Who can "make sense" of the carb debate nowadays?
Are there really good and bad carbs and what does it mean?
In my opinion there are bad, good and medium good carbs!
Carbs short for carbohydrates are a nutrient such as protein, fat, vitamin and minerals. Carbohydrates also provide calories just like protein and fat do. As a matter of fact about 60% of our total daily calories should come from carbohydrates which makes them a very important player.
Carbohydrates can be distinguished between complex and simple carbohydrates. The complex are also called starches take longer to digest, the simple are also called sugars digest quicker. Every carbohydrate enters the blood stream as a simple sugar. That is how our body can use it for energy.
Again we don't eat nutrients, we eat food, so which foods are the main carbohydrate suppliers? Remember the "old" Food Guide Pyramid? On the bottom is the largest group, the bread, cereal, rice and pasta group. Foods in this group are mainly made of milling grain into flour and then used for preparing or baking products. Our main grains are wheat, oats, corn, rice, barley and rye. There are many more grains that other nations eat such as buckwheat, quinoa, millet, and others.
To the right you see a graphic of a whole grain kernel. If you let this grain grow it would need the carbohydrates from the endosperm storage to grow.
The germ, the actual new plant, is very high in various nutrients and some good fat such as omega 6. The outer layer of the grain kernel is called the bran. Of course we know bran means fiber, but the bran also contains various minerals such as iron, zinc, copper and magnesium.
How is white flour made? In the milling process the germ and bran can be separated from the endosperm and are being discarded... out with all those good nutrients! Only the endosperm is then milled into a white flour. However they add some nutrients to the white flour, unfortunately only some B-vitamins and iron, nothing else and especially no fiber! This is called "enriched wheat flour". In comparison a whole grain product is labeled "whole wheat flour". Never trust the front of a package..”natural” or “multi grain” does not mean anything. READ THE INGREDIENT LISTS....only the first ingredient will tell you what the product is made off.
Now what about sugars? This will be in another newsletter, but in short processed products using white flour and adding sugar and fat are the bad carbs such as muffins, cake, cookies, toaster strudels, donuts, danish, twinkies, and so on. In reality they are bad because of the added sugar and fat, not so much because of the white flour. I would call white flour the medium good carbs, because you still have the complex carbohydrates which digest slowly such as white pasta, white bread etc. The good carbs would then be anything made with whole grain such as whole wheat bread, bagels, english muffins, pita bread, crackers and brown or wild rice. Adding these carbs to your diet gives you the bonus of additional nutrients.
Carbohydrates are very important, they are our body's main energy source and the whole grain products come with a lot more nutrients on top of the good complex carbs!
This is an example how to integrate whole grain carbohydrates into your diet throughout the day.
Please leave a comment if you have further questions or thoughts.
Are there really good and bad carbs and what does it mean?
In my opinion there are bad, good and medium good carbs!
Carbs short for carbohydrates are a nutrient such as protein, fat, vitamin and minerals. Carbohydrates also provide calories just like protein and fat do. As a matter of fact about 60% of our total daily calories should come from carbohydrates which makes them a very important player.
Carbohydrates can be distinguished between complex and simple carbohydrates. The complex are also called starches take longer to digest, the simple are also called sugars digest quicker. Every carbohydrate enters the blood stream as a simple sugar. That is how our body can use it for energy.
Again we don't eat nutrients, we eat food, so which foods are the main carbohydrate suppliers? Remember the "old" Food Guide Pyramid? On the bottom is the largest group, the bread, cereal, rice and pasta group. Foods in this group are mainly made of milling grain into flour and then used for preparing or baking products. Our main grains are wheat, oats, corn, rice, barley and rye. There are many more grains that other nations eat such as buckwheat, quinoa, millet, and others.
To the right you see a graphic of a whole grain kernel. If you let this grain grow it would need the carbohydrates from the endosperm storage to grow. The germ, the actual new plant, is very high in various nutrients and some good fat such as omega 6. The outer layer of the grain kernel is called the bran. Of course we know bran means fiber, but the bran also contains various minerals such as iron, zinc, copper and magnesium.
How is white flour made? In the milling process the germ and bran can be separated from the endosperm and are being discarded... out with all those good nutrients! Only the endosperm is then milled into a white flour. However they add some nutrients to the white flour, unfortunately only some B-vitamins and iron, nothing else and especially no fiber! This is called "enriched wheat flour". In comparison a whole grain product is labeled "whole wheat flour". Never trust the front of a package..”natural” or “multi grain” does not mean anything. READ THE INGREDIENT LISTS....only the first ingredient will tell you what the product is made off.
Now what about sugars? This will be in another newsletter, but in short processed products using white flour and adding sugar and fat are the bad carbs such as muffins, cake, cookies, toaster strudels, donuts, danish, twinkies, and so on. In reality they are bad because of the added sugar and fat, not so much because of the white flour. I would call white flour the medium good carbs, because you still have the complex carbohydrates which digest slowly such as white pasta, white bread etc. The good carbs would then be anything made with whole grain such as whole wheat bread, bagels, english muffins, pita bread, crackers and brown or wild rice. Adding these carbs to your diet gives you the bonus of additional nutrients.
Carbohydrates are very important, they are our body's main energy source and the whole grain products come with a lot more nutrients on top of the good complex carbs!
This is an example how to integrate whole grain carbohydrates into your diet throughout the day.
Please leave a comment if you have further questions or thoughts.
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