Good carbs vs. bad carbs?

Can someone please distinguish between good carbs and bad carbs? How can I
tell the difference when looking at the label of a specific food? And what
are 'net' carbs? Any help would be appreciated...
TIA
-O

Ovid wrote:
Can someone please distinguish between good carbs and bad
carbs? How can I tell the difference when looking at the
label of a specific food? And what are 'net' carbs? Any
help would be appreciated... TIA
-O

It could be better termed as "Bad Carbs" (the essence of all evil) and "Not
as Bad Carbs". LOL -- Seriously! The first, Fiber is a carb is
non-digestable therefore not a problem. The second, There are high GI
(Glycemic Index) carbs and Low GI carbs. High GI carbs are those that have a
high and quick impact on your blood glucose (easily converted) and therefore
your insulin production. Low GI carbs have a lower and slower impact on
blood glucose (BGs) and therefore a lesser affect on insulin production. In
a non-diabetic, this will usually not cause high BG levels, but will cause
increased insulin levels. In a diabetic the effect is more obvious by
monitoring BG levels. Insulin is what is responsible for enabling your body
cells to process BG into energy. It also a very efficent agent for storing
excessive BG as body fat.

--

BJ
232/183/180
Type II DM - Meds, Diet (LC), and exercise.

"BJ in Texas" wrote in message
. com...
Ovid wrote:
Can someone please distinguish between good carbs and bad
carbs? How can I tell the difference when looking at the
label of a specific food? And what are 'net' carbs? Any
help would be appreciated... TIA
-O

It could be better termed as "Bad Carbs" (the essence of all evil) and
"Not
as Bad Carbs". LOL -- Seriously! The first, Fiber is a carb is
non-digestable therefore not a problem. The second, There are high GI
(Glycemic Index) carbs and Low GI carbs. High GI carbs are those that have
a
high and quick impact on your blood glucose (easily converted) and
therefore
your insulin production. Low GI carbs have a lower and slower impact on
blood glucose (BGs) and therefore a lesser affect on insulin production.
In
a non-diabetic, this will usually not cause high BG levels, but will cause
increased insulin levels. In a diabetic the effect is more obvious by
monitoring BG levels. Insulin is what is responsible for enabling your
body
cells to process BG into energy. It also a very efficent agent for storing
excessive BG as body fat.

Three kinds of carbohydrates:

1 Fiber, not absorbed, and good for constipation and colon health,
2 Complex carbohydrates (starch) found in vegetables, grains, and legumes,
and
3 Simple carbohydrates* found in sugar (sucrose, glucose, dextrose, etc),
honey (a blend of several) and fruits (fructose).

High GI carbs: found in bread, pasta, rice, sugar, potatos, etc. Also all
simple carbs are high glycimic. High glycemic carbs are absorbed quickly
and easily-- too easily.

Low GI carbs: found in dark green leafy veggies, some squashes, cauliflower,
broccoli, green beans, etc.

For an almost complete list of which is which, you can check out the
glycemic index. http://www.glycemicindex.com/

You want to avoid all simple carbs, and many of the complex ones (if they
are high glycemic or high number of grams per serving, or both).

revek

*Ornish and others will tell you that potatos, rice, and refined grain flour
are 'simple carbs'. They are lying.

"revek" writes:
Three kinds of carbohydrates:

1 Fiber, not absorbed, and good for constipation and colon health,
2 Complex carbohydrates (starch) found in vegetables, grains, and legumes,
and
3 Simple carbohydrates* found in sugar (sucrose, glucose, dextrose, etc),
honey (a blend of several) and fruits (fructose).

Well, if you want to get scientific about it, fiber is a complex carb
(a branched polysaccharide, like cellulose), starch is not the only
type of complex carb, and there are two types of "simple" carbs -
monosaccharides and disaccharides (complex carbs being
polysaccharides). Some places put trisaccharides (maltodextrin?) in
their own category also.

From a metabolism point of view, starch (amylose) might as well be a
simple carb, because it's converted by saliva (via amylase) long
before it gets to the intestines.

So, for our purposes, the useful carb breakdown is:

* carbs that are quickly digested
* carbs that are slowly digested
* carbs that aren't digested at all (or only minimally digested)

Of course, this can be regarded as a linear scale, which is what the
glycemic index is all about.

IMHO, though, there's good vs bad is:

good: carbs from foods that have other nutritional benefits, like
fruits and vegetables.

bad: carbs from foods that offer little other nutritional benefit,
like candy or white bread.

Does this mean that if my cashews say 6 grams of carbs per serving and 3
grams of fiber per serving, I'm only really getting 3 grams of carbs that
add to my carb count for the day?
-O


"Ovid" wrote in message
...
Can someone please distinguish between good carbs and bad carbs? How can
I
tell the difference when looking at the label of a specific food? And
what
are 'net' carbs? Any help would be appreciated...
TIA
-O

Ovid wrote:

Does this mean that if my cashews say 6 grams of carbs per serving and 3
grams of fiber per serving, I'm only really getting 3 grams of carbs that
add to my carb count for the day?

Yes, but you are also getting all the calories.

"Ovid" wrote in message

Does this mean that if my cashews say 6 grams of carbs per serving
and 3 grams of fiber per serving, I'm only really getting 3 grams of
carbs that add to my carb count for the day?
-O

It depends on whether the fiber has already been subtracted from the total
carb count.

fat grams x 9 = total fat calories
protein grams x 4 = total protein calories

total calories - fat calories - protein calories = total carb calories

total carb calories/4 = total grams of carbs you should count**

** If there's sugar alcohols in the product then it depends on how your body
reacts to them if you count those or not.

"M.W. Smith" wrote in message

Ovid wrote:

Does this mean that if my cashews say 6 grams of carbs per serving
and 3 grams of fiber per serving, I'm only really getting 3 grams of
carbs that add to my carb count for the day?

Yes, but you are also getting all the calories.

From a fiber standpoint, if you're getting calories from 6g carbs then you
have to count all 6 grams. Fiber is not included in the total calorie count.

Jeri wrote:

"M.W. Smith" wrote in message


Ovid wrote:


Does this mean that if my cashews say 6 grams of carbs per serving
and 3 grams of fiber per serving, I'm only really getting 3 grams of
carbs that add to my carb count for the day?

Yes, but you are also getting all the calories.


From a fiber standpoint, if you're getting calories from 6g carbs then you
have to count all 6 grams. Fiber is not included in the total calorie count.

Sorry, I meant that he gets the calories from the 3 grams. He sounded
like he was thinking of doubling his cashew intake just because he
discovered only half the carbs count. My point is that you can't ignore
calories just because the diet method is to count carbs. Cashews contain
a lot of fat, and fat contains a lot of calories.

Sigh... I am more confused than before. I think I'll just by pass the
cashews all together for now. However, I truly do appreciate all the
feedback. This group is fantastic!
-O

"Ovid" wrote in message
...
Can someone please distinguish between good carbs and bad carbs? How can
I
tell the difference when looking at the label of a specific food? And
what
are 'net' carbs? Any help would be appreciated...
TIA
-O