Which Carbohydrates to eat

by E-NewsCast Team
March 6th, 2010

There are essentially three types of diets these days. There isthe Atkins diet which stresses low to zero carbs. There is thelow fat diet which stresses no fats and there is a vegetariandiet which stresses low fat and low protein but allows highercarbohydrates. Today I would like to demystify the need forcarbs. And then in the future we can deal with fats and proteinas well as what diet is best.Carbohydrates are the main component of grains, rice, fruits andvegetables. You essentially need carbohydrates for energy andfibre. When your body is looking for a source of energy it tendsto use the simplest form available. The very simplest form ofenergy is glucose and although this is pure table sugar its nextclosest form is found in fruits as sucrose. These carbohydratesare called simple carbs because they are easy for your body tobreak down into energy. If your body can not find one of thesesources of sugar for energy it will move down the food chain andtry one of the next most easily available carbs next would begrain based or what we look at as “white” carbohydrates such asbread, potatoes, or rice. (Chocolate bars although not anofficial food group are closer to sugar than veggies or othercarbs). Your body will use any of the complex carbs as well asvegetables for fuel before moving to fats or proteins.Now that we can see where our carbs site in the energy chain itis a good idea to see what happens when we eat one and whathappens to our energy from them. When you eat a sugar itimmediately increases your blood sugar otherwise known as yourinsulin level. When you blood sugar spikes from sugar,chocolate, or pop you will get a bit of a euphoric feeling fromthis extra unneeded energy but because it is quick pickup it isalso a quick drop for energy and thus you will get a sugar crash30-45 minutes after the initial energy peak, this is very badand bad for your body. If on the other hand you only hadpotatoes or bread or rice for your carbs you would have no nicespikes but no crashes either and would feel after a couple dayson a very more even keel, you would feel like you energy ispretty good all the time but never to low or to high. This isthe key that we are looking for.

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