Carbohydrates Revisited

I have a pet peeve:  the misuse of the word “carbs.”

Let me demonstrate with a sample sentence:  “I stay away from carbs; I just eat a lot of fruits and veggies.”

Um, hello?  Fruits and veggies?  Carbs.

Here’s a simple way to think about food:  it’s either a fat, a protein, or a carbohydrate.  Those are the categories available.*

There are distinctions within each category, of course–there are saturated fats, mono-unsaturated fats, poly-unsaturated fats, and so on.  There are proteins from animal sources and proteins from plant sources.  And there are simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates.

Sugar is the simplest of all simple carbohydrates, and it’s what the rest of the simple carbohydrates long to be.  Basically, simple carbs are things that, once ingested, are quickly broken down into–you already knew this, right?–sugar.  Random memory device:  in their ordinary form, simple carbs are about as visually interesting as sugar:  think white flour and white rice.  The trick is to remember that when you’re in a restaurant, you don’t actually order a plate of white flour.  You order a plate of pasta, with a side of bread.  But when that plate arrives–it’s just white flour in disguise.**

Complex carbohydrates, though, are a different story altogether.  They are the carbs that contain some cells that don’t break down into sugar quite so easily–your body has to work a little harder to digest them.  Those extra-challenging cells are generally some form of fiber (there are several versions; most Americans don’t get enough of any kind of fiber).  Whole grains have fiber, as do dried beans, and most fruits and vegetables.  So when people say they don’t eat carbs, just fruits and veggies, I think they’re really trying to say that they try to stick with complex carbs.  Which is a smart move.  I just wish they’d get their terminology straight.

Your grandmother might have said you needed to lay off the starch and have some more roughage.  She would’ve had a point.

*Obviously, some foods have a combination of nutrients.  A heavily marbled steak has both protein and fat.  Cheese, too, has protein and fat.  Most grains have trace amounts of fat and protein, as well as the complex carbs (they’re sort of the plant equivalent of an egg–the seeds that contain the nutrients necessary for a new plant to grow).  Beans, too–think of everything we make from the soybean:  oil, tofu, flour.

**The reasons people want (and need) to avoid sugar should be obvious, but if it’s not, for now let’s just suffice it to say that eating sugar wreaks havoc on your blood sugar, which can have all sorts of detrimental effects, both in the long- and short-term.