What Are Good Carbs?

What are good carbs? Ah, that is a question that many people ask and causes great confusion. Unfortunately a lot of people think that they know the answer to this question, but they have been grossly misinformed.

What most of our population doesn’t realize is that many of the foods they have been conditioned to believe are healthy, really are not. For example, many people believe that whole grains like wheat, oats, rye etc., legumes, potatoes, peas, corn, sweet potatoes and winter squash are good carbs, but they are not.

This kind of conversation always seems to flare tempers and people get mad at me. However, I’m just reporting the facts, I didn’t make them up. You’ll want to visit my good carbs bad carbs page for a more in depth conversation on this topic, but here’s a summary of the basics.

A good carb has the following characteristics:

• it does not spike blood sugar levels
• it does not spike insulin levels
• it does not cause overstimulation of neurotransmitters in the brain or the adrenal glands
• it is rich in nutrients
• it is digested and absorbed slowly
• it is high in fiber
• it is not processed – it is in its whole and natural state

Therefore, although whole grains, potatoes, legumes etc. may indeed contain nutrients and fiber, they are broken down in the body into large amounts of sugar, which causes a spike in blood sugar levels, insulin, neurotransmitters and adrenal hormones therefore eliminating them from the good carb category. Additionally these types of food are incompatible with our biochemistry. Genetically we are not equipped to digest or process them effectively. Don’t believe me? I encourage you to visit some of the experts on this topic like Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr.Charles Gant and Professor Loren Cordain.

Why is all this important? Eating carbs that cause a spike in blood sugar and insulin levels is the primary contributor to many degenerative health conditions like insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, increase in cholesterol, osteoporosis, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders, liver disease, addiction and many more.

Contrary to what you’ve been taught it is not fat that is the cause of these conditions, it is sugar and the over consumption of the wrong types of complex carbohydrates that break down into sugar in the body. Fat can not be stored in the body as fat without glucose, sugar is stored in the body as fat.

So the answer to the question, what are good carbs, includes all the non-starchy vegetables and fruits that are low in sugar like leafy greens, the cruciferous family, avocados, cucumbers, zucchinis, green beans, all berries and orchard fruit. Again I encourage you to visit my good carbs bad carbs page for a more inclusive list and more thorough explanation.

All the messages you hear about eating whole grains, soy, potatoes etc., are generated from the food industry who has spun this huge web of lies in the name of profit. Being informed about the truth of carbohydrate consumption is essential for your mental, physical and spiritual health, both now and long-term.