Carbohydrates are the most misunderstood and maligned of all the calorie-producing foods. They have been blacklisted by skittish dieters who worry that they are the bane of their weight gain. But low-carb dieters may have been misinformed. Eating a diet rich in carbohydrates doesn't necessary cause weight gain, but eating too much of the wrong ones can. Carbohydrates are the fuel for life and knowing the good from the bad can help you decide which ones to eat and which ones to beat.
At times it may feel like you need a PhD to figure out carbohydrates. Simply put, carbs are the body's main source of energy. The energy derived from fat metabolism can provide back up, but carbs are the preferred source of energy, particularly in the brain.
Foods that contain sugars, starches and fiber all belong to the carbohydrate camp. With the exception of unabsorbable fiber, all carbohydrates are converted during digestion into smaller molecules of glucose, the essential source of energy used by every cell in the body. Carbohydrates are mostly plant-based foods -- fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes -- with the exception of dairy products, which are animal-based carbohydrates. They are comprised of single, double or multiple groupings of hydrogen and oxygen linked together in chains.
Simple carbohydrates are all single (monosaccharides) and double-chained sugars (disaccharides). You can recognize them because they usually end with "ose" - glucose and fructose (from fruit), lactose (from dairy) and the table sugar sucrose (from cane or beet sugar). Simple sugars are usually added to low-fat foods to give them flavor. They are usually devoid of nutrition because they don't contain many (if any) micronutrients, vitamins, minerals or phytochemicals.
Complex carbohydrates are many chains of simple sugars joined together oligosaccharides and polysaccharides). They include starch, a form of carbohydrates that plants store, and fiber, the mostly undigested part of the plant. Foods that contain complex carbs include grains, breads, pasta, beans, potatoes, corn and other vegetables.
Does the body care if glucose comes from simple carbs versus complex carbs?
Technically, no. The body will digest what it is given, but not all carbs are good. Feed the body simple carbs and it is likely you are downing "empty" calories that don't have any nutritional value. The body doesn't not have to work very hard to get the glucose unleashed into the bloodstream, so sugar spikes rapidly. Although sugar extracted from fruit is no different than the sugar in candy, maple syrup, honey or brown sugar, if you eat fruit that's a complex carb, you get worthy calories because they contain vitamins, minerals and fiber, nutrients that the body needs to perform properly.
Still, you can't judge a carb by its cover. Some complex carbs are more advantageous than others. Whole grains are not only more nutritious, they are digested more slowly and are less likely to cause a rush of glucose. White flour and white rice are complex carbs but they have had all the fibrous goodies stripped out. And while French fries are made from nutritious potato, deep-frying it in oil sabotages any complex carb goodness.
So here's some advice on carbohydrates :
Skip refined and processed foods altogether
Read the label to see if there is added sugar (be wary of the "oses")
Choose whole grains (oats, whole wheat and brown rice), beans, legumes, fruits and vegetables
Try to have 40% of your total caloric intake come from complex carbohydrates
Avoid the lure of low-fat foods, which contain a sizable amount of calories from sugar
Avoid the lure of low-carb foods, which sometimes have more calories from fat
