Carbs, low-carb, no-carb — what’s best?
Low-carb? Or No-carb? Carb-free? With so many differing views on nutrition, it’s hard to make sense of what’s a good idea and what’s just plain faddish. That’s why I look at the whole carb debate and try to separate carb-hype from carb-facts for healthy eating and weight loss.
What are carbs and why do we need them?
Carbs provide our bodies with the energy we need to do the things we do every day as well as to run all the processes of our body from digesting food, to mental arithmetic, to running for the train.
Sources of carbs include:
Starchy
breads, potatoes, rice, pasta and starchy roots such as cassava and tapioca
refined starches (so remember to count those soft drinks, muffins, doughnuts, cakes, pies, biscuits, cookies, bars, protein balls and sugar in your tea and coffee).
Sugary
sugar and refined foods (so remember to count those soft drinks, muffins, doughnuts, cakes, pies, biscuits, cookies, bars, protein balls and sugar in your tea and coffee).
Don’t forget that fruit has natural sugars (e.g. fructose — not the same as added cane sugar) but in fruit it comes bundled with fibre, vitamins and minerals. So it’s an OK form of sugar.
Sugar from syrups counts too e.g. agave, maple syrup, golden syrup, honey, coconut sugar, panela, Yes, they look less refined and more home-made but they still contain the same carbs and kilojoules.
Who needs them most?
We all need carbs but the people who need more carbs than the average are teenagers, sportspeople and people doing heavy manual work.
For those of us who lead mainly sedentary lives, working in offices, travelling in trains, buses and cars instead of walking, we need fewer carbs. There is no set requirement to eat a day as there is with protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre.
What’s a healthy carb intake for the average person?
The population of the developed world is now becoming more and more overweight so we can trim our carb intake back a bit, to around 130g per day. The best way to do this is to make the carbs you do eat, count. Choose the healthiest carbs and the ones that will stick with you for longest (i.e. they give you biggest bang for your buck nutritionally speaking).
What does 130g of carbs look like?
Here’s an example of what you can eat to reach the 130g goal:
1 bowl muesli 20g
1 slice bread 15g
2–3 crispbread 15g
1 apple or pear 20g
½ cup cooked brown rice 20g
1 potato, boiled or baked 15g
½ cup cooked quinoa 15g
1 heaped or 2 level teaspoons sugar 8g on cereal or as honey/agave/maple syrup
Total 128g
So what about low-carb, no-carb?
Personally, I don’t agree with no-carbs for weight loss or for general health. I prefer to eat more low-carb with the emphasis on high fibre or whole grains etc.
The cut-off definition for a low-carb diet is 130g per day or lower but I would advise you not to go below 100g a day which translates to around 5 or 6 serves of carb foods like bread, muesli, oats, legumes, fruit, pasta, potato or rice.
If you drop below 50g of carbs a day which is was is suggested for ketosis and ketogenic diets, it creates other problems. Tiredness, lethargy and constipation being the first thing that springs to mind.
Eat the smart carbs
Go for “Smart carbs” for better health. These are the ones that have minimum processing and are closer to their natural state. Whole foods are better for you because they are more nutritious with more fibre, vitamins and minerals.
For example, use whole or cracked grains (burgul) in preference to finely-ground (flour); choose bread with whole grains and seeds; whole brown rice in preference to puffed rice, rice cakes or ground rice.
My 3 criteria for choosing smart carbs
“Smart carbs” are:
- high in fibre
- high in wholegrains
- low in GI
Examples with what they’re high in:
Brown rice — fibre, wholegrain
Pearl barley — fibre, low GI (has been pearled so some fibre layers removed but is still high in fibre)
Quinoa — fibre, wholegrain
Scotch or pin oats — fibre, wholegrain
Lentils — fibre, wholegrain, low GI — applies to all legumes like chick peas and cannellini beans
Banana — fibre
My take on low-carb
Latest research now says that low-carb diets are OK for weight loss, as restricting carbs can reduce the glucose spike and insulin response after a meal. Or you can swap to low-GI versions, but it works better if foods are minimally processed and of good quality.
Studies showed time and again that low-carb has the SAME result long term as low-fat with similar drops in body weight and waist circumference with blood fats improving for both.
It ‘s a case of matching the right person to the right low-carb diet to lose weight. Some people will do better, some won’t. It all depends. Definitely not for people who binge or restrain their eating or who have an active cancer.
Sugar is a clear focus for attention with a call to cut back on added sugar to meet the WHO guidelines of no more than 50g free sugars (added plus honey and juices) and to swap from refined to whole carbs.
Low-carb is the way to go.
