Your brain is fed with blood sugar, so when you are doing the high-carb yo-yo, your brain is doing it too. This might make it clear why you can so easily lose concentration during the middle of the day and why mood swings might be so prevalent. When your blood sugar level crashes, you can easily experience slower reaction times and even depression.

Diabetes is another major issue. It is believed by many that diabetes is a result of the overload of high-carb foods. The system is so stressed that either insulin loses its potency or the pancreas becomes less efficient at producing insulin. Either way, it is bad news.

Heart disease is directly linked to obesity and diabetes. The higher levels of blood sugar lead to high levels of insulin, which have been linked to high levels of fat in the blood, including cholesterol, and to high blood pressure.

In addition to all of this, high-carb meals will trigger the production and release of serotonin in the body. Serotonin is the chemical in the body that is affected by antidepressant drugs such as Prozac. This is another reason why we feel sleepy and are unable to concentrate after we eat a lot of carbs. When it comes to working out, you can feel really unmotivated if you are eating a diet high in carbs.

Along with this, a high-carb diet will affect the most important hormones in your body, that is, besides insulin which we have already discussed. When you are eating a diet high in carbs, you will find the levels of growth hormone and testosterone in your body to be lowered, thus inhibiting muscular growth. Building a lot of lean mass is not as effective in this situation.

Why Can’'t We Handle It?

Why can’'t our bodies handle processed foods? It all comes down to evolution. It takes the human body thousands of years to shift and become accustomed to a new environment. Our recent changes in our diets have moved so rapidly, our bodies are completely lost. In the last 50 years we have gone from a diet of mostly fresh and home-cooked food to taking our food from a package and heating it up.

Our bodies are designed to recognize and digest food in the form in which nature gives it to us. Even cooking food chemically alters it. To process and refine food as much as we now do is it any wonder that our bodies are so confused? They simply are not designed to handle food in its refined state.