I'm new and I don't understand "good" carbs v. bad carbs
chrisyhurd
Posts: 1 Member
I'm just starting out, and I'm looking at my daily nutrition goals. I can count grams no problem, but I need some help in determining which are the better carbs to eat. Can you share ideas about the best types of carbs for me to have right now? Thanks
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Replies
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If you only have so many calories, and you are eating enough protein and fats for those required goals, and only so many left for carbs - then it depends.
Did you get all your nutritional needs in?
Enjoy some "bad" carbs whatever that means to you - dessert perhaps.
Only have 200 cal left and need some vegetables today - perhaps the candy bar isn't the wisest choice if it's made all the time that direction.
If you have a medical issue - then some may be more "bad" than others for you.6 -
Calories rule for weight loss. I don't believe in labeling food good or bad - it is just food. But usually when people fall into the good carb/bad carb game it would be that vegetables and such are "good" carbs and bread and similar items would be "bad".6
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Easiest rule of thumb: Closer to nature, the better.
Example:
potato > bread roll
wild rice > white rice
A "good" carb will take some effort for your body to process, where a bad or "simple" carb can go from mouth to fat fairly easily. "Good" carbs also have a sustained energy effect where a simple carb (like a donut) you'll get a quick "sugar rush" and crash.21 -
Carbs are carbs. Calories are king.
I don't play the good carb vs. bad carb game.9 -
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Donuts are a mix of carbs and fats. Basically simple carbs are sugars, complex carbs are starches. (Potatoes have both).
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/simple-carbohydrates-complex-carbohydrates#9
However, in the context of a nutritionally-balanced diet, there are no 'good' carbs and 'bad' carbs. Complex carbs are better for you because they're usually higher in fiber and because they tend to have more nutrients than simple. OTOH, if you click the link, you'll note that the site lists breakfast cereal as a simple carb. To me, a 30-gram serving helps me hit my iron target for the day, along with various other micro-nutrients. I don't sit here mindlessly eating it out of the box all day, and I eat loads of complex carbs, too (millet-and-wild-rice-croquettes with carrot-and-pea casserole and corn-tomato-bean-basil-salad FTW!). Context and dosage matter. If it fits your calories, there's nothing wrong with sugar in your tea, or honey on oatmeal. And the nutrients won't leach out of your lean chicken and veg sandwich, just because you made it on white bread.
Plenty of people doing intense athletics (think marathon runners) eat gummi bears or other high-sugar foods before they run because they NEED that energy burst. But that's hardly all they eat.
Basically, everything in moderation.7 -
For weight loss or gain, carbs are carbs are carbs, and calories are what matter.
For health, you need to look at your whole diet over the course of a day. You want to eat enough fiber, protein, and fat for your body to perform at it's best. You want to get a reasonable amount of whole foods so you get enough micronutrients. If you are doing that, then whatever you are eating is great.
For satiety, you will have to play around with it, because everyone is different. Some people are fine having some processed carbs in their diet, or eating lots of fruit, or having dessert every night, etc. If you are eating the right amount of calories but are struggling with hunger, you might need to change what you are eating. If you get to that point, coming back to the forum and opening your diary will get you lots of different suggestions.
I successfully lost 20 lbs, have been maintaining a healthy weight for over a year, and have great blood work results, and I have literally never spent a second trying to figure out whether my carbs are good are bad
Good luck!5 -
Unless you have a medical condition like diabetes, there are no "good" or "bad" carbs.
Some carbs do offer different benefits - fruits and vegetables often have fiber or micro-nutrients, chocolate cake improves my mood. Balance what you want to eat with what fits in your calories - I have a veggie rich salad with dinner and a small piece of chocolate cake because I want it.
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chrisyhurd wrote: »I'm just starting out, and I'm looking at my daily nutrition goals. I can count grams no problem, but I need some help in determining which are the better carbs to eat. Can you share ideas about the best types of carbs for me to have right now? Thanks
Some carby type items also have protein and fiber. Beans & legumes are examples. Some carby type items are a good source of dietary fat. Sometimes carby items may be almost pure carbs. Jelly beans would be an example.
We rarely eat "just" carbs. Protein, fiber, and fat can help you stay full longer than "pure" carbs. Focus on overall diet (instead of one macro) and you'll be fine.0 -
There are no good and bad carbs, but there are carbs which act differently in your body, and depending on your needs and your health, different foods may fit your needs in different situations. I think most of the people you've been hearing that term from would consider smarties candy, which are mostly straight up dextrose, to be a "bad carb," but when my blood glucose is painfully low after a workout, it's ideal for me. If you are healthy and have the calories, there's no reason to be overly concerned about this.
I think what you've heard called "bad carbs" are probably quick-digesting carbs which enter the bloodstream rapidly and cause blood glucose spikes, as opposed to slow-digesting carbs which raise glucose more steadily over several hours. The usual culprits identified as bad carbs includes added sugars and refined grains, while the typical list of good carbs includes beans and whole grains.
The only problem with this way of thinking is, blood glucose reaction to different foods is very individual - what spikes me may not spike you, and it's not as simple as dividing carbs scientifically into simple and complex carbs, because the fiber, protein and fat in a food affects how quickly the carbs enter the bloodstream. I have a diabetic friend who spikes badly from fruit. I am also diabetic but I have little problem with fruit, but can't handle flour tortillas. If you are healthy and have no issues with insulin resistance, this isn't very important for you anyway, since a healthy human body regulates blood sugar efficiently.
If you find that you have cravings shortly after certain meals, you might want to look at your macros and consider cutting out rapid acting carbs which knock your blood glucose around. Same if you find your energy lagging at certain times of day, try adding slow digesting carbs such as beans or dairy.6 -
2011rocket3touring wrote: »Easiest rule of thumb: Closer to nature, the better.
Example:
potato > bread roll
wild rice > white rice
A "good" carb will take some effort for your body to process, where a bad or "simple" carb can go from mouth to fat fairly easily. "Good" carbs also have a sustained energy effect where a simple carb (like a donut) you'll get a quick "sugar rush" and crash.
Umm, no. This will only happen with CALORIES that go beyond what you need to consume to maintain your current weight. This will not happen to CALORIES that are consumed when you are in a deficit.
OP - I do not label carbs good or bad, they are simply a macro that I use to fill out my daily calorie goal.3 -
My heirarchy of importance is, Not going over calories, Then getting plenty of protein, everything else I don't sweat for right now. Losing weight is hard enough so keep it simple and don't worry about too much.3
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chrisyhurd wrote: »I'm just starting out, and I'm looking at my daily nutrition goals. I can count grams no problem, but I need some help in determining which are the better carbs to eat. Can you share ideas about the best types of carbs for me to have right now? Thanks
Think about what is nutritionally dense and how filling it is for the total calories.
For me, I think vegetables are important and low cal, so would consider them important to have in your diet, probably in significant amounts (I aim for 10+ servings or just focus on making about half of any meal (or more) vegetables).
Fruit for many of us is delicious and quite filling for the calories, so it also might be something you'd want to include in your diet. (I tend to have more when the fruits I love most are in season.)
Do you find potatoes and sweet potatoes delicious and filling? If so, those are good options, but be aware (of course) that in some forms potatoes are prepared with lots of fat added (fries, chips), which makes them high cal. (Nothing to do with the carbs, of course.)
Do you enjoy legumes (beans, lentils, peanuts)? If so, those also have a lot of nutritional benefits and can be filling (beans and lentils have lots of fiber).
Do you enjoy grains? If so, maybe try to focus more on whole grains, and less on more refined grains, especially if there is sugar and fat added (as with a cookie). Oats, barley, wild rice, millet, lots of grain options, and whole grain breads are often tasty. But if you enjoy white rice or pasta, they aren't "bad carbs," you just might want to see how filling they are for you for the calories. I personally find a pasta dish with lean meat and lots of vegetables filling and delicious and really nutritionally positive, so I can't see calling that a bad carb.
Dairy has some carbs -- again think of calories and what else is added (if sugar is added as with some flavored options, the calories will be more and it might be less filling).
Beyond that, soda is basically just sugar, and same with some hard candies. Many other "junk foods" and sweets are combinations of carbs (including added sugar) and fat, and are high cal (as much from the fat as the sugar) and not high in nutrients. Those are okay, but you'd want to limit how much you eat. I wouldn't call them carbs as they are often as much fat as carbs, but they are what people often mean by "bad carbs."
Hope that helps.2 -
chrisyhurd wrote: »I'm just starting out, and I'm looking at my daily nutrition goals. I can count grams no problem, but I need some help in determining which are the better carbs to eat. Can you share ideas about the best types of carbs for me to have right now? Thanks
No such thing as good carbs or bad carbs, it is all in the proportion of carbs in the overall diet. People in general do not eat enough fiber (which is a subset of carbs) so it is a good idea to check the fiber content of foods in addition to the total carb content and aim for 25 grams or more of fiber. Goes a long way towards helping you control your blood glucose, stay satisfied, and keeps your digestive system functioning at a high level.2 -
2011rocket3touring wrote: »wild rice > white rice
These are two different plants, not a more and less refined version of the same plant.
Brown and white rice are the more and less refined version of rice, but brown rice isn't really much better nutritionally than white rice if you really look (the differences with protein and fiber are minimal, and it's likely we can't really get to the nutrients in brown rice and access them better from enriched white (which it always is).)
I don't much like rice (and do love wild rice), so this is not any bias on my part.A "good" carb will take some effort for your body to process, where a bad or "simple" carb can go from mouth to fat fairly easily.
No, simple = sugar is the primary carb source (as with fruit, among other foods) and complex = starch is the primary carb source (whether white rice or brown, a white roll or a potato). Neither is inherently "good" or "bad" or faster to digest. That's a misunderstanding of the terms.
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I would just focus on counting your calories, meeting your needs for protein and fat, and then focusing on what helps you meet your nutritional needs and makes you feel full. This can vary a lot person to person. For example, I find potatoes to be very filling and satisfying while white rice is much less so for me. So I eat potatoes more often and rice less often. Someone else might be the opposite, or they may find that neither is particularly satisfying for them.
In the context of a calorie-balanced diet where nutritional needs are being met, I don't think any carbohydrate is "bad."2 -
2011rocket3touring wrote: »Easiest rule of thumb: Closer to nature, the better.
But nature puts cyanide in apple seeds!4 -
There's at least one more - dividing foods into good and bad creates a bad relationship with food, with can evolve into fear of anything remotely tasty, and hate of everything that sounds "healthy", and the medical issues that can come from an unbalanced diet, given enough time.rheddmobile wrote: »There are no good and bad carbs, but there are carbs which act differently in your body, and depending on your needs and your health, different foods may fit your needs in different situations. I think most of the people you've been hearing that term from would consider smarties candy, which are mostly straight up dextrose, to be a "bad carb," but when my blood glucose is painfully low after a workout, it's ideal for me. If you are healthy and have the calories, there's no reason to be overly concerned about this.
I think what you've heard called "bad carbs" are probably quick-digesting carbs which enter the bloodstream rapidly and cause blood glucose spikes, as opposed to slow-digesting carbs which raise glucose more steadily over several hours. The usual culprits identified as bad carbs includes added sugars and refined grains, while the typical list of good carbs includes beans and whole grains.
The only problem with this way of thinking is, blood glucose reaction to different foods is very individual - what spikes me may not spike you, and it's not as simple as dividing carbs scientifically into simple and complex carbs, because the fiber, protein and fat in a food affects how quickly the carbs enter the bloodstream. I have a diabetic friend who spikes badly from fruit. I am also diabetic but I have little problem with fruit, but can't handle flour tortillas. If you are healthy and have no issues with insulin resistance, this isn't very important for you anyway, since a healthy human body regulates blood sugar efficiently.
If you find that you have cravings shortly after certain meals, you might want to look at your macros and consider cutting out rapid acting carbs which knock your blood glucose around. Same if you find your energy lagging at certain times of day, try adding slow digesting carbs such as beans or dairy.4 -
"Good" carbs are the ones that nourish you, "bad" carbs are the ones that don't. Sometimes, a person needs a gummy bear. You probably shouldn't live on gummy bears, but a person can't live on kale or quinoa or sweet potatoes, either. Eat a well balanced diet with carbs, protein and fats in a ratio that helps you feel satisfied. (Personally, a little extra fat helps me, but you play around and find out what works for you.) As far as carby foods I personally like: I like sweet potatoes, beets, winter and summer squashes, all of the berries, pears, clementines, and sour patch kids watermelon slices. I like whole wheat pastas (not everyone does, white pasta is fine if that's what you like) with a red sauce, Dave's killer breads, and the pear tarts my daughter occasionally brings me from the fancy French bakery near her work. You can eat anything and everything and lose or maintain your weight and enjoy your life.3
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kommodevaran wrote: »
There's at least one more - dividing foods into good and bad creates a bad relationship with food, with can evolve into fear of anything remotely tasty, and hate of everything that sounds "healthy", and the medical issues that can come from an unbalanced diet, given enough time.rheddmobile wrote: »There are no good and bad carbs, but there are carbs which act differently in your body, and depending on your needs and your health, different foods may fit your needs in different situations. I think most of the people you've been hearing that term from would consider smarties candy, which are mostly straight up dextrose, to be a "bad carb," but when my blood glucose is painfully low after a workout, it's ideal for me. If you are healthy and have the calories, there's no reason to be overly concerned about this.
I think what you've heard called "bad carbs" are probably quick-digesting carbs which enter the bloodstream rapidly and cause blood glucose spikes, as opposed to slow-digesting carbs which raise glucose more steadily over several hours. The usual culprits identified as bad carbs includes added sugars and refined grains, while the typical list of good carbs includes beans and whole grains.
The only problem with this way of thinking is, blood glucose reaction to different foods is very individual - what spikes me may not spike you, and it's not as simple as dividing carbs scientifically into simple and complex carbs, because the fiber, protein and fat in a food affects how quickly the carbs enter the bloodstream. I have a diabetic friend who spikes badly from fruit. I am also diabetic but I have little problem with fruit, but can't handle flour tortillas. If you are healthy and have no issues with insulin resistance, this isn't very important for you anyway, since a healthy human body regulates blood sugar efficiently.
If you find that you have cravings shortly after certain meals, you might want to look at your macros and consider cutting out rapid acting carbs which knock your blood glucose around. Same if you find your energy lagging at certain times of day, try adding slow digesting carbs such as beans or dairy.
That sounds wildly speculative, and not very realistic. I consider candy corn to have no redeeming value, but I still love tacos.0
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