Breakdown of Comen muchos carbohidratos, de ahí que su dieta no sea saludable.
ser
to be
de
from / of
no
no, not
comer
to eat
mucho
many / a lot
su
his/her/its/their/your (formal)
saludable
healthy
que
that / than
la dieta
the diet
ahí
there (near you)
el carbohidrato
the carbohydrate
Questions & Answers about Comen muchos carbohidratos, de ahí que su dieta no sea saludable.
We are stating a fact (their diet isn't healthy). Why use the subjunctive sea instead of the indicative es?
The connector de ahí que always triggers the subjunctive, even when you are stating a factual consequence. While it translates to "hence" or "which is why," the phrase shifts the grammatical focus to the origin of the consequence rather than just declaring the result, which in Spanish requires the subjunctive.
Could I just say por eso instead of de ahí que?
Yes, but the grammar would change. Por eso (that's why) is more common in everyday speech and takes the indicative: por eso su dieta no es saludable. De ahí que is slightly more formal, which is why it pairs with the subjunctive.
The lesson mentions using either the present or imperfect subjunctive with de ahí que. Why did we use the present subjunctive (sea) here?
It depends on the tense of the action causing the result. Here, the first verb is in the present tense (Comen - they eat right now), so the resulting consequence needs the present subjunctive (sea). If the first half were in a past tense, like Comían muchos carbohidratos (They used to eat...), you would use the imperfect subjunctive: de ahí que su dieta no fuera saludable.
Why use ser (sea) instead of estar? Isn't a diet's healthiness a temporary state that changes based on what you eat?
In Spanish, the healthiness of a diet, meal, or specific food is considered an inherent characteristic of that thing, so we use ser. Even though a person's habits might change tomorrow, the specific diet they are eating right now is fundamentally unhealthy by its nature.
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