When it comes to carbs, you never quite know how much to include in your diet. There are complex carbs, slow-release carbs, where do you even begin? Here’s a breakdown on just a few to get you started.
Cereal grains – Most civilisations on earth use starches, or complex carbohydrates as primary energy foods or staples. These include cereal grains, such as wheat, corn, rice, rye and barley, but also millet, oats, buckwheat and some lesser known grains such as quinoa, spelt, amaranth and kamut.
Refined grains – Refined grains are cereal grains with the bran and germ removed, which leaves just the starchy part. In making white flour, 75% of the minerals are lost from the whole wheat and B vitamins and vitamin E also get lost. Removing the wheat bran does even further damage to your wellbeing. Bran helps your body to process foods, avoid constipation, and can assist in the production of some vitamins in your intestinal tract.
Wheat – Some people call wheat the ‘staff of life’ and it is used in many baked goods such as bread, cakes and pastries. It’s also as a thickener and as breading for fried food. Wheat now contains more starch, less protein and fewer trace minerals and is high in glutamine, an amino acid that has an inflammatory effect on the body. Eliminating wheat from your diet can lead to more energy, weight loss, fewer allergies, improved digestion and other wellness benefits.
Starchy vegetables – Root vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips, turnips and more are high in complex carbohydrates and extremely nutritious foods, as they are easily digestible and rich in minerals and vitamins. However, potatoes can cause you joint pain so it’s generally better to eat fewer potatoes and more of the other roots.
Legumes – Legumes or dried beans are high in complex carbohydrates and include lentils, pinto beans, peanuts, soybeans and black beans. They contain not only starches, but protein and many minerals and vitamins as well.
Fruit – Ripe fruit contains mainly simple carbohydrates or sugars, and some fibre, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. However, most fruit today is hybridised, which means it has been altered for enhanced sweetness, shelf life and bug resistance, but not for better nutrition. Lots of pesticides are often used in growing fruit. It is always best, therefore, to seek out organically grown fruit.
Fibre – The two common carbohydrates you cannot digest are called cellulose and pectin, and serve as fibre, which helps move food along in the intestines, and may be needed for the synthesis of vitamins in the intestines. Common fibres are wheat, oat and rice bran, and can also absorb toxins in the intestines and can slow the absorption of sugars in the diet, helping to maintain a more balanced blood sugar level.
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