the future. 

For now, it's probably good to start with definitions - to clarify, what I mean by low carb and how far you would have to cut your carb intake to be considered being on a low carb diet. 

A good point to start is a review by Feinman et al. It's a review and for those interested RTWT (read the whole thing). Feinman looked at carbohydrate restriction as a first approach in diabetes management. For that matter, they define diets by their carbohydrate content:

• High carb: Over 45% of the total caloric intake comes from carbs

• Moderate carb: 26-45% of the total caloric intake comes from carbs 

• Low carb: Less than 26% derived from carbs. That's less than130 grams of carbs/day

• Very low carbohydrate ketogenic diet (VLCKD): Less than10% of calories (20-50 grams of carbs) 

What do I do with that information:

The average American today derives about 50% of calories from carbohydrates. The SAD is a high carb diet and that's what's driving the obesity epidemic. Sadly, the American Diabetes Association still recommends a high carb diet (sic!)

Moderate carb intake (26-45%) is the upper limit for living a healthy life in the author's opinion. Interestingly, that is also what average Americans ate before a few decades ago. Just have a look at TV footage from the 60s or 70s (moderate carb intake) and compare that to what you see on TV today (high carb intake). Notice the difference? 

Low and very low carb (VLCKD) diets offer is where weight loss and maintenance of a healthy body weight and composition become simple and sustainable. On this diet, your carbohydrate intake is less than 130 grams today for the low carb diet and between 20-50 grams today for the very low carb diet (ketogenic diet). That's not a lot of carbs by today's standard. A coke and chips - I'm not even adding the sandwich that would go well with that - will get you certainly get you above 50 grams. You will need determination to stay on a low carb intake if you've lived high sugar life before. It does not necessarily have to be a very low carb diet (keto) but when your carb intake is that low, your body will start to produce ketones by burning fat and both body and mind will run well on it. Your energy levels will be more even keel and your mind is less perturbed by the spikes of insulin and glucose levels observed on the high carb diet because carbohydrate restriction will keep your insulin levels low. If you want to lose weight, go very low carb (keto), I would even recommend fasting. You can fast for a long time, a very long time if you stay on top of your hydration and minerals and vitamins. Angus did. His body was running on ketones. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, lowering your carb intake will increase your health if you're on the SAD. If you want to change that, here's all the diet you need:

H2O