Good carbs, bad carbs, no carbs…

The world of carbohydrates is so confusing! There’s good carbs, bad carbs, complex carbs, simple carbs….Agh.  Lets see if we can clear this up by figuring out just what they are, what they do and where they come from.

What are they and what is their purpose? Carbohydrates are a simple union of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.  There that clears that up. Just kidding.  Actually the definition of carbohydrate is just that.  That does nothing for me so lets discover the purpose.  Carbohydrates are broke down to two groups simple and complex.  Simple carbohydrates are found in things like refined sugar, candy, fruit and milk.  Complex carbohydrates are found in grain products such as breads, crackers, pasta and rice.  Both groups have some not so great choices and better choices.  Fruit and milk are obviously better choices than candy and unrefined grains, such as wheat flour, are better choices than refined grains such as white flour and white rice.  The refining or processing removes nutrients and fibers so if they are unrefined they still contain these vitamins and minerals.  Unrefined grains are rich in fiber, which helps your digestive system work well.

When you eat carbs your body breaks them down to simple sugars, which are absorbed in the bloodstream.  So why not just eat them as simple sugars?  As the sugar levels rise in the body the pancreas releases a hormone, insulin.  Insulin is needed to move the sugar from the blood to the cells where the sugars can be used as energy.  With simple sugars this process goes fast, with complex carbs this is a slower process.   When this process occurs fast you are more likely to feel hungry again sooner, when it goes slow you feel full longer.

So why the low carb/no carb diets?  Cutting carbs restricts so many of the foods that are normally accompanied by fat that dieters often end up cutting their total calorie intake.  The body draining glycogen stores for energy causes the initial rapid weight loss.  Each glycogen gram used releases 3 grams of water with the result being almost immediate weight loss due to increased urination.  After about 2 weeks increased urination ends and so does the rapid weight loss phase.