It’s very ‘trendy’ in our current society to cut carbohydrates for both weight loss and health.  Popular diets like Atkins, the Zone Diet and others very similar have led the way in creating the common belief that carbohydrates make you put on weight and are bad for your health.

Before I go into this topic a little further, I want to make very clear that the field of nutrition is highly dynamic and constantly changing. A new field of research only 30-40 years young, nutritional science is only just scratching the surface about what there is to know about food, its role within our body and its effect on our health. Opinions within the field vary widely depending on the background of each professional and this conflicting advice can often be confusing.

My personal belief with nutrition and healthy eating is this: there are many extremes we can take when it comes to healthy eating (no carbs, high protein, no animal products, only raw food) but the truth usually lies somewhere in between.

‘Everything in moderation’ is a good perspective to have when it comes to making healthy food choices. It’s also important to note that everyone is different. What works for you may not work for someone else. In the end, you need to find what is best for you and your health and stick with that.

Classifying foods as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ can be counter productive when making healthy lifestyle changes because you assigning a moral value to your food. Food doesn’t have moral value, it’s just food and some types of food are better for you than others and some kinds of food need to be eaten less than other kinds of foods.

Ok, so back to the carbs. Should you or shouldn’t you?

What are carbohydrates?

When I say carbohydrates, I’m referring to a group of macronutrients that includes sugars (glucose, fructose, lactose, sucrose etc), starches and fibre. Because food doesn’t consist of just one macronutrient, it’s a combination of all three in differing amounts, some foods will contain more carbohydrate than others. Some foods will also contain different types of carbohydrates than others and this is when some basic nutrition knowledge about the food you eat comes in handy when your making healthy choices.

Sugars

Most food contains some form of sugar. Lactose in milk, fructose in fruit and honey and sucrose, glucose and other sugar derivatives are in baked goods and packaged food.

Sugar isn’t unhealthy in itself, the problem is that high sugar foods tend to be very low in nutrients and eaten in large quantities. The result of a diet consisting of large amounts of food high in sugar is the possibility of nutrient deficiency and a sugar load that the body may have difficulty dealing with. Long term difficulty dealing with a high sugar intake can result in chronic diseases such as metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

The nutritional recommendation is to limit your intake of high sugar, low nutrient density foods. I definitely enjoy sweet treats just like everyone else, but I don’t have them everyday.

Limiting your intake of soft drinks, biscuits, cakes, processed foods, slices, pastries, lollies, chocolate and dairy desserts (flavoured milk, ice cream) is important to keep your sugar intake to a level that’s manageable for your body.

Like I mentioned above fruit and dairy products (milk and yoghurt) both contain sugar. Should we limit our intake of these foods?

Simple answer: Not like the foods mentioned above.

Fruit primarily contains the sugar fructose, however, fruit is also packed full of nutrition. It’s a very important source of dietary fibre (vital for good bowel health), vitamins and antioxidants and should form daily part of our diet. Two serves a day is plenty.

The same rule applies to milk and yoghurt. Yes they do contain sugar, but they are also a very important source of B vitamins, calcium and phosphorus. Aiming for 2-3 serves of dairy a day is ample if you are a dairy eater.

Further reading: 10 Tips to Beat Sugar and Food Addiction

Starches

To put complex biochemistry very simply, starches are thousands of sugar molecules joined together and tied up in a knot. Starches are found in grains, nuts, seeds and some vegetables (potato etc).

As in the case of sugar, starch in itself is not unhealthy. Modern food manufacturing, however, has meant that food contains only the starchy part of the grain and not all of the grain. Processing removes most if not all of the fibrous part of the grain which is one of the places where dietary fibre comes from.

Generally, foods that are high in processed carbohydrates (starch) contain very little nutrition and are low in fibre, vitamins and minerals. A diet consisting of these highly processed, low nutrient foods can lead to a similar situation to that of a high sugar diet – a body at risk of nutrient deficiency and a starch intake (that’s broken into sugars and absorbed by the digestive system) that is too much for the body to properly manage.

Foods such as: white bread, white pasta, white rice, quick oats and baked goods containing white flour (pastry, cakes, biscuits etc) are foods that have had been processed to contain only the starchy part of the grain. Be careful that you don’t overeat these foods.

Switching to the whole grain versions of these processed products are better choices: Wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta, brown rice, whole oats and wholemeal flour in baking.

The best carbohydrate choices are:

• 5 or more serves of green, leafy, non-starchy vegetables everyday
• 2 serves of fresh fruit everyday
• legumes and pulses (beans, chick peas, lentils)
• raw nuts and seeds
• unprocessed grains like: barley, quinoa, rye
• wholemeal or wholegrain products that are a good source of fibre (bread, pasta, rice)

These foods will fill you up quicker and help you feel fuller for longer. Not to mention help your body manage your blood sugar levels a lot better.

So when you’re buying processed or packaged food the best product is the one that contains the lowest amount of sugar and the highest amount of fibre. Check the nutrition information panels for all the information you need to make the comparison.

When it comes the best carbohydrates for your body choose whole, fresh and unprocessed. The less that’s done to the food between the farmer and you, the better.

Further reading: Are Carbohydrates Bad for You?

If you are interested in a healthy carbohydrate intake for weight loss and specific portion sizes, my eBook Lose Weight for Life contains all the information you need to know to learn how to eat well for weight loss and maintain your weight, for life.

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://hercanberra.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/kf.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kate Freeman is passionate about honest, simple nutrition information and inspiring people to make positive lifestyle changes to achieve their health and fitness goals. Her online business Kate Freeman Nutrition is all about providing simple, practical, easy to follow nutrition and exercise advice that you can apply today. Please visit www.katefreemannutrition.com.au for more information. Kate is married with two young children and lives just across the border from Canberra. [/author_info] [/author]