Good Carbs - Bad Carbs

Carbohydrates provide the body with the fuel it needs to sustain energy and for proper functioning of your organs. Some kinds of carbohydrates promote health while other carbohydrates, when eaten often, actually can increase the risk of diabetes and coronary heart disease.

The Glycemic Index is based on how quickly and how high carbohydrates boost blood sugar in the body. Foods with a high glycemic index, such as white bread, cause a rapid spike in blood sugars. While foods with a low glycemic index, like whole grains, digest more slowly, causing a lower and gentler change in the blood sugar.

The Glycemic Load is a ranking system for the carbohydrate content in food portions based on their glycemic index. www.glycemicindex.com is a wonderfully informative site that gives the glycemic index, the glycemic load and the carbohydrates per serving.

The Journal of the American Medical Association cited several dozen studies that have found people who eat a lot of starchy foods such as, white breads, white rice and refined
white sugars are at risk for obesity, heart disease and diabetes, compared with people who eat these foods in moderation.

Eating a refined anything means that our system has to provide, from storage, everything that is now missing in this food. Eventually, we don't have enough places to borrow from and we are a little less efficient. Over the years, enough micronutrients are missing that we are inefficient enough to start having bad health problems.

If you want to try to get more good carbs into your daily diet, try to include more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Use whole grain pastas, brown rice, whole oats, millet and bulgur. Beans are an excellent source of slowly digested carbohydrates and also a good source of protein.

When purchasing whole grain products, the first ingredient must say whole wheat, whole oats, whole rye or whole grain. The new whole grain stamp can make this a lot easier to identify. The stamp is a sheaf of grain on a golden background. Foods in which all the grains are whole grain, will list 100% on the stamp.

If you are one that always seems to have a craving for something sweet; apples, blackberries, cherries, cranberries, melons, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries and strawberries, yam with a little cinnamon are good choices to take care of that craving.
That craving you get will eventually stop after you start eating the right carbs and stay away from the bad.

Resources:

Journal of the American Medical Association
Everydayhealth.com
Harvard school of Public Health