Healthy Carbs vs. Unhealthy Carbs
Carbohydrates are macronutrients that provide your body with energy to fuel your muscles, brain, and central nervous system. A gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories, regardless of the type of food you’re eating (compared to 9 calories per gram of fat). There are three main types of carbohydrates: 1. Simple Carbohydrates (sugars) 2. Complex Carbohydrates (starches) 3. Non-digestible Carbohydrates (fiber) Simple carbohydrates, also known as “sugars,” are broken down and digested quickly in your body. Research suggests that simple carbs often cause extreme spikes in blood sugar levels, which increases the release of insulin to remove the excess sugar from your blood. When this happens your body also reduces its production of another hormone called glucagon, which is a hormone that allows stored body fat to be released into the bloodstream to be burned by your muscles as energy. When the pancreas has to elevate its production of insulin while reducing its supply of glucagon, you are basically locking-in your excess body fat. Long story short: eating too many of these types of carbs dramatically hinders the process of reducing your stored body fat. The two main types of simple carbs are: 1. Natural sugars such as those in milk (lactose) or fruit (fructose): natural sugars are considered healthy carbs because they’re usually accompanied by other vitamins and nutrients. 2. Added sugars as a result of processing: these are the sugars you want to avoid because they can lead to excess fat and weight gain. Complex Carbohydrates (Starches) Complex carbohydrates, also known as “starches,” have a “complex” molecular structure, which means your body can’t convert them into energy as quickly as simple carbs. It’s important that you understand what healthy complex carbs are and what unhealthy complex carbs are: Unhealthy complex carbs are refined, processed grains found in “white” bread, pasta, rice, and packaged foods. Here’s why they’re bad: to make white flour products, whole grains are milled, refined, and stripped of their nutritional benefits (vitamins, minerals, and fiber). Food companies “enrich” this white flour by adding vitamins but it’s still nutritionally inferior compared to foods made with whole grains and here’s why: Refined grains are digested quickly, leading to dramatic fluctuations in your blood glucose levels. The calories from carbohydrates you don’t burn off through exercise gets stored as fat, and similar to simple carbs, intake of refined carbs dramatically hinders your body’s ability to burn stored body fat, which makes refined carbs a key contributor to weight gain, inability to lose weight, and obesity. So if you want to lose weight, switching to whole grains instead of refined grains is absolutely critical! Healthy complex carbohydrates are unprocessed and unrefined, which means they contain whole grains that have all the natural nutrients (vitamins, minerals, and fiber) intact. Your body digests good complex carbs slowly, keeping your blood sugar levels in check and your digestive system working properly. Whole grains offer a whole bunch of health benefits over refined grains too. They're filled with dietary fiber, antioxidants, protein, minerals, and vitamins. Examples of good carbs include vegetables, fruit, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains (see below).
Non-digestible carbohydrates as a group of healthy carbs also known as fiber. To read more about fiber, check out our Healthy Foods High in Fiber page.
|
