WHEN MEN COME TO KATHERINE METZELAAR FOR HELP, THEY SEEM TO HAVE ONE THING ON THEIR MIND. Metzelaar is a Seattle-based dietitian specializing in nutritional therapy. With patient eyes and a warm, easy smile, she’s the kind of expert who helps her clients untangle their attitudes and beliefs about food. In her nine years of clinical practice, she says that 100 percent of her male clients have shared one fear: carbohydrates. “Guilt is a very common emotion associated with eating carbohydrates,” Metzelaar says. “And then if you restrict those foods, you’re going to feel out of control.”
Fear—of carbs.
Except that when you look back at the millennia-spanning history of carbohydrates, their stigma makes total sense. More than fat, more than artificial ingredients, more than GMOs—carbs have long been a scapegoat for ancient philosophers, class warriors, and creators of money-raking fad diets alike. Carbs will shorten your life, as the drumbeat goes. Carbs are blood-sugar-spiking empty calories. Carbs will make you fat, sick, and unhappy.
Over the past few decades, however, scientists have built a more evolved view of carbohydrates. This class of nutrients has been unfairly blamed for obesity, diabetes, and other health terrors. New research is showing that carbs are a driver for a long, healthy, and active life. And as it turns out, avoiding carbs can be bad for you, too. A few recent studies have linked low-carb/high-fat diets with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and shortened life spans in men.
But still: the collective and ongoing freak-out about carbs. So if you’re confused, skeptical, and/or fearful about carbs, Metzelaar gets that. As she tells her clients, your anxiety toward carbohydrates
