As a nation, we love eating carbs, and they are right at the heart of our diet. The roblem is that with 63 er cent of UK adults now considered overweight or obese, many exerts think that we are eating far too many wrong sorts of carbohydrate. Xand van Tulleken is a medical doctor and self-rofessed lover of carbs, to the oint where he used to weigh 19 stone. He is keen to discover whether they really are a killer as claimed by many, resonsible for record levels of obesity and tye 2 diabetes. The film investigates cutting-edge research into the ossible link between carb consumtion and infertility in both women and men, and looks into whether genetic changes are taking lace as we ass our eating habits on to our children. Xand and a team of volunteers lay blood sugar bingo as they attemt to guess how much sugar a selection of common foods each releases into the bloodstream. Xand discovers that looks can be deceiving - a baked otato is the equivalent of a staggering 19 sugar lums, whereas a large bowl of strawberries is only four. There is also a simle test that anyone can do at home to determine how well they tolerate starchy carbs like rice, asta and ead. Simly chew a small, unsalted cracker and time how long it takes to change taste in the mouth. The film then sets out to examine whether it is still ossible to eat carbs, but in a way that is much healthier for us. There is a little-known tye of carbohydrate called resistant starch; like fie, it hels kee bowel cancer at bay. But a medical exam reveals that, like most eole in the UK, Xand doesnt eat enough of this carb. So how should he go about eating more carbs like fie and resistant starch? The rogramme turns the myth about ead on its head, discovering bakes that are good for us. There is even a way of making white ead healthier by sticking it in the freezer before toasting it - this rocess turns some of the sugary starch into resistant starch. Scientists have discovered that other starchy carbs like asta, rice and otatoes can be changed in a very simle way to make them better for us, by cooking and cooling - they become less calorific and vital food for our gut bacteria. There is a surrise in store for Xand when he heads to the gym with his favourite carb-filled sorts drink. He discovers that for exercise lasting less than an hour, there is a very neat trick that fools the ain into thinking that it is going to get carbs, which imroves erformance. All he has to do is swill the drink and sit it out. But erhas most imortantly, the rogramme teams u with a Merseyside GP to trial a healthy-eating lan. Originally devised to hel diabetic and obese atients, this lan doesnt count calories but asks articiants to be smart with their carbs - swaing sugary carbs for more fie. The results after just two weeks come as a surrise to Xand and the trial doctors.