#2 Carbohydrates

In recent years, carbohydrates have attracted some bad press and seemingly more people are opting for ‘low-carb’ diets.  For some people, this works well, especially if they have higher blood sugar levels or are trying to lose weight.  But, is it fair to demonize carbs?

Broccoli is a carb and it’s positively good for you, as are oats and raspberries and beans and oranges and…well, you get the picture!  So, for this second blog, I thought I’d explore the world of carbohydrates in a little more detail, so you can make up your own mind.  Carbohydrates, aka carbs, are one of the three macronutrients we eat in large quantities to fuel our bodies (the other two are proteins and fats in case you are wondering, though technically, alcohol is also considered a macronutrient).

Carbs are your body’s major and preferred fuel source, especially when it comes to the energy your brain and muscles use.   Regardless of the type of carb you eat, your body breaks them down into glucose which enters the bloodstream and is tightly regulated by the hormone insulin.  When glucose levels rise because you’ve eaten carbohydrates, insulin is released signalling to the cells in your body to use it or store it (mostly in the liver and muscle) for when you next need it.  Every gram of carb you eat provides 4kcal of energy, which is the same as a gram of protein, but less than half the energy of a gram of fat which is 9kcal (fyi, alcohol has 7kcal of energy per gram).

Most carbohydrates are found in plants.  Think grains, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and fruits, but there are also carbohydrates in dairy (aka lactose).  The chemical structure of carbohydrates varies quite a bit, from single molecules (monosaccharides) to two linked molecules (disaccharides), to more complex molecules including oligosaccharides (three to ten linked molecules) and polysaccharides where tens, hundreds or even thousands of monosaccharides are joined together in a long chain.

Said another way, monosaccharides and disaccharides are simple carbs aka sugars, while oligosaccharides and polysaccharides are complex carbs.  I guess by now you’re wondering “what’s with all the chemistry stuff.”  Well, it’s because this is where the ‘good carb/bad carb story comes in.  You see, generally speaking, complex carbs are more nutritious and healthier than simple carbs. This is because it takes your body longer to break down complex carbs, which in turn keeps you feeling fuller for longer and avoids blood sugar spikes and crashes.  By the way, if you are pushed for time or want to hit the key points, jump straight to the end, and have a look at ‘3 THINGS’.

If you’re continuing, maybe now is a good time to look at some examples of simple and complex carbs.. keep scrolling down…

Tip: If you see a list of ingredients with words that end in ‘ose’, it’s most likely a carb!

A few sentences ago I said that… generally speaking, complex carbs are more nutritious and healthier than simple carbs, but you’ll notice that simple carbs come in several different forms.  So, let’s talk ‘free-sugars’ for a moment.  I’m guessing you’ve probably heard the term before, but for the sake of clarity, ‘free sugar’ refers to the added, refined sugar you find in drinks, ready meals, biscuits, cakes and breakfast cereal etc, as well as the naturally occurring sugars found in syrups, honey and fruit/vegetable juices and smoothies.  Seems a little counter intuitive doesn’t it, that fruit and vegetable juices should be counted as free sugar, especially when we hear so often that we should be eating at least 5 a day of our fruit and veggies!

Well, it’s because free sugar in juices isn’t locked into the cells of fruit and vegetables, because it’s been processed aka juiced or blended.  Because of this, your body doesn’t have to do much work to break it down into energy (aka glucose).   Think of it like this.  If you eat a whole apple, as well as consuming simple carbohydrate, you’ll be getting vitamins, minerals, and fibre from the skin, pulp and juice. On the other hand, if you drink just the juice, while the carbohydrate content will be similar, the fibre content will be greatly reduced (there’s less than 1g of fibre in 250ml of apple juice while there’s 4g of fibre in a medium apple) and there will likely be fewer vitamins, minerals and polyphenols.

Something else to consider is that there is evidence that juice and smoothies are easier than whole fruit to (over) consume, probably because they lack the fibre that helps with satiety.  Overconsuming any macronutrients can cause overweight and obesity, which is associated with many chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.  Additionally, free sugars contribute to tooth decay.   For all these reasons, the government recommended in 2015, that free sugars should comprise no more than 5% of a person’s daily energy.  In contrast, the simple sugars “bound-up” in whole fruit and vegetables don’t count as free sugar, so you can enjoy these as much as you like…. unless you are diabetic or trying to lose weight, in which case you might want to keep a closer eye on them.

Let’s return now to the statement ‘generally speaking, complex carbs are more nutritious and healthier than simple carbs’ for a minute.  We’ve already looked at exceptions to the rule vis-a-vie simple carbs from whole fruit being nutritious and ‘good for us’, now it’s time to look at exceptions to the rule regarding complex carbs.  You see, not all complex carbs are created equal. For example, white rice, cornflakes, refined white flour and the foods made from it including bread and pasta, are complex carbs but aren’t all that nutritious!

That’s because a lot of the ‘good stuff’ has been removed or “refined” out of them, particularly the fibre.  Fibre is an important complex carbohydrate with numerous health benefits, yet most of us don’t get enough of it!  You might remember from my previous blog that fibre is important for nurturing your gut microbiome.  Fibre is also important for your digestive health as it softens and bulks up your poop, helping to keep you regular!

And, fibre aids satiety, keeping you feeling fuller for longer, which is useful for maintaining or losing weight.  There’s also evidence that fibre eaten in combination with other foods reduces the amount of energy absorbed from them, so actively aids weight loss.  In the same vein, fibre, especially the type from grains such as oats and barley, binds to cholesterol which in turn lowers the amount absorbed into your body.  So, there are lots of reasons to eat fibre (30g per day is the recommended amount), but perhaps the most compelling is that there’s a great deal of evidence that fibre reduces the risk of chronic disease, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

I hope that over the course of the last 4 paragraphs, I’ve managed to paint carbs in a useful, interesting, and possibly different light.  Thanks for tuning in… Viva whole foods!