Good Carbs Bad Carbs*

Carbohydrate (technical name "saccharides" - aka "sugars", "starches") is one of the 3 (or 4) "macro" nutrients. The others are protein and lipids/fat. Sometimes water is referred to (wrongly) as one of the 4 macros as well.

Carbohydrates are generally discussed in nutrition as being either "simple" or "complex". "Simple carbs" are shorter chain molecules of monosaccharides and disaccharides, while "complex carbs" are longer chain molecules called polysaccharides.

Simple carbs are quickly metabolized while complex carbs take more time and energy to metabolize.

Eating carbs - in particular "simple carbs" like candy, sugar, pop, cakes, processed sugary cereal, refined and white breads - will cause glucose (blood sugar) to quickly increase in the blood stream.

To make use of this energy source and keep a proper balance of blood sugar levels, your body (the pancreas) responds to the excess glucose by releasing insulin into the blood stream - this is sometimes referred to as an "insulin spike".

One of the ways insulin "clears" the excess blood sugar (glucose) is by causing it to rapidly enter the muscles for use as energy during exercise or sport for example.

While exercising, this can be a good thing for giving an athlete the needed energy to perform at their best.

But if you're not exercising, then the extra sugar in your blood will end up in other places, and the "insulin spike" will produce other effects on your body.

When not exercising, you won't use the extra blood sugar you got from downing those simple carbs for muscle energy - that means it will go instead into storage.

Insulin can cause excess glucose (extra blood sugar not used by your muscles) to be stored as glycogen (starch) - mainly in the liver for later conversion back into glucose. Again, this can be a good thing especially if you use up this stored energy (burn the calories) during activities like sports or exercise at some point.

But, another way insulin deals with excess blood sugar is to convert the extra glucose into triglycerides (blood fats) which are then stored in fat cells resulting in more fat on/in your body.

And, insulin also blocks the burning of stored fat for fuel which means if you boost your blood sugar with simple carbs it's that much harder to lose body fat (if that's you're goal) even if you lower your daily calorie intake.

I'll repeat this because it's important:

Simple carbs = too much blood sugar.
Too much blood sugar = insulin spike.
Insulin spike = energy for movement.
OR, if you're not moving, the BLOOD SUGAR GETS CONVERTED AND STORED AS FAT!

That's why its not so good to eat simple carbs very often (or at all) unless you're in the middle of performing or training in sports.

Cramming those carbs because they "taste good", are sweet, or make you feel good can result in a large amount of them becoming stored as body fat - something you will notice when you get on the scale or see a photo of your profile.

Also, because of the "insulin spike effect" (which is the very rapid clearing or conversion and storage of blood sugar) people who eat a lot of simple carbohydrates may feel hungry or very fatigued not long after eating those simple carbs.

This happens because in the coarse of insulin "doing its thing", eventually, even less glucose will be available to become "muscle energy" bringing on a state of "hypoglycemia" or low blood sugar. This is the "crash" that happens soon after eating sweets.

This effect is minimal during exercise however, or minimized if you eat complex carbs instead of "pure sugars".

Examples of "good carbs" which are also called "complex carbs" are: vegetables and green leaf foods, whole-wheat and whole-grain breads, oats and oatmeal, nuts, beans, fresh fruits and "high fiber" foods.

And one more "not so good" bit of news when it comes to simple carbohydrates - the older you get and the more times you eat those simple carbs as a young person, the more "insulin resistant" your cells become.

Another way of saying this is that the bad effects from eating lots of sweets and simple carbs as a child stay with you and even increase as you grow into adulthood. That's right, the effects are cumulative.

What this means is that as you age your muscles can't make use of the blood sugar as easily - so it becomes stored fat even easier. And, because of the higher amounts of insulin needed to flow in your blood, the fat you DO have won't get burned up for energy. In other words, as you age and as you eat more and more sugar over your lifetime, it gets harder and harder to burn the fat off with exercise.

This "insulin resistance syndrome" can end up causing many of the most common and deadly health problems including type II diabetes, obesity and heart disease.



SIMPLE CARBS MAKE BLOOD MORE ACIDIC

More bad news from simple carbs...as if all the above weren't enough?

Acidic blood (higher than optimal levels of acid in the blood) are another negative effect of eating simple carbohydrates.

Blood (along with a lot of other things) has a "PH balance". The "PH" level is a measure of how acidic or how alkali something is.

Usually this is described on a scale of 1-14 with 7.4 (slightly alkali) being the "normal" PH level of our blood.

A PH level of 7.1 would be considered relatively acidic and a PH of 7.6 would be considered relatively alkali. So, the higher the PH the less acid something is, and the lower the PH the more acid (less alkali) it is.

Got it?

Now guess what.., eating processed refined flours and/or sugar (aka simple carbohydrate) commonly raises the acidity level of blood - ie it lowers the blood PH.

I should mention that eating meat (high protein foods) also raises the acidity levels of the blood and that fresh whole vegetables generally lower the acidity of the blood (ie raises the PH).

Acidic blood (lower than 7.4 PH) is not desirable as it is less able to produce energy in and for the body (it inhibits enzyme function) and consequently may produce fatigue and even a higher susceptibility to disease.

The key point here is that one of the benifits of eating whole fresh veggies is a higher blood PH level (lower acidic level) which seems to have very favorable effects on your body both in terms of health and athletic fitness.



EAT THIS...

So here is a short list of suggested carbohydrate based foods that fall under the category of "good carbs". If it's a carbohydrate and NOT on this list you should really avoid it as much as possible.

The list (sort of) follows what is called the "Glycemic Load Index" or just "Glycemic Index". This index ranks foods on their propensity to cause an insulin spike and thus cause problems for diabetics and people trying to lose weight. (Search Google to find out more about the GI/GL index)

Now for my list of GOOD CARBS:


> Fresh Vegetables - Uncooked is best but lightly cooked is good as well. Salads all dressed up (without the 'creamy' dressings - use olive oil) are great way to get your veggies, just don't count "iceberg lettuce" as a veggie!

> Fresh Fruits and Berries - generally speaking, fruits and berries do have sugar yes, but also a lot of vitamins, fiber and lots of water so per serving it turns out to be a rather healthy and essential food choice. Every day you should eat a variety of them and avoid "dried" stuff unless you're exercising.

> Bran Cereals - All Bran, Muesli, Raisin Bran, Bran Buds... Bran and fiber are in vogue and all the rage. When in doubt about cereals, pick the "whole grain" types that are low in sugar and high, high, high in fiber.

> Oatmeal - Oatmeal is what I call a "SUPER FOOD". It is an essential every day whole-food. Although there are lots of (good) carbs in it, oatmeal also contains a good balance of protein, fiber and other key nutrients. It has soluble fiber which has been shown to reduce the bad LDL cholesterol without lowering HDL cholesterol (the good kind). Eat oatmeal every day.

> Nuts - Almonds, Walnuts, Hazelnuts, Pistachios, Pecans, even Peanuts are whole-foods which contain the healthy unsaturated fats (good for you). They have a good amount of protein and help keep your blood sugar in check, so GO NUTZ!

> Whole Grain Breads - Here we have some controversy. I'll admit it, I usually avoid bread altogether. But on the rare occasion I'll ALWAYS take whole-wheat and whole-grain over white. This is basic stuff right? White breads are refined, overly processed simple carbs and one of the worst things you can eat! (unless you're running a marathon).

Well in at least one study it has been sown that "sourdough" BEATS "whole wheat" in keeping your blood sugar spikes in check! This is counterintuitive I know, but it may be true because of how the breads are processed.

Anyway I still look for 100% "whole grain" to be listed near the top of ingredients list and choose the heavy (by weight) high fiber low sugar breads. Go easy on any kind of breads in any case because at 100-200 calories per slice they can pack in (on) the calories quicker then you think.

> Non-Fat Dairy Products - Or even low fat dairy is ok in moderation. These include skim milk and low fat yogurts. Gotta have some every day for the protein and calcium as well as the other nutrients!

> Beans - Here you have to be careful of what's out there. Choose either unprocessed (uncanned) beans or something with little to nothing added. Beans can be really good BUT, they are often stuffed in the can with lots of sugar, salt and fat so avoid those types. Beans should be eaten in moderation (small quantities) and a good complete protein dish is to combine them with BROWN rice (although that will probably give you a slight insulin spike so go easy on the portions).

> Whole Wheat Pasta - I don't eat much pasta at all (too many carbs in one plate for me) but if I do it is going to be organic whole wheat/whole grain pasta.



QUANTITIES

How much carbohydrate should I eat each day?

Complex carbs are actually pretty good for you. You should get from 40-60% of your daily calories from complex carbohydrate. 50% is a good and easy number to remember.

For the average 2,000 calorie/day diet, this means around 800-1000 calories (200-250 grams) per day if you're NOT athletic, and up to 1200 (or more) calories (300+ grams) per day if you train for aerobic endurance (run, bike, hike etc).

Athletes who go for "ultra low body fat" (body builders prior to a competition for example) eat very few carbs, but endurance runners need much more (60-70%).

Generally I recommend about half your daily calories come from complex carbs but please adjust actual amounts according to your daily calorie count.

SUMMARY

The take home message is this: For the most part, learn to identify and live without the simple carbohydrates altogether - choose life instead! Replace the simple carbs with complex carbs and high fiber foods. Maybe not today, but someday you'll be glad you did.

________________________________________________