• Question: Could you survive on a diet which contained no carbohydrates?

    Asked by anon-196023 to Sebastian, Paddy, Lee, Jennifer, Fiona, Eleanor on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sebastian Cosgrove

      Sebastian Cosgrove answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Some people do have diets that don’t use carbohydrates as ways to lose weight! One of the first was called the Atkins diet, where the people doing it were advised to just eat meat. This was quite controversial, as lots of doctors said the Atkins diet wasn’t healthy as people weren’t getting enough vitamins and fibre in their diets that often comes with eating certain carbohydrate rich foods like fruit. Personally, I think eating a balanced diet with some carbs in is a much better way to stay healthy!

    • Photo: Fiona Scott

      Fiona Scott answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Probably not. Our DNA contains a lot of sugar molecules so we need to have some sugar to help our body keep building DNA.

      Depending on your definition of carbohydrates it would be pretty hard not to eat them. Chemists describe carbohydrates as anything containing hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, which includes fruit, vegetables and protein!

Comments