You may all know that I’m not a fan of the carbs, but that wasn’t always the case. My mom used to call me her carbohydrate queen. I grew up in northern New Jersey with a 100% Italian mother, who happens to be an amazing cook. I’m a complete food snob when it comes to pasta, and always preferred to eat it al dente. The first thing I cooked myself was cous cous. Pasta was a college staple for me, and then when I moved out to California I figured out how easy it was to use a rice cooker. I’ve never been a big fan of eating a lot of meat, and although I did enjoy fish every so often, like the majority of us carbs made up a big portion of my diet.

I’ve since learned that carbohydrates can be very controversial and confusing. Are all carbs bad? Then, why are some carbs considered a superfood? What about beans and starchy vegetables? Are they considered carbohydrates, or is it just seeds? Why do I need to go gluten-free? The reason this information is so confusing is because the carbohydrates found in processed food are subsidized. For food companies this is important, because if the ingredients are cheap and then they sell you that product, then their profit margin is high. That means there is lots of propaganda out there and misinformation about this food.

What is a carbohydrate? Most people don’t know this word really means. Here’s wikapedia’s definition:

“A carbohydrate is an organic compound that consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen…The term is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide. The carbohydrates (saccharides) are divided into four chemical groupings: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. In general, the monosaccharides and disaccharides, which are smaller (lower molecular weight) carbohydrates, are commonly referred to as sugars.”

“While the scientific nomenclature of carbohydrates is complex, the names of the monosaccharides and disaccharides very often end in the suffix -ose. For example, blood sugar is the monosaccharide glucose, table sugar is the disaccharide sucrose, and milk sugar is the disaccharide lactose.”

Basically, this means the majority of my diet has been sugar.

So what do I eat?

Many foods contain sugar, so just be conscious of how much sugar is in what. If you are looking for whole grain food at the grocery store, the label needs to say 100% whole grain. Otherwise, they can just had a little whole grain to the mix but the majority is still processed grain. When you are shopping for processed food (anything in a bag or box), always double check the ingredients. Sugar is often added to whole grain products, even bread. For an ingredient, look for something like 100% Quinoa flour, bulk bins are great for this stuff. Whole grains are just seeds so if it’s a whole seed, it’s a whole grain. Example: Flaxseeds, Quinoa, buckwheat groats. Also check for gluten free labels, many people have different levels of gluten intolerance, which can negatively affect your health. I try my best to stay away from sugar in general, it just spikes your blood sugar, turns into fat in your body, and feeds dangerous bacteria and yeast. Check out my post on my Favorite YouTube Lectures for more information on sugar.

Source:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate

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