Yes, it can. One way to look at it is that carbs are earned: if we work to increase our insulin sensitivity we may be able to increase our carbohydrate intake. (But we must carefully monitor our metabolic health markers to ensure that we are not doing damage.)

A year or so ago I did a test involving potatoes. I am something of a gourmand, and one of my great joys in life is to have a meal in a fine dining establishment, prepared by a top chef in peak form. One of my favorite such meals is the Santa Fe Skillet from Denny’s. It is a delightful concoction, with fried eggs sitting upon a bed of roasted potatoes, chorizo sausage, and cheese, along with peppers and onions cooked to perfection—perfection here meaning “beyond recognition.” I was testing the proposition that if I ate potatoes as part of a meal with plenty of protein and fat, that they might be digested slowly enough that they wouldn’t have a large effect on my blood sugar. My hopes were dashed. It still spiked my blood sugar to an unwelcome extent.

I recently tested potatoes again as part of a meal and was pleasantly surprised to find it did not have a large effect on my blood sugar. I have greatly improved my insulin sensitivity over the past year.

That doesn’t mean I eat potatoes very often, but I will occasionally have a baked potato when I go out for a steak dinner.