By now, you may have heard that diets of processed carbohydrates can lead to weight gain. The carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity (CIM) posits that processed carbohydrates like bread, bagels, pasta, crackers, chips, and pretzels promote fat storage in adipose tissue, leading to overeating and weight gain. This is one of those chicken-or-egg theories. In the CIM, the diet leads to a situation where the body first wants to store fat, leading to the spontaneous desire to eat more calories. Therefore, a diet high in processed carbohydrates, as recommended by MyPlate/My Food Pyramid, may inadvertently contribute to obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and other health issues by disrupting normal metabolic processes and promoting an imbalance in energy intake and storage. Furthermore, the effects linger after diet changes, as determined by a reanalysis of a feeding study I will discuss in this post today.

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