From all the low carbohydrate diets and weight loss products available, a visitor from Mars with no knowledge of human nutrition would probably assume that carbs are really unhealthy and should be avoided at all costs. As with so many aspects of nutrition, what the media presents as the truth is often actually a more complicated issue than good versus bad foods. By arming yourself with some straight forward common sense information, you’ll soon see that the media’s knee-jerk reaction against carbs is mistaken at best and just plain wrong at worst.
Carbohydrates*supply energy for an active lifestyle. They are converted to glucose of which a small amount is used by your brain (around 150 grams per day) while the rest is used by your muscles to power high intensity physical effort. Any carbs that are surplus to those two major requirements are a) stored in your liver to provide a reservoir of energy for your brain, stored in your muscles for later use or converted to fat if you’ve eaten more than you need.
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In simple terms, the less active you are, the less carbohydrate your body can effectively handle. If you train hard, are active during your day because you walk lots or perform strenuous physical activities then carbs are not only necessary, they are all but essential. If, however, you don’t train hard and are mostly sedentary, your body will, in the blink of an overweight eye, shunt many of those carbs into your fat cells. That is why so many people are “down” on carbs – the majority of the population simply aren’t active enough to be able to effectively process a moderate or high carb diet.
The key to staying on good terms with carbs is a concept I like to call “earning your carbs”. All I mean by this is that you should time your carb consumption around your activity periods. The best “windows of opportunity” for carb consumption are before and after physical activity: basically your pre and post exercise feedings.
Prior to exercise, it pays to have carbs “in your system” to provide rapid fuel to power you through your workouts. After exercise, when you have depleted your intramuscular stores of carbohydrate (called glycogen) you need to re-stock so your body is fuelled up and ready to go for your next workout. The rest of the day, your carb intake should reflect your activity levels so if you are predominately sedentary, lay off the pasta, rice, bread and potatoes and go for lots of cruciferous and leafy veggies instead.
So now you know when and why you need to eat carbs, let’s examine how carbohydrates are classified.
There are two three main carbohydrate classifications: Simple, complex and fiber.
Simple carbs contain lots of mono or di-saccharides (single or double molecules of sugar) and, as the name suggests, have a very simple chemical structure. Fruit is a simple carbohydrate, as are jelly beans. Clearly fruit is more healthy than jelly beans and that is why fruit in its raw and unprocessed state is called unrefined and jelly beans would are commonly referred to as refined. In all aspects of carbohydrate, unrefined is generally healthier and refined carbs should only be consumed in moderation if at all.
Complex carbs are made up of polysaccharides (big, complicated structures made from lots of sugar molecules). Grains and vegetables are your primary source of complex carbs. Rice, potatoes, yams, bread, pasta and pulses are all good examples of complex carbs. Like refined versus unrefined simple carbohydrates are less healthy and more healthy respectively, the same differential can be made between refined and unrefined complex carbs. Refined carbs (white bread, white rice, white pasta, refined grains and vegetables) are generally much less healthy than their wholemeal or wholegrain unrefined counterpart. The difference between refined and unrefined is mostly the removal of fiber…
The last part of the carbohydrate trio is fiber, also known as indigestible plant material or non-starch polysaccharide. We’ll be sticking with the term fiber!
Fiber*is the husky outer layer of grains and fruit/vegetable skins and the soft pulp in the flesh of the same. fiber contains no calories (whereas carbs deliver four calories per gram) but have a profound healthy affect on your digestive system.
Despite being indigestible, fiber passes along your digestive tract and adds bulk to your faeces and gives the tubes that make up your digestive system a thorough scrubbing out. This ensures the movement of waste material out of your body happens in a timely fashion. Let’s face it – you don’t want an accumulation of rotting faecal matter loitering in your digestive system for any longer than is absolutely necessary so fiber is all but essential for keeping your digestive system in tip-top health.
Carbohydrate is often discussed in connection with something called the glycemic index. The glycemic index describes how fast a carbohydrate is converted to glucose in your body. With the exceptions of before and after exercise, we generally need our carbs slowly so, as a rule, you should select wholegrain and unrefined carbs (which have a low glycemic index) the majority of the time. Just before and just after exercise, your need for carbohydrate is more urgent so a faster acting, higher glycemic index carbohydrate may be more appropriate.
You now should understand that not all carbs were created equal and that there are times when you should consume more carbs and times when you should consume less. The low carb “movement” is as much about selling your something as it is about helping your manage your weight and energy levels and things like low carb drinks, baked goods and sweets are misleadingly sold *and often are not actually very healthy as they generally contain lots of artificial sweeteners.
Of all the carb groups, if I really had to choose one to reduce or eliminate from most people’s diets, I would choose refined sugar. Refined sugar is undeniably the worst carb in terms of health and potential for causing weight gain. What’s the easiest way to avoid refined sugar? Cut out processed food and eat natural foods instead. If more people did this the whole low carb movement would become nothing more than a pointless toothless tiger.
Carbohydrates*supply energy for an active lifestyle. They are converted to glucose of which a small amount is used by your brain (around 150 grams per day) while the rest is used by your muscles to power high intensity physical effort. Any carbs that are surplus to those two major requirements are a) stored in your liver to provide a reservoir of energy for your brain, stored in your muscles for later use or converted to fat if you’ve eaten more than you need.
Click here to subscribe to our mailing list
In simple terms, the less active you are, the less carbohydrate your body can effectively handle. If you train hard, are active during your day because you walk lots or perform strenuous physical activities then carbs are not only necessary, they are all but essential. If, however, you don’t train hard and are mostly sedentary, your body will, in the blink of an overweight eye, shunt many of those carbs into your fat cells. That is why so many people are “down” on carbs – the majority of the population simply aren’t active enough to be able to effectively process a moderate or high carb diet.
The key to staying on good terms with carbs is a concept I like to call “earning your carbs”. All I mean by this is that you should time your carb consumption around your activity periods. The best “windows of opportunity” for carb consumption are before and after physical activity: basically your pre and post exercise feedings.
Prior to exercise, it pays to have carbs “in your system” to provide rapid fuel to power you through your workouts. After exercise, when you have depleted your intramuscular stores of carbohydrate (called glycogen) you need to re-stock so your body is fuelled up and ready to go for your next workout. The rest of the day, your carb intake should reflect your activity levels so if you are predominately sedentary, lay off the pasta, rice, bread and potatoes and go for lots of cruciferous and leafy veggies instead.
So now you know when and why you need to eat carbs, let’s examine how carbohydrates are classified.
There are two three main carbohydrate classifications: Simple, complex and fiber.
Simple carbs contain lots of mono or di-saccharides (single or double molecules of sugar) and, as the name suggests, have a very simple chemical structure. Fruit is a simple carbohydrate, as are jelly beans. Clearly fruit is more healthy than jelly beans and that is why fruit in its raw and unprocessed state is called unrefined and jelly beans would are commonly referred to as refined. In all aspects of carbohydrate, unrefined is generally healthier and refined carbs should only be consumed in moderation if at all.
Complex carbs are made up of polysaccharides (big, complicated structures made from lots of sugar molecules). Grains and vegetables are your primary source of complex carbs. Rice, potatoes, yams, bread, pasta and pulses are all good examples of complex carbs. Like refined versus unrefined simple carbohydrates are less healthy and more healthy respectively, the same differential can be made between refined and unrefined complex carbs. Refined carbs (white bread, white rice, white pasta, refined grains and vegetables) are generally much less healthy than their wholemeal or wholegrain unrefined counterpart. The difference between refined and unrefined is mostly the removal of fiber…
The last part of the carbohydrate trio is fiber, also known as indigestible plant material or non-starch polysaccharide. We’ll be sticking with the term fiber!
Fiber*is the husky outer layer of grains and fruit/vegetable skins and the soft pulp in the flesh of the same. fiber contains no calories (whereas carbs deliver four calories per gram) but have a profound healthy affect on your digestive system.
Despite being indigestible, fiber passes along your digestive tract and adds bulk to your faeces and gives the tubes that make up your digestive system a thorough scrubbing out. This ensures the movement of waste material out of your body happens in a timely fashion. Let’s face it – you don’t want an accumulation of rotting faecal matter loitering in your digestive system for any longer than is absolutely necessary so fiber is all but essential for keeping your digestive system in tip-top health.
Carbohydrate is often discussed in connection with something called the glycemic index. The glycemic index describes how fast a carbohydrate is converted to glucose in your body. With the exceptions of before and after exercise, we generally need our carbs slowly so, as a rule, you should select wholegrain and unrefined carbs (which have a low glycemic index) the majority of the time. Just before and just after exercise, your need for carbohydrate is more urgent so a faster acting, higher glycemic index carbohydrate may be more appropriate.
You now should understand that not all carbs were created equal and that there are times when you should consume more carbs and times when you should consume less. The low carb “movement” is as much about selling your something as it is about helping your manage your weight and energy levels and things like low carb drinks, baked goods and sweets are misleadingly sold *and often are not actually very healthy as they generally contain lots of artificial sweeteners.
Of all the carb groups, if I really had to choose one to reduce or eliminate from most people’s diets, I would choose refined sugar. Refined sugar is undeniably the worst carb in terms of health and potential for causing weight gain. What’s the easiest way to avoid refined sugar? Cut out processed food and eat natural foods instead. If more people did this the whole low carb movement would become nothing more than a pointless toothless tiger.
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