Carbs don’t make us fat…Too many low quality carbs make us fat.
What are carbs?
Carbs are one of the 3 main food groups (carbs, proteins and fats) and we get them from eating plant based foods. Carbs are our main fuel source, so we need them for activity and exercise.
There are 3 main types of carbs and our body deals with them in different ways:
- Simple sugars – The simplest kind and we digest them in seconds/minutes. They are “fast release” sugars and too much of them can lead to health problems such as Type 2 Diabetes.
- Starches or Complex Carbs – These are more complex and we digest them over several minutes/hours. These are “slow release” carbs and are much better for our health and waistline.
- Fibre/roughage – These are the most complex and the body can’t digest them properly. They simply pass out the other end! These are very healthy forms of carbs and most of us don’t get enough of these high quality carbs.
The healthiest sources of high quality complex carbohydrates and fibre are from fruits, veggies and whole grains. But we get too much low quality simple, refined carbohydrates from processed foods such as fast food, white flour products and sweets.
In conclusion
Think quality over quantity.
- Carbohydrates are an important part of our diet and we shouldn’t avoid them.
- We should all be eating mostly “natural” plant based foods.
- We should severely restrict highly processed, man-made foods.
- Processing foods (turning them from natural foods into artificially sweetened, coloured, flavoured and preserved products) usually means removing the “good” complex carbohydrates, replacing them with “bad” simple carbohydrates.
Homework
Use the infographic below to swap as many of your low quality, simple carbs into high quality complex carbs and fibre.
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