Nutrition Basics – Fats & Carbs Combined

If you’re looking for a good recipe for fat storage, high insulin and high fat in the blood is the way to go… however, many interpret this as, don’t eat carbs and fat together.  This is only a half truth though!

Putting food in your mouth is very different to what happens when it actually starts hitting the bloodstream.  The key to ideally managing carbs and fat in your diet, is to not have either hitting your bloodstream in high amounts at the same time.  There are foods that we can call ‘fast fats’ and ‘fast (high glycemic) carbs’, then there are slower fats and carbs, and everything in between.  

What you eat with your fat and carbs is also important because it can affect the rate of digestion, stomach emptying, and absorption.  There are many neuroendocrine hormones and gastric reflexes that affect stomach emptying, in turn determining the point at which a fat can be absorbed in the intestine.  The rate of absorption will vary based on fat type, and fat size.

Fats like coconut oil and butter, plus other saturated fats, absorb very quickly.  Other long chain fats can absorb very slowly, and some small fats are even digested by the bacteria in the gut before they are even absorbed.  But this can only happen after the stomach empties, which can vary as well.

Most meals will completely leave the stomach within about 2-3 hours.  High fiber foods, and meats take longer to digest. The more processed or cooked a food is, the faster it will be released and absorbed.  Fiber itself does NOT slow digestion. For instance, adding fiber to a meal will not make it digest slower or slow the glucose load of a starch or sugar.  It’s that whole foods that are naturally higher in fiber take longer to break down, much like a protein.

If you think about it, your stomach has to take a steak, or an apple, or whatever it is you ate and turn it into a liquid before it can be dumped.  The harder it is for something to break down, the longer it will take. With that said, concentrated processed nutrients like protein powder, carb powder, any form of liquid calorie can leave the stomach almost immediately.  Pure oils and fats can also leave relatively fast, but because they are thicker and sometimes semi-solid, the acidity and your body heat must first warm them up.

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