What are good and bad carbohydrates?

Good carbs and bad carbs may sound Greek and Latin to many. These terms are used recently to classify carbohydrates in terms of health benefits. Carbohydrates are not always good and not always bad. Some promote health and some causes problems which we generally say as good carbs and bad carbs respectively. Carbohydrates are called the fuel of our body because they give energy to run the engine of life. It's our responsibility to identify good carbs from bad carbs and take them appropriately.

Our body should get energy from the carbohydrate content of our diet and not from the protein or fat content. Good carbs are found in legumes, whole grains, oatmeal, spaghetti, milk, vegetables and fruits. The complex sugar molecules here are broken into simpler substance and are stored in the form of glycogen to give the energy we need. Bad carbs are found in soda pop or soft drinks, snacks such as cookies and chips, pasta, white bread and alcohol. Though they give energy the carbohydrate content is highly refined and processed. Hence they are full of empty calories with no benefit. When these bad carbs are the only source of carbohydrates in our diet, our body abstracts energy from protein and fat. Moreover, these refined and processed carbohydrates are the main cause of heart disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Good carbs will not suppress our appetite because they are rich in fiber and protein which get digested easily. They give you enough strength between meals. Bad carbs fill the stomach easily and suppresses your appetite for now. But soon you will feel hungry because they have only empty calories and you land up in eating more that leads to obesity.

Calories just increases the body weight and has no nutritional value. Bad carbs has only calories and no carbohydrate content. Hence they contribute only to unwanted weight gain. But good carbs on the other hand is rich in carbohydrates which gives energy and not just calories that increases weight. This is the reason why weight loss program is based on low caloric diet.

According to the chemistry of carbohydrates, good carbs are complex carbs and bad carbs are simple carbs. Bad carbs are called glycemic agents that alters the glucose and insulin level rapidly leading to diabetes and fat gain. Try to replace refined and processed food with fresh whole foods.