Do carbohydrates cause water retention?

For example, something like a mild allergy can create water retention. Most people are allergic to some degree to certain foods, they just don't know it. About 3 out of 4 of my clients who take my "milk challenge" (cutting out dairy for 4 weeks) don't go back because they drop weight, lose puffiness in their face, gain energy, etc - they were mildly allergic and just assumed an allergy meant hives or stomach pains and didn't realize it could manifest in bloating, etc.

That's just one example.

Another example is sodium. Sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes are part of the ion pump that helps shuttle nutrients into and out of cells. An excess of sodium can result in water retention for a variety of reasons - there is a hormone tied to sodium that regulates this, and some theorize it is caustic and the water dilutes to protect the cells.

The thing with carbs is this - carbs, no matter if they are green beans or table sugar - end up pretty much the same way in your body (with the exception of certain fruits). By the time they enter your bloodstream, they are a simple sugar called glucose. It doesn't matter if that glucose came from the green bean or table salt, it's all the same.

The reason why green beans are consider superior to, say, table sugar, is not what they become in your system, but the rate at which they are digested and what comes with it. Table sugar is rapidly ingested, therefore can raise blood levels quickly. Green beans are digested more slowly, released over time, and in addition provide other nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Also, the idea of simple and complex for categorizing carbs is also a little bit off as well. It is an old idea before the way carbs are used was really understand. The myth is that simple carbs are digested more quickly, and complex carbs are digest more slowly because they are complex. Sounds logical and there are tons of fitness "experts" who still regurgitate this advice.

The truth is that digestion is far more complex. For example, potatoes are complex but enzymes in your digestive system ensure that these become sugar quickly and actually impact your blood sugar more than certain table sugars. Certain fruits are simple sugars, but because fructose (the sugar in most fruit) requires certain conversions before being used by the body, it actually impacts blood sugar more slowly than most complex carbs, including whole wheat and oatmeal.

Perhaps the sneakiest culprit is maltodextrin, which shake manufacturers love because it is a complex carb so they don't have to list it as a sugar. People buy the shakes just looking at the low sugar count, without realizing that maltodextrin is the most powerful "sugar" on the market - it absorbs more quickly than table sugar.

So, as you can see, water retention is more complex than simple/complex carbs.