Crap, crap and more crap.

In this article Kathleen Alleaume, a super model that has a day job as a nutritionist apparently tries to defend the increase of cereal grains in our modern unhealthy diet. While her points are weak, she leaves out the most immediate concern: only 1/3 of all people can digest gluten. The rest lack the mutation for this and in their bodies it is treated as an allergen has been shown to produce illness, both somatic and mental, ranging from mild to severe. The authors credentials include a science degree and years of marketing communications experience. She does not appear to have writen the subject outside the context of the kind of marketing communications you might be familiar with from _Thank You For Smoking_.

Here are 5 reasons why you can still have the right carbs and eat them, too.

1. Brain food
As far as food goes, the brain is a fairly picky eater, demanding a constant supply of glucose. When your blood glucose levels drop because of the wrong foods, missed meals, or eating low carbs, it can hamper normal brain function. This is why so many people struggle with difficulty concentrating, thinking and ability to recall, because brain cells are being depleted of their primary fuel.

Um, bullshit.

First, all energy can come from glucose or glycogen, see Kreb's cycle.

Second, carbs spike glucose unnaturally. We have zero dietary need for supplemental crabs, we get enough from meat and vegetables.

A brain cell does indeed need fuel but it needs more than glucose and some of the chemicals that only only in grain (phytates) block absorption of critical elements the brain requires (zinc to name one) so not only do you not get that from grains but it blocks the absorption of these elements from other foods you ate at the same time.

So, not only are carbs not a good "brain fuel" they actually have the opposite effect. And again, only 2/3 of people have the genes to be able to eat them. Doesn't it bother you than in man's two million year evolution we've only been eating grain fairly recently and that's for economic reasons? They're filler.

Her second point is that carbs have fibre. So do cabbage leaves. Knock it off with the grains, lady. I don't care how much more they pay than cabbage farmers or what have you, there are both healthy and unhealthy ways to get fibre and wheat bran is just an irritant.

The connection between carbohydrates and mood is all about a type of amino acid called tryptophan. When you eat carbs, more tryptophan can enter the brain, where it stimulates the release of serotonin � a happy hormone which calms you down and improves mood. Without enough tryptophan � and therefore serotonin � you�re more likely to get depressed and have sleeping difficulties. Oh, help. Here's a link to the foods highest in Tryptophan. Note the lack of carbs on this list. Second, Tryptophan doesn't "stimulate the release of serotonin", it's a precursor (or "raw material") for it's synthesis in the body. The phytates in grains also inhibit the absorption of magnesium. Low magnesium makes you edgy and nervous, enough and it is calming. Now that medical science has finally recognized bad gut flora as a source of mental disease it needs to be understood that carbs are the greatest contributor to this - they're starches, ans our diet has been proteins and fats for millions of years, we are not a species that does well on starch, winch is merely a concentrated form of sugar. Animals that eat starches have multiple stomachs to ferment this, like cows. In humans, a diet with more than 30% carbs by calorie has been associate with overgrown of Candida, the primary cause of bad gut flora.

4. Exercise efficiency
The immediate impact of carbohydrate intake (or its absence) on daily training and exercise has been widely researched and documented. Carbohydrates, fat, and to some extent protein all provide energy, but exercising muscles rely heavily on carbohydrates as their main source of fuel. Going low-carb can deplete muscle glycogen stores, which can result in lack of energy during exercise, early fatigue and delayed recovery. Glycogen is fat. So to translate that into English: "going lo carb means you'll lose fat". Look around you. This is a problem?

At this point the include the stock photo of some carbs:

"Quality carbs suppress your appetite and help you lose weight. Source: ThinkStock"

Let's look a this. First, if you abide by the sensible "buy only ingredients" idea you'll notice right away the fresh fruit and vegetables (that few people get enough of) is combined with some sort of bread nobody eats as if that somehow makes overconsumption of white bread that 1/3 of population reacts badly (yet subtly) to alright. As if.

Her final point is to divide carbs into nutrient poor and nutrient rich types. Soda pop is bad as are sugars and pastries, because of all the sugar. Hello? Carbohydrates are by definition storage for sugars, they're a more concentrated form of sugar. So in effect she's saying "avoid sugars by eating concentrated sugars" - that and the damming of the potato improperly (it's one of the safest and most nutritious all carbs) indicates to me this author is woefully undereducated and that this is a puff piece for the grain industry masquerading as nutritional advice.