CARBS & CARBS

Good carbs, Bad carbs;

High carbs, Low carbs;

No carbs.

What carbs? 

I must be fielding dozens of questions daily about carbs.  There seems to be such a wide misunderstanding of what carbohydrates are and do that I thought I'd blog on carbs.

Carbohydrates are the major source of energy in the human diet.  All carbs break down into some kind of sugar, mostly glucose.  Glucose is the preferred source of energy for muscle work and the ONLY source of energy for brain work.  So, when one asks me for a NO CARB diet, I tell them "Don't try it!"

SIMPLE carbs are either made of ONE or FEW sugars: either glucose or fructose.  Glucose and fructose combine in short chains to form simple sugars found in beer (maltose), milk (lactose) and cane sugar (sucrose).  These simple carbs take very little to no work to digest and are very quickly carried into the blood.  This is great for the athlete who needs a quick burst of energy, or for a brain "sugar high" before an exam: great instant energy burst.  Within two hours or less, their effect is gone. 

COMPLEX carbs are made of long chains of glucose and/or fructose, forming what we call cellulose and starch.  Because they are long and sometimes twisted on themselves, these chains take longer to break down and they release their energy slowly.  That's why complex carbs are recommended before long-lasting efforts.  Their effect lasts up to four hours or more.

GOOD carbs are complex carbs.  They are found in starchy vegetables (sweet potatoes, yams, squash) and fibrous plants (broccoli, spinach, apples). They are also found in grains and grain products (whole breads, barley, wheat, bulgur, quinoa, brown rice.)  Mixed carbs combine simple and complex sugars (i.e., whole oranges.) 

BAD carbs are refined and simple sugars.  The list is long, starting with white sugar, juices, sodas, beer, candy.  Simple carbs like white flower and sugar are major ingredients for cookies, crackers, chips, white breads and other highly processed foods.  Perhaps the most infamous "bad" carb is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

HFCS is a syrup derived from corn.  The problem is that the human body is not made to process this particular form of fructose.  HFCS is like bad coal in a furnace: it burns poorly and makes lots of wastes.  The body, unfortunately, store this waste as fat.  Sadly, HFCS is present in most soft drinks and processed sweet foods.

The human body is made to burn carbs.  But we must choose our carbs wisely.  NO to soda, cookies, crackers and white bread, but YES to whole grains, vegetables and fruits.  Complex Carbs: that's a healthy thing!