Arushi Kapur
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Good Carb, Bad Carb, What Carb?

What does our body eat? What do the cells consume? What is our brain food?

It’s blood sugar a.k.a glucose. All Carbohydrate food that we eat gets ultimately converted in to blood sugar. Unfortunately, the diet advice given most often by our peers, peeps and phones is to stop eating carbs if we want to loose all our extra fat.

Get this: It is not the carbohydrates (our beloved rice and roti) that make us fat, it is how fast those carbs are converted into blood sugar that makes us fat.

When you hear things like eat bajra roti instead of wheat roti or eat brown rice instead of white rice, it is because a bajra roti or a brown rice will give a slow steady rise to your blood sugar compared to their counterparts. Let me take the example of our kitchen villain, refined white flour (we in India call it Maida). When we eat anything that contains this bad boy example a pizza slice or a Delish pastry, our blood sugars spike up, hit the roof and so does our insulin levels and with a rise in insulin, there is a rise in the stored fat. The reason is simple, most of us with our desk jobs and inactive lives do not need that sugar rush. At any given point of time we need energy for our brains to work, eye balls to glance or read, fingers to type and legs to walk occasionally from point A to point B. Clearly a slow continuous supply of energy to our cells is enough to perform these basic functions. Think of it as a test match versus twenty twenty. We need our players (read ingested food) to play a stable game with a steady run rate rather than lots of frequent hits of 4’s and 6’s (read sudden episodes of high energy).

Now how do we know if a Carb is good or bad, what we should eat and what we shouldn’t, should we avoid roti and rice altogether. No no, don’t worry, I come bearing good news, it’s simple like always, follow the very basic rule of eating a wholesome balanced meal. This, because my friends:

Thumb rule : Addition of fat, fibre or protein to your carbs would make your meal a perfect slow steady fuel source for your brain and body.

You know what this means? The following:

  1. You like your white rice and don’t want to part with it, no problem, eat with dal cooked in ghee or your moms favourite chicken curry. Now that’s a wholesome meal that will be nothing but good for attaining that shapely body.
  2. Have a sweet tooth, no problem, eat your gaajar ka halwa or moong dal halwa or those yumm besan laddoos this festive season. The good fat and the fibre rich carbs in them make them more healthy than those beautiful cupcakes you might get tempted to eat so very often.
  3. Do you know mango has enough fiber to cure your temporary constipation. Most of our fruits are fibrous enough to be eaten guilt free but if you still want to make the best use of those juicy sweet fruits, eat them post workout coz that’s when our body needs a sugar rush.

I think it’s high time, we stop looking at individual components of food. So stop eating air fried potato chips or fat laden tikkas without the roti. The secret to healthy living has always been and will always be a complete well balanced meal.

Stay balanced and stay in touch!!

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Arushi Kapur

Written by

To eat or not to eat? A Nutrition Consultant by profession, I want to help and guide people to eat healthy and live healthier.