When you hear the term carbohydrate, what 5 food sources do you come up with? This exercise will determine how much you know about carbohydrate.
Why Carbohydrate is Confusing?
Carbohydrate food sources are categorized in a way that majority of people can get confused. On the one end you have pure sugar, which will spike your insulin level significantly and on the other said you have vegetables such as broccoli, which has minimal impact towards insulin spike. Another difference can be depending on the type of carbohydrate food sources (pasta, rice, apple, broccoli, etc) amount and variety of nutrients available in the food is different.
Because of these differences, people get confused on what carbohydrates they should be consumed more of. It is very interesting to see trainers and coaches consuming gummy bears because they are carbohydrate and give the immediate energy.
What do I mean by that?
Carbohydrate, especially those that are rich in sugar, can spike insulin level rapidly and provide fuel for mitochondria to produce energy source that our body can use. While the insulin level is elevated, compared to fat energy, sugar energy conversion is faster. This is because when insulin level is high, fat energy usage will be on hold. This is primary reason why some people have tough time losing body fat because they are consistently consuming sugar rich food.
It is also not a coincidence to see trainers and coaches with digestive issues, high body fat percentage, and constantly exhausted from choosing the poor quality carbohydrate to the point they need caffeinated beverages to stay focus.
Ideal Carbohydrates
Let's talk about healthy carbohydrate choices. Ideal carbohydrate choice is food source that provide our body with various nutrients, energy and does not spike our insulin level too much.
Whether to lose fat or build strong muscles you will need to have food sources that provide nutrients and does not spike insulin level too much. Remember, when insulin level is too high, you are not using fat as energy source.
Those type of food sources should usually is in the categories of vegetables and beans. Fruits are very good sources of carbohydrates, however, it does spike insulin so need to be careful. I will come back to fruits later. Vegetables includes, broccoli, spinach, zucchini, cucumber, sweet potatoes, asparagus, pumpkins and so on. Potatoes tends to get bad reputations, however, it has pretty high amount of potassium, dietary fiber, magnesium, vitamin C and B-6. So when you look at nutritional fact of potato, it is actually healthier than banana. Don't get me wrong, banana is great food source, however, banana has 6 times more sugar than potatoes. Only issue that people may come across with eating potato is how it gets prepared.
Beans are relatively high in protein and in dietary fiber. When eaten in abundance, you may experience bloat or gassy. Kidney beans, for example, 16g of fiber and protein in 1 cup. Therefore, if you are not used to eating fiber, 16g (DV=28g) per serving might be a challenge for your digestion. However, beans are very high in minerals such as iron, magnesium, copper, potassium, manganese and zinc.
How about fruits? Fruits are very healthy food source, however, they are very high in sugar compared with vegetables. Banana mentioned before has 12g of sugar per 100g. Potato in 100g has less than 1g of sugar. Is that mean banana is not good? No. However, for those who are going through fat loss, you may want to avoid it to keep the insulin level low and steady.
What Carbohydrate Should You Avoid?
There are certain carbohydrate that you should avoid or limit to once or twice per month. Type that you need to avoid is those with high sugar, heavily processed, and has no nutritional value. Gummy bear is definitely one of them. Other than gummy bear, ice cream, cookies, candy, juice, and so on. Also, natural or not, any artificial sweeteners should be consider as sugar. Even if food may be 0 calories, our body respond as if it is a sugar. We think we can hack our physiology, however, it is almost impossible to do so.
Processed type of carbohydrate or any type of food are worst. Not only they have depleted majority of the nutrients, food itself may have become carcinogen and cause more damage to our body and may hinder our immune system.
Conclusion
When looking at your meal plan or nutritional advice from your trainer or nutritionist, look thoroughly and question when suggested food sources are out of alignment from the basics. Basics never changes. You don't eat because of the food. You eat for your body to function properly.
Kota Shimada
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