Carbohydrates - 5 Tips in 5 Minutes

Carbs—loved by many, feared by some. In this short and punchy episode, Aaron Shaw of HealthSpan PhysioCoaching breaks down five science-backed tips about carbohydrates in just five minutes. Learn why carbs don’t cause weight gain (spoiler: it’s all about portion size and quality), how to adjust your carb intake for your activity level, and the best timing for carbs to optimize performance and recovery. Aaron also dives into age, gender, and health-specific considerations and highlights the importance of balancing carbs with proteins and fats to sustain energy and protect muscle tissue.

Whether you’re curious about managing weight, fueling workouts, or improving your overall health span, this episode is packed with practical advice. Plus, Aaron busts some common myths and shares actionable insights to help you make smarter choices with your nutrition.

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Keywords: Healthspan, carbohydrates, nutrition tips, weight management, exercise performance, balanced diet, macronutrients, metabolic health, meal planning.

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Transcript

Five tips in five minutes. We're talking about carbohydrates today, carbs, those beautiful carbohydrates that we all love. Carbs get a bad rap, but we're going to review some science-backed practical tips, as practical as it can be in five minutes time. But I'm going to start off by kind of busting a myth, and that is carbs do not cause weight gain. It is the portion size of what we consume, the portion size of

carbohydrates that can cause weight gain. And we need to make sure that we're focusing on the quality of the carbohydrates much more than the idea of eliminating carbohydrates, because that's just not the way to go about it. In this episode, which I do intermittently, this short, really short, I tend to be short and punchy episode, I'm going to give you five tips on carbohydrates or related to carbohydrates and

when I start the timer. So this is still the intro. So give me one more minute to introduce myself. My name is Aaron Shaw. I am from HealthSpan Physio Coaching. I am a coach and carbohydrates and nutrition are one of the things that I coach my clients about. And overall, when we're talking health span, health span is the length of time within our lifespan that we are healthy, active, vibrant, and free from preventable conditions, metabolic conditions, which involves a whole lot of nutrition.

And with my clients and on this podcast, I talk about the pillars of health span. And I really see there being five primary pillars of health span. And these include exercise first and foremost, definitely exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotional wellbeing, and preventative care. my typical client is middle-aged and older. I would say I've literally thinking about this. Every single client that I've had except for one is con.

has been concerned about their weight, specifically being a little bit overweight, wanting to lose some weight. So nutrition is a constant theme with my clients, as well as physical activity and all those other things that I mentioned.

So let's get started here. So I'm going to start the timer and I'm going to give you a, basically give one minute per tip here. And the goal is to wrap this up in five minutes time even. Thank you for joining me and let's start talking carbohydrates. Now, tip number one, choose high quality carbohydrates. What does that mean? So carbohydrates we're talking the high quality ones we're talking.

Fiber, we're talking fruits, we're talking vegetables, whole grains. The great thing about having high quality carbohydrates is that it helps regulate your appetite. So there is where the weight management comes in, if you will. It is the quality of the carbohydrates that you will consume. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains are rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and they really help support disease prevention, really. So it's high fiber.

that reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even certain cancers. So when given the opportunity, think about, for grains, think about quinoa, brown rice, oats, and avoid, I know you're gonna hate to hear this, avoid white bread, sugary snacks, and sodas. Tip number two, you should be adjusting your carb intake or carbohydrate intake based upon your activity level.

Keep in mind that carbs are the body's primary source of energy, particularly for physical activity. So if you're doing high intensity activity, if you're a high intensity person exercising a lot, it's okay to focus on starchy carbs. Think sweet potatoes, rice, pasta, around your workouts. If you tend to be sedentary, you wanna emphasize non-starchy carbs like leafy greens and broccoli.

which are great for you. And one little scientific insight here to think about is that the body's glycogen stores, sugar stores, deplete during exercise. So we want to make sure that we are replenishing these with quality carbs that will ultimately improve performance and improve recovery. So it's not just getting through a certain workout, but it's making sure that you recover quickly so you can do it again. Tip number three, timing of carbs.

Timing can really be beneficial when, again, we're optimizing performance and recovery. So pre-workout, before exercising, it is okay and suggested even to digest carbohydrates, excuse me, consume carbohydrates that tend to digest faster. So think banana. So I know some people hate bananas, which is terrible, terrible thing to do because bananas are great, but it provides quick energy. Post-workout, think about combining carbs with protein to replenish.

help replenish your glycogen and repair muscles. So this could be yogurt and fruit, for example. Ideally, you would have a pretty even distribution of carbs and protein throughout the day. Post exercise carb intake will ultimately boost your glycogen synthesis again, when paired with protein. So post exercise, think yes, refuel, replenish the sugar, the glycogen that you need, but tap in a little bit of protein there as well. Tip number four.

We do need to consider factors about our age, gender, and our overall health goals. And so this is, even though I'm giving you some quick highlight tips here, everybody is a little bit different. Obviously the face of life is, can change things. Older individuals, and I would say I'm an older individual, so midlife, if you will. We should be focusing on fiber rich carbohydrates, because this is really good for digestive health, which can become an issue as we age. And it's great for blood sugar regulation. Women.

Carbohydrate needs may fluctuate during the menstrual cycle because the hormones as your hormones change. So that needs to be taken into account. And again, this is, don't have like a here's the quick answer how to do it. This is more a matter of be attentive to it and see how your body responds. For weight loss goals, prioritize nutrient dense carbs to avoid, definitely always avoid liquid carbohydrates like sugary drinks and sodas. Please just stop drinking soda. It's the worst thing in the world for you. And a little side note here are

brain relies almost exclusively on glucose for energy. So sugar is not bad, carbohydrates are not bad. Tip number five, balancing carbs with proteins and fats, a balanced macronutrient approach. So taking all of these macronutrients and mixing them consistently. And of course we're going to like push one way, the other more or less carbs will help depending on what we're doing, but this will, this balanced approach will help regulate our blood sugar and help sustain our energy over time.

When we got to remember that when carbs are insufficient, so if you're really cutting down carbs, your body may actually start to break down muscle tissue to get glucose, to get blood sugar. So you either need to mindfully dose yourself with carbohydrates for that fuel or your body's going to start searching for it where we don't want to lose it. And that is in our muscles. So be mindful. Think about toast with eggs or an avocado, nuts and seeds for balanced snacks. All great for you. And that my friends.

is five tips in five minutes. Five tips in five minutes. I could talk for hours and I'll do another episode on diving basically into each one of these tips. could do a whole entire episode on. So this was definitely the high level version of things. The punchline is carbs are not bad. Complex carbs are great. Avoid the sugary drinks. I mean, if nothing else, if you can imagine

Excuse me. If you can imagine that when you get a sugary drink, when you get a soda, when you go to a coffee shop and you get something with whipped cream on top, you are dosing yourself with a mega dose of calories and carbohydrates, neither which are bad in and of themselves, but you got to be super careful. And I think this is the downfall of so, you know, our, U S diet is so rich in, in the simple carbohydrates that your body wouldn't

There's excess carbs, there's excess calories. You're not going to use them. Your body is going to do what? It's going to store them, store them as fat. And that is not what anybody wants, at least nobody that I've ever worked with. So there are five tips in five minutes. Carbohydrates, eat carbs wisely, eat high quality carbs. It'll be great for your performance, your health, your digestive health, your metabolic health. It can prevent certain types of cancers. We're talking like the real deal here.

If you have questions about carbs, questions about exercise, questions about health span, how to overcome injuries and get on, you know, kind of back on the wagon or on the wagon for the first time, perhaps to be healthy, active, vibrant when you're super busy, as all of my clients are super busy as I'm super busy, but we have to take care of ourselves because the alternative is we're dead, right? We need to manage our weight, manage our activity and do it thoughtfully and mindfully. And if you need some guidance with that. That's what I do. It's my job. Feel free to reach out through the podcast and through my website. All of my links will be associated with this. there you have it. I appreciate your attention. Now get back to work. Have some complex carbs.