Good carbs

tedboosalis7 wrote: »

douggyr wrote: »

As a diabetic, I have to be concerned about 'good' and 'bad' carbs. Here is a rule of thumb: If the carb is highly processed (such as white rice) then that is a bad carb as it will turn to sugar without giving your pancreas enough time to produce the insilin to convert the sugar to energy. Try to stick with whole grains, nut products (Blue Diamond has a line of crackers made out of almonds and pecans), fruit (a large navel orange as 32 carbs). Let's be realistic: We are going to have a slice of pizza and sometimes some regular pasta. Plan for it. Another good substitue is sweet potatos instead of regular potatos. All of these break down slower thus allowing the insilin to produce and convert the sugar. Also because they have more bulk and nutrients, you are less likely to binge.

This deserves a bump, so does Sagenettle.

There's a big misconception on metabolics on this site with some users regarding the difference between a simple carb and a complex carb. Thankfully, we have responses such as the ones I bumped above that satisfy the question being asked.

I never heard of anyone losing fat by eating Twinkies. Ever heard of visceral fat and skinny fat syndrome????

The component of calories DO matter. Not all calories are alike.

Many on this site purport there is no Zero Sum Game when it comes to caloric intake, but that's not even close to being true.

Take regular pasta and it's nutritional content against let's say... almonds - same calorie count. Which one processes faster, which one stores as fat easier, which one is worse for wear over the long run???

Sagenettle wrote: »

Probably brown or wild rice is better than couscous I'd think. Otherwise you can have something like sweet potato, or try to incorporate more fruits into the day.

astridtheviking wrote: »

dbmata wrote: »

In for more discussion on how some kcal are more caloric than another kcal depending on source and magic.

Nobody said that some calories are “more caloric” depending on source. What’s being said is that some foods will fill you up more based on other macros. Let’s compare:

1.5 oz hershey’s chocolate = 210 calories
7 cups broccoli = 210 calories

Which will keep you full longer? Which will keep your blood sugar from spiking? Which can I eat more of?

That is the point. Yeah, you can eat 10 hershey’s bar and count that as your 2100 calories for the day. But you’re gonna be hungry as hell. By contrast, if you eat a meal more based in lower-processed foods you can eat more food. I wouldn’t recommend eating either 10 chocolate bars or 70 cups of broccoli in a day as your meal, but it’s easy to see that one of these will fill your stomach longer. That’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t have a [shock, horror] foods that are fried or contain sugar, et cetera that we traditionally look at as “unhealthy.” But when looking for a healthy side to a meal, as OP says she is doing, brown rice might be a little more helpful to her.

Not everyone is looking for the same thing out of their diet; by all means, fill your diet with the foods you want, that you like, and that make you happy - but also know that other people are looking for other things in their foods.

MrM27 wrote: »

astridtheviking wrote: »

I don’t know why so many people are being kind of rude on this thread and treating this like a dumb question. A calorie = a calorie = a calorie is definitely false. Yeah, you can lose weight eating twinkies but what’s gonna fill you up more, 3 twinkies or 2 cups of brown rice? You gonna be hungry an hour after your twinkies? probably. Someone suggested a McDonalds fry, but a small fry has more calories than one cup of brown rice! Which will keep you hungrier? Which will

A carbohydrate is a chemical way of saying stored energy - that’s your calories! So a “good” carb is typically a name for a complex carb and a “bad” carb is a simple carb. Complex carbs require your body to process them longer to break them up to access the stored energy, while the simple carbs require much less work on your body’s part to break them up. The result is, you stay fuller longer eating complex carbs while your body has to break them up, while a simple carb gets quickly digested, calories absorbed, and waste pushed along.

One way of thinking about figuring out whether a carbohydrate is complex or simple is to think about the level of processing already completed in the factory: the bread you eat, even if it’s “whole grain” has already had some processing. On the other hand, the white bread has gotten a lot more processing - while substituting the bread for an unprocessed carb might seem like a good idea, you can also take the whole-grain, knowing that it will take longer for your body to process, keeping you fuller longer.

My go-to complex carbs are things like brown rice, whole grain bread, quinoa, sweet potato, etc. You can look at a lot more factors (fiber, protein, et cetera), but usually if there’s a “white” version of a carb and a “brown” version, go for the brown. (Whole grain bread vs white bread, brown rice vs white rice, et cetera).

The difference might not look that big (“But there’s whole wheat flour in white bread!”) but believe me, your body can tell the difference.

Sorry but a calorie is a calorie. If it's not then what is it?

How can your body tell the difference between white bread and whole wheat bread. Tell us how it really does that, not what you think.

astridtheviking wrote: »

I don’t know why so many people are being kind of rude on this thread and treating this like a dumb question. A calorie = a calorie = a calorie is definitely false. Yeah, you can lose weight eating twinkies but what’s gonna fill you up more, 3 twinkies or 2 cups of brown rice? You gonna be hungry an hour after your twinkies? probably. Someone suggested a McDonalds fry, but a small fry has more calories than one cup of brown rice! Which will keep you hungrier? Which will

A carbohydrate is a chemical way of saying stored energy - that’s your calories! So a “good” carb is typically a name for a complex carb and a “bad” carb is a simple carb. Complex carbs require your body to process them longer to break them up to access the stored energy, while the simple carbs require much less work on your body’s part to break them up. The result is, you stay fuller longer eating complex carbs while your body has to break them up, while a simple carb gets quickly digested, calories absorbed, and waste pushed along.

One way of thinking about figuring out whether a carbohydrate is complex or simple is to think about the level of processing already completed in the factory: the bread you eat, even if it’s “whole grain” has already had some processing. On the other hand, the white bread has gotten a lot more processing - while substituting the bread for an unprocessed carb might seem like a good idea, you can also take the whole-grain, knowing that it will take longer for your body to process, keeping you fuller longer.

My go-to complex carbs are things like brown rice, whole grain bread, quinoa, sweet potato, etc. You can look at a lot more factors (fiber, protein, et cetera), but usually if there’s a “white” version of a carb and a “brown” version, go for the brown. (Whole grain bread vs white bread, brown rice vs white rice, et cetera).

The difference might not look that big (“But there’s whole wheat flour in white bread!”) but believe me, your body can tell the difference.