The Truth About Carbs

The Short Story

Most experts agree that for good health you need a healthy, balanced diet that includes carbohydrates—at least a third of daily calories should come from carbohydrates—as well as healthy fats and proteins.

Behind the low-carb craze is one central claim: faster, easier weight loss thanks to lower, steadier blood sugar. In reality, it’s not nearly that simple. No one denies the claim that it is sensible to cut down on the refined carbohydrates in your diet—such as pastries and white bread, white rice and potato chips—but many diets pose an immediate threat to your heart by demonizing all carbohydrates.

Blacklisting fruit, vegetables and whole grains robs your cardiovascular system of the health protectors you need every day: soluble fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. And replacing them with a high intake of saturated fats poses untold dangers to your heart and blood pressure. Research shows that in the long run, a moderate-carbohydrate diet that includes fruit, vegetables and whole grains may be as good as, or even better than, a low-carbohydrate diet, for losing weight.

The promises on low-carb products make them seem healthier, leaner, almost magic—but a chocolate bar is still a chocolate bar, governed by nature’s first rule of weight gain—eat too many calories, and you will gain weight.

The Complete Carb Glossary

Here’s how to work your way through the complex carb lingo, and distinguish the good guys from the bad guys.

Complex Carbs

Carbohydrates with a more intricate chemical composition, which require more time to break down into basic sugars during digestion. Plant-based foods in their raw or natural form are mostly composed of complex carbohydrates, as well as fibre, plant-based fats and nutrients. It is this winning combination of nutritious ingredients and slow digestion that makes plants, in their natural form, among the healthiest foods available to humans. Diet experts often call these “good carbs.”

Simple Carbs

These are chemically simple, so they digest quickly into glucose, or blood sugar. While some plant foods—such as potatoes and carrots—contain lots of simple carbohydrates, most of the simple carbohydrates in our diet are a result of refining done by manufacturers. White flour, refined sugar and white rice are the most common simple carbohydrates. The process that simplifies carbohydrates often removes the fibre, plant fats and micronutrients from the original plant, thus stripping it of much of its nutrition value. Diet experts may call these “bad carbs.”

Net Carbs

(also known as “smart carbs” or “impact carbs”)

This is a recently devised concept; essentially, net carbs are complex carbohydrates minus their fibre and certain natural sweeteners. The theory is that net carbs are the parts of the carbohydrate that affect blood sugar levels, but most nutritionists consider these measurements to be gimmicky, invalid and not at all useful.