What Are Carbohydrates

In the bid to lose weight, many people have become concerned about specific types of food that are thought to cause weight gain.

Everyone is looking for a culprit and, in the previous decade, carbohydrates became a primary focus among dieters.

However, many people do not realize that carbohydrates are a much broader category of foods than they are given credit for. Even more importantly, not all carbohydrates are bad for you.

Learning more about carbohydrates and the different type of foods that contain carbohydrates should be an essential part of creating any healthy diet plan.

What are carbohydrates anyway? Carbohydrates are defined as any of a large group of compounds including sugars, starch, and cellulose that contain hydrogen and oxygen in a 2:1 ratio.

While that precise definition won’t help you out much when you are shopping at the grocery store, learning about the different types of carbohydrate foods will.

Unless you have a specific medical condition in which your doctor has prescribed a low- or no-carbohydrate diet, it is important not to be misled by fad diets that vilify carbohydrates.

“Good” carbs help provide your body with energy for proper organ function and with performing physical activities. That said, a donut, which is full of carbs, should not be placed in the same category as other carb foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and beans.

The key to distinguishing between good and bad carbs is to understand the difference between unrefined foods and highly processed foods. Pastries, white bread, white rice, and soda are all highly processed foods.

Foods that include whole grains or that have been left in their natural state such as fruits, vegetables, and beans contain carbohydrates that your body knows what to do with. In other words, processed foods such as white bread wreak havoc on your metabolism and end up causing weight gain.

Now, consider a vegetable, a piece of fruit, brown rice, or other “whole foods.”  These foods contain all of their original components. Just as your body is a natural system, foods left in their natural state will be used by your body much more effectively than foods that have been highly processed.

Drinking a can of soda is equivalent to putting a foreign object in your system that it doesn’t know how to process. So, instead of metabolizing it correctly, it turns these bad carbs into fat.

For optimum health, the carbohydrate foods in your diet should include whole foods that your body can easily digest.