Carbohydrate-rich foods are not the enemy

Many peo­ple think carbs are the enemy. They are not. There is room in a person’s meal plan to include car­bo­hy­drate foods. In fact, 50 to 60 per­cent of the total calo­ries in a healthy diet usu­ally come from car­bo­hy­drate sources.

Car­bo­hy­drates, fats and pro­teins are the three major nutri­ents in our food. I like to com­pare these three to the major parts of a motor vehi­cle. Wheels, engine and a frame are essen­tials to any­thing that trav­els on the road.

Vit­a­mins and min­er­als are the extras in our food. Just as lights, seats and a radio are extras in a car. The vari­ety of the food and the car are deter­mined by the vit­a­mins, min­er­als and extras.

Not every food has the same vit­a­mins and min­er­als but each food con­tains a com­bi­na­tion of car­bo­hy­drates, fats or pro­teins. Not every car has the same lights, seats or radio but each vehi­cle con­tains a com­bi­na­tion of wheels, engine and frame.

Car­bo­hy­drates have been abbre­vi­ated to “carbs.” This nick­name was a neces­sity because not every­one wants to spell or say the long word, “car­bo­hy­drate.” Another rea­son that this term has been a pet name is that we are very famil­iar with car­bo­hy­drates, in some cases, very intimately.

Still some peo­ple con­sider carbs as the enemy. The Atkins diet that was pop­u­lar years ago made eat­ing carbs taboo. In fact, any more than 60 grams of car­bo­hy­drate foods in one day was con­sid­ered more than enough.

In real­ity if 50 per­cent of calo­ries come from car­bo­hy­drate choices in a healthy meal plan, and there are 4 calo­ries per gram in car­bo­hy­drate food then 60 grams equals 240 calo­ries. With some mul­ti­pli­ca­tion that is only 480 total daily calo­ries which is totally unrealistic.

Some­one with a need of approx­i­mately 1,800 calo­ries to main­tain their weight and energy level requires about 900 calo­ries (50 per­cent) from car­bo­hy­drate sources. If I divide 900 by 4 this equals 225 grams of car­bo­hy­drate food, not 60.

The diets that limit car­bo­hy­drate intake to a quar­ter of what is rec­om­mended leave a lot to be desired. There are vit­a­mins and min­er­als that pre­dom­i­nately come from car­bo­hy­drate sources. Lim­it­ing car­bo­hy­drate foods lim­its the valu­able vit­a­mins and min­er­als. It’s like buy­ing a stripped down vehi­cle and every­one knows that the more extras on a car, the nicer it is.

Car­bo­hy­drate sources are not just pota­toes, bread and pas­tas. There are car­bo­hy­drates in fruit and milk prod­ucts, too. The less refined sugar there is in a food, the more vit­a­mins and min­er­als. The more fiber in a prod­uct will result in less digestible car­bo­hy­drates and often with addi­tional vit­a­mins and min­er­als, which is a healthy way to go.

For clar­i­fi­ca­tion, health­ier car­bo­hy­drates, or good carbs, use whole grains as an ingre­di­ent such as those found in whole grain cere­als, bread and pasta; beans and legumes; fruit; all root veg­eta­bles like pota­toes and car­rots; and milk and yogurt.

Less healthy car­bo­hy­drate foods, or bad carbs, are sim­ple sug­ars eaten to an excess. The ingre­di­ent lists them as sugar, invert sugar, corn sweet­ener, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup or fruit juice con­cen­trates. Fruit juice becomes a prob­lem when the por­tions are larger that a 4 ounce or a half cup serving.

Limit processed foods and foods that are high in sugar instead of avoid­ing carbs alto­gether. To go with­out them is to go with­out valu­able vit­a­mins and min­er­als, the fine extras.

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor, reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Aultman-Orrville Hos­pi­tal, Orrville. Con­tact her at bobbie.randall@aultmanorrville.org or 330–684-4776.

Posted by Bobbie Randall on May 16 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.