Breaking Down Carbs

We love our carbohydrates!!!  The chip basket at our favorite Mexican restaurant or our bread basket at our Italian spot or the Texas toast at the steak house or the artisan bread at Sunday brunch!!!  And you can’t forget the rice and beans, the big plate of pasta with Alfredo sauce, the baked potato swimming in butter and sour cream, or the big stack of fluffy pancakes drowning in syrup!!  Are you salivating yet?  These foods are so hard to resist!!  The question is, how do you feel after eating these foods?  Are you full of energy?  Or do you feel like you need a nap afterwards?  A lot of that depends on how well you tolerate carbohydrates.  That’s determined by your genetic makeup and your diet and lifestyle.  That being said, no one should chow down on these foods frequently.  We are going to do a deep dive into carbohydrates this month!  The good, the bad and the ugly.

First of all, what are carbohydrates?  They are one of our body’s fuel sources along with fats, and to some degree, proteins.  Carbohydrates, fats and proteins make up the 3 macronutrients in our diet.  The current dietary guidelines say we need between 45-65% of daily calories from carbohydrates!  If you read our blog on the Metabolic Health of American’s, you know that only 12% of us are metabolically healthy!  (read the parameters they used in the study here)  That is probably too high for many of us to consume.  But there is also a big difference between healthy carbohydrates and unhealthy carbohydrates so let’s get into a basic understanding of carbohydrates and which ones are the best to consume.

There are three types of carbs:  sugars, starches and fibers

Sugars

When you think about carbs the first thing that comes to your mind more than likely, are sugars.  There are three groups of sugars; monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides.

Monosaccharides are simple sugars that include glucose, fructose and galactose.  These often taste sweet and would be found in

• Honey

• Corn syrup

• High fructose corn syrup

• Agave nectar

• Fruits and fruit juices

• Some vegetables

Disaccharides are formed when monosaccharides are joined together forming sucrose, lactose, and maltose.  Some examples would include

• Table sugar – sucrose - extracted from beet roots and sugar cane

• Maple syrup – mostly sucrose

• Dairy products – contain lactose formed from glucose and galactose

• Beer – maltose

• Grains – like wheat, cornmeal, barley and ancient grains - maltose

• Some fruits like peaches -  maltose

• Some root vegetables – sweet potatoes and carrots - sucrose

Many prepared foods contain sugar in one form or another so careful reading of labels is necessary.  Sugar is the driving force behind many diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer.  In 2012 a study that was done by scientists from the University of California, discovered that when sugar is consumed, the fructose in the sugar is converted to the small dense LDL cholesterol particles that are implicated in heart disease.  It was concluded that men should not get more than 37g of added sugar per day and women should not get more than 25g per day.  To put that into perspective, a coke has 39g of sugar.  Children should have much less, and food designed for children is usually loaded in sugar.  Some researchers say sugar is as addictive as cocaine so use cautiously. 

Polysaccharides or Starch

Starches are long chains of glucose molecules connected together.  These include starch, glycogen and cellulose in our diets.  Our liver and skeletal muscles convert extra glucose from a meal into a storage molecule called glycogen.  Glycogen is converted to glucose when energy is needed between meals.  

Starch would be found in these foods

• White or whole grain breads

• White or brown rice 

• Other grains like quinoa

• Pasta

• Corn

• Potatoes

Fiber

Dietary fiber is different from other types of carbohydrates because the body can’t digest it but it helps the waste material pass out of the colon more easily.  It makes up the cell walls of plant cells.  There are 2 types, soluble (dissolves in water) and insoluble (doesn’t dissolve in water).  Fiber can help slow the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream.  Fiber can be found in these foods

• Fruits 

• Vegetables

• Beans and other legumes

• Nuts and seeds

• Whole grains

• Oatmeal

Simple vs Complex Carbohydrates

We want to reduce the simple carbs that come straight from the sugar list above!  They are quickly digested and absorbed into the blood stream and have a big impact on increasing insulin!  Eating these foods regularly may cause insulin to remain elevated and can lead to a condition called insulin resistance (more on this later). 

Try to have more complex carbohydrates that would include the polysaccharides and fiber and control your portion size.  Reduce your flour, breads and pastas and choose vegetables and whole foods instead.  Did you know that the portion size for pasta is a half of a cup?  That plate of pasta at your favorite Italian restaurant has way more than a half of a cup.

Did you know that there are actually no essential carbohydrates?  There are essential fatty acids and amino acids that must come from the diet daily that are needed to build our hormones and muscles, but the body can actually produce carbohydrates.  There is also no hormone that is released telling you that you have had enough, like there is when you eat fat and protein so they are very easy to overeat.  You’d be hard pressed to eat more than one chicken breast but you could easily eat several donuts in one sitting even though a chicken breast and a donut have approximately the same number of calories.  The have different hormonal responses in the body.  The donut will have your energy crashing and craving more in an hour and the chicken breast will leave you satisfied for a much longer time.  We just love our carbs but we need to use them cautiously and strategically.