The Health of It All

Carbohydrates

The low carbohydrate craze is no longer at full boil, but I still have those patients who come in and talk about being on a low-carb diet. While the plans for most such diets are pretty silly, most folks do need to cut back on calories. In general, the western diet is now largely built around the carbohydrate, and those carbs, unfortunately, have often been soaked in fat and coated with salt.

Like all foods, however, carbohydrates are actually good for you. Choosing what types of carbs and how many you eat is the key.

Carbohydrates are chains of basic sugar molecules called saccharides (SACK-a-rides). Single sugar molecules are known as monosaccharides while two sugars linked together are disaccharides. Such one and two sugar carbs are generally called simple sugars because they are easily broken down in the body into the monosaccharides.

The monosaccharide glucose is important because it’s the primary fuel for your body. All edible carbohydrates contain glucose. Combining the monosaccharides glucose and fructose results in the disaccharide called sucrose (good old fashioned table sugar). Granulated sugar is sucrose and is a highly refined product usually made from sugar cane or beets. You hear all the time that white sugar is bad for you and using “natural” sugars is healthier. This is silly. Sugar is sugar and your body digests it all in the same way.

When monosaccharides form chains longer than two they are called polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates (sometimes called starches or complex sugars). Starches as a rule contain at least some glucose.

Fiber is made up of long chain carbohydrates, but they’re not absorbed into the body like other carbs because humans don’t have the enzymes to break them down. As a result, foods that are higher in fiber are generally lower in calories.

When you look at the nutrition facts on food labels there is a line for carbohydrates. This is for all carbs - both simple and complex. The sugars line is for simple carbohydrates only. Notice that there’s a line for fiber. Both of these are O.K. for you but getting more fiber is really good for you.

So what does this mean in day to day terms? A good example is the difference between an apple and apple juice. The same weight of the juice and the apple contain about the same amount of calories and carbohydrate but there’s 5 grams of fiber in the apple and none in the juice. Both essentially carbohydrates and both good for you but the apple is better. More fiber, more satisfying -- healthy.

Look at the carbs in the foods that you are choosing. Pick those that are higher in fiber and lower in sugars.

Carbs	Better Carbs
potatoes	sweet potatoes or yams
white bread	whole grain bread
white rice	brown rice
pasta	whole wheat pasta
fruit juice	fresh whole fruit
sugary cereal (Frosted Flakes)	whole grain cereal (Cheerios)
sugary cereal (corn flakes)	whole grain cereal (shredded wheat)
grits	oatmeal
doughnut	muffins