82. Here's What to Love About Carbs

(This is part 1 of my podcast series on carbs!)

Ever feel like carbohydrates are the dietary villain you just can't escape?

Let me shatter the myths and shine a light on the truth about these vital nutrients in our latest Real Food Stories podcast episode. As we dissect the world of carbs, you'll come away understanding their crucial role in our bodily functions, particularly for brain health, and the importance of differentiating between simple, complex, and fibrous carbs. With a particular focus on the benefits of complex carbohydrates, such as fruits, veggies, whole grains, and beans, this discussion is aimed at guiding you through the murky waters of diet advice, especially for women navigating the shifts in midlife and menopause.

Forget the guilt next time you reach for that banana or slice of whole-grain bread, because this episode is all about embracing the goodness of wholesome carbs. We'll also tackle the topic of portion control and how to build a satisfying plate that's rich in these energy-providing foods. Whether you're looking for peace of mind or practical tips to balance your meals, tune in as I offer a fresh perspective, grounded in science, on incorporating carbohydrates into your diet for optimal health. And for those seeking a tailor-made approach to nutrition, my contact details are ready for you in the show notes—let's talk about fueling your body the right way.

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To save you from taking notes I wrote it down for you! Click HERE to read all about it on my blog and for links on portion sizes and a high-fiber cheat sheet.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Real Food Stories podcast For the next couple of weeks. I wanted to get back to topics that people ask me about all the time and hopefully, as a result, I will help clear the air so that you can feel good about what you eat. Now. I know this is a podcast and I can't possibly cover everything in a short 45 minutes, but I'm going to do my best to give you a good overview of food for the next couple of weeks and to hopefully take some of the mystery out of what we are eating.

Speaker 1: 1:21

Last week, I spoke to you about protein, especially for women in midlife how much do we really need, why we need more protein during this time, the best types of protein and how to combine plant-based proteins to make complete proteins. If you have not listened and you are curious about protein, which a lot of us are, be sure to go back and tune into episode 81. I also mentioned last week that protein falls under the category of macronutrients that we need in our diet. Macronutrients are types of foods that we cannot live without. There are also foods that we don't need to go crazy about, as in cutting out whole food groups in the name of some nutty diet, and protein seems to be one that has withstood the full-blown elimination from diets, unlike the other two macronutrients fats and carbs. But on the other hand, that also means that we have often gone dangerously overboard on protein, and while we do need to be mindful of getting a little more protein as we get older, we don't want to go overboard with it. Again, take a listen and, if you want the full recap in writing with the links I mentioned, I wrote a whole blog post about it and you can find that in today's show notes and last week's show notes. Today, I wanted to give space to another one of our macronutrients that has been debated and ripped to shreds in the diet world, and that is carbohydrates.

Speaker 1: 3:02

Carbs for short, are so filled with confusion and misinformation that, if you only listen to one of my podcasts, make it this one. I'm hoping to clear up all the mystery of carbohydrates. Today. Let's jump in and get all the 411 on carbs. 411 on carbs. Let's do some Nutrition 101 and explain what carbs even are, because just the word or nickname carbs has gotten so skewed.

Speaker 1: 3:34

When I hear people say I don't eat carbs, or I'm addicted to carbs, or I have to limit my carbs, I immediately ask them if they realize that kale is a carbohydrate. Immediately ask them if they realize that kale is a carbohydrate. Don't get me wrong. So are brownies, but vegetables and fruits fall into this category too. Let's dive into the what and why of carbohydrates.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Carbohydrates, or carbs for short, are like the energetic fuel for your body and, most importantly, for our brain. They're found in a huge variety of foods, which I understand can add only to more confusion about them. Foods like bread, pasta, white rice, fruits and vegetables, desserts all come with different forms of sugars, starches and fibers, which then puts them all into the same macronutrient category. When we eat any types of carbs, be it an apple or a cookie, our bodies break them down into glucose, which is a type of sugar that can be processed into your bloodstream and then goes on to fuel your body's cells, your organs, your tissues and, most importantly, your brain. When glucose gets released into our bloodstream, it gives you the energy you need for everything we do, from walking to thinking to exercising. Glucose is fast-acting, meaning it can be used immediately, or, if we don't need it right then, or if we have an excess, it will be stored in the liver and muscles for later use. Okay, are you with me so far? Because there's a little bit more about Nutrition 101 and carbs.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Carbs fall into three different types simple, complex and fiber. Simple carbohydrates are basically the carbs that get vilified in the diet world. Those are syrups, sugars, white pasta, white rice, soda, candy. Desserts are all perfect examples of simple carbohydrates. They break down really quickly in your bloodstream. They enter quickly and get stored in your muscle liver quickly if there is an excess. Simple carbohydrates are like the quick energy boosters of the carbohydrate world. They're made up of just one or two sugar molecules, which means they're digested and absorbed by the body very fast. Now, these foods are often sweet and taste good. They're also packed with sugars that give us rapid bursts of energy. But here's the thing While they can give us a quick pick-me-up, they're not always the best choice for sustained energy. That's because they can cause our blood sugar levels to spike, and then, when we get a spike, we ultimately get a crash, and that can leave us feeling tired and hungry very soon after.

Speaker 1: 6:38

Here is where some understandable confusion lies with simple carbs. While sugar, like honey, for example, is a simple carb, so are fruits and milk products. They fall into this category too. Fruit contains fructose and milk contains lactose. Both are sugars. One of the most asked questions I get is wondering if fruit is bad for us. Now here is why fruit, even though it contains simple carbs, is perfectly fine for you. If you ate an orange, for example, you would also be eating other things besides fructose. The orange contains a lot of water, which dilutes the fructose, and it also contains fiber, which I will explain in a couple of minutes, which slows down that quick release of sugar into your bloodstream. So for right now, I want you to make peace with fruit. Fruit is so full of nutrients I think of fruit as my edible vitamins. Same goes for dairy. Dairy is not just lactose, it is protein, there's some fat in there, there's vitamin D, there's other things in milk products besides just the sugar component. Lactose is a small part of what makes up dairy, and fructose is really a small part of what makes up fruit.

Speaker 1: 8:04

In short, simple sugars are a quick source of energy. You might have felt starving at some point and the only thing that would taste satisfying was a piece of chocolate, not a carrot or a bunch of red pepper slices. When you eat sugars like a candy bar with nothing else, you will have a quick jolt of sugar entering your bloodstream and then you might feel that crash because it digests that quickly and, like I said before, you will probably feel hungry pretty soon after. Now. That doesn't mean you have to avoid simple carbs altogether. They can be a handy source of energy, especially if you need a quick boost before a workout, for example, or if you're just feeling low on energy and having birthday cake on your birthday or an occasional dessert is a delicious treat. There's nothing wrong with that. We just don't want to make this type of carbohydrate our main source of carbohydrates. A good rule of thumb is to remember to balance out those simple carbohydrates with other foods that provide more sustained energy, like whole grains, protein and healthy fats, to keep you feeling fueled and satisfied for longer.

Speaker 1: 9:25

For the sake of today's talk, let's think of simple carbs as sugar, candy, cookies and processed grains that are stripped of so many good nutrients, like white pasta, for example, or white flour, soda or other highly processed junk foods. They start out with good intentions, they start out as whole grains and then just get stripped down to nothing. Fruit juice is another great example. When you take away all the other parts of fruit and just have the juice. The sugar content is extremely high, often higher than most sodas.

Speaker 1: 10:01

Now, the most notable nutrient that is stripped out of simple carbs is fiber, and fiber is an extremely important part of our diet. Here's what fiber is and why it is so important. Fiber is a carbohydrate that cannot be broken down in your bloodstream into glucose, the fuel for everything in our body. So instead, fiber passes through our body undigested. Then why do we need fiber if it provides no calories and you cannot digest it and turn it into fuel and energy? Think of fiber as a friendly helper.

Speaker 1: 10:38

Fiber helps to slow down that rush of blood sugar into our bloodstream because we still need to let it pass through our digestive tract. When fiber does enter our intestines, it actually gives nourishment to the billions of good bacteria living there. Our digestive tract and gut microbiome is like our second brain, as some people have put it. Our immune system for one is heavily influenced by our digestion, and not getting enough fiber is linked to constipation, ibs, heart disease, colon cancer and other bowel conditions. Diabetes and breast cancer have been shown to be directly linked to the amount of fiber we eat.

Speaker 1: 11:23

All are affected by our fiber intake, and there's still a lot we don't even know about our gut and fiber intake. What we do know is that most people are not getting enough fiber. When the focus of your calories is on those simple carbohydrates like white pasta and white rice and a lot of animal protein, you are definitely not getting enough fiber. For reference, adults in midlife need about 30 grams of fiber a day. I can tell you with certainty that if you are starting your day with a bagel, for example, and then having a salad at lunch and white pasta for dinner, you are definitely not getting enough fiber in your day.

Speaker 1: 12:10

Fiber comes from whole sources of plants, not the stripped down versions, and not from animals. Beans, legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables all contain varying amounts of fiber and are all so good for you. Now, I spoke last week about plant-based proteins, and here is where the added benefit comes in. One cup of black beans, for example, has 15 grams of fiber and still being loaded with protein. What a great way to get more bang for your buck when it comes to your calorie intake.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Fiber comes in two forms soluble and insoluble and both have different functions, but both are very beneficial for us. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and is found in high amounts in foods such as oats, apples, chia seeds, lentils and blueberries. You may have heard of oats and the cholesterol-lowering benefits of eating oats. This type of fiber helps draw out the LDL cholesterol, or the bad cholesterol, in our bodies. Soluble fiber also slows down digestion by helping us feel fuller longer. Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water and helps food move through our digestive tract.

Speaker 1: 13:36

Food in this category would be vegetables like broccoli, whole grains like brown rice or quinoa, kale, nuts or seeds. So let's talk about the next part of the carbohydrate conundrum, and those are complex carbohydrates. Now, complex carbs are multifaceted. You might want to know that complex carbs are strings of sugar molecules that are strung together, but in the real world, what this means is that complex carbs are the more healthy carbs that you might be familiar with. These are whole grains such as brown rice rather than white rice, whole wheat pasta rather than white pasta, quinoa, farro, millet, for example, starchy vegetables like corn and sweet potatoes, beans like black beans, cannellini beans, chickpeas and lentils, and then, of course, all of the vegetables, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower the list goes on. Any vegetable gets thrown into this category.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Now, because fruits have so much nutrition and so much fiber. I absolutely put them into this category as well. I know fructose is a simple carbohydrate, but they come with a lot of benefits. So I'm not talking about fruit juice, I'm talking about the whole fruit Complex. Carbs provide a slower, more sustained release of energy due to their fiber content. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans help with digestive issues, heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, our immune system. I think you get the point. I think I'm trying to hit this point home. These foods are good for you and can taste good too, when you know how to make them taste good through cooking and practicing cooking. Simple, more processed carbs just taste good. Right, they are simple, quick fixes.

Speaker 1: 15:42

So why do carbs get such a bad rap in the diet world then? If we know that whole complex carbs are so good for us, what do people perceive as the problem with eating them? The first thing is that you want to make sure not to get confused with the definition of all carbs. So, again, when I hear someone say that they are a carb addict, I highly doubt they are talking about being addicted to kale and brown rice. So let's not throw all of the carbs under the bus. I get being addicted or feeling like you are addicted to bread and desserts, but kale and cauliflower I highly doubt you're going to be overeating those.

Speaker 1: 16:26

The second reason why carbs get such a bad rap is that there is plenty of fear-mongering books out there, like the Plant Paradox or the Paleo Diet or Whole30. And I am sure there's tons more to vilify even vegetables. The Plant Paradox, for example, is a head scratcher. I really don't even understand where he's coming up with those theories, but that's for another conversation. And really, when you eat high protein diets like paleo, you end up initially losing a lot of water weight, so they seem like credible weight loss diets, but you're not losing weight in the right. There's also a lot of diets that are geared towards menopause, that make a business out of fear-mongering and the feeling that we have been eating and doing something wrong with food. Women in midlife and menopause need great sources of carbohydrates. I cannot emphasize this enough. I am reminding you again about the absolute health benefits to eating a lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans Our hearts, our brains, our digestion, certain cancers and overall longer life expectancy. So please do not buy into the social media and wellness influencers promoting diets like the carnivore diet or people who are making you believe that beans are bad for you. It's just not true. As part of my Nutrition 101 series, I am going to do a podcast on different diets and which ones are the best for you, so stay tuned for that. I know I am just kind of glossing over that and there's a lot to talk about, with carbohydrates right and all the other health issues that we could get ourselves into, and that's going to be addressed in different podcasts.

Speaker 1: 18:17

Carbohydrates, like whole grains and beans, have calories. Okay, this is another thing that I think maybe gets people into some fear around carbs. So, yes, even though they are healthy for you, you still want and need to be mindful about how much you are eating. Vegetables and most fruit get a hall pass because they are so incredibly low in calories. I can't think of a single person who ate their way through a couple bunches of Swiss chard and if that's your jam, go for it, because you probably ate only about 20 calories. But cooked brown rice, for example, whole grains they have about 230 calories in a cup. So, depending on the amount of calories you need in a day and that's important and what else you're eating, you might want to make that a half cup serving rather than a cup serving. So it really depends on how many calories you need, though, but we want to be mindful of our whole grains, so I want to tell you how I make sure that I'm eating the right carbs and that I'm getting enough in my day.

Speaker 1: 19:17

Last week, I gave you my portion cheat sheet, and I will link that again in the show notes if you never got it. It's also in the blog post that I wrote, but I also want you to think in terms of what is on your plate. So let's take dinner, for example. I want you to imagine, for a second, a dinner plate, and go ahead and cut that plate in half in your head, not literally. Then take another half and cut that in half, so you have three parts of the plate. The biggest half would be vegetables and some fruit, so that is 50% of your plate. Now remember, vegetables and fruits are your edible vitamins, so eat those in abundance. Fill that side of the plate. Then about 25% of the plate would be some protein, and if you missed last week's podcast on protein, go back and take a listen to that. I'm not going to get into detail right now for this podcast, and the other 25% would be whole grains or starchy carbs like sweet potatoes. I'm not mentioning fats either. I'm going to talk about fats next week in that podcast, so just know that for right now, we would just be drizzling some fats onto this to make it taste good.

Speaker 1: 20:29

Now, many people flip this plate around. They make half of their plate grains, like pasta, or they make half of their plate protein and they make less of their plate vegetables. I want you to flip your plate around. I want you to make half of your plate fruits and vegetables, quarter of your plate whole grains or starchy carbs and a quarter of your plate protein. So you can see, then, that most of your plate is in the form of carbohydrates about 75% of it.

Speaker 1: 21:01

This is not something I'm making up. This is based on a lot of research and data. It's what works best for your health, and this goes for all your meals, ideally. Sometimes they are never going to be exact, like today, for example, for lunch. I ate last night's dinner, which was roasted salmon with some roasted broccoli and tomatoes and a lemon tahini drizzle. It was delicious, by the way, but I had no whole grains in there, and that's okay, because tonight's dinner I know I'm going to be eating some brown rice and I'll make up for it that way. Every meal does not have to be exact. It has to look picture perfect, but we want to make sure that just through our day we are being semi-consistent. Now how else can we get healthy carbs and in our day-to-day meals? One thing to do and this is something that I do is start your day with a whole grain like oatmeal. I make oatmeal with milk, which has a good amount of protein, so I'm thinking about my balance also, right, and how I can get all of these nutrients in. And I top my oatmeal with nuts and seeds and berries, so I have fruit in there, I have healthy fats from nuts and seeds, I have protein and I have whole grains.

Speaker 1: 22:18

Make sure that you are using whole grain bread. And when you are eating whole grain bread, I want you to definitely look at labels. Bread should say 100% whole wheat rather than something like multigrain. Multigrain is a very misleading term. Multigrain can mean it's 99% white flour and a smattering of a little whole grain. So it should say 100% whole wheat on the label. So if you're going to make a sandwich, make sure you get your best version of bread. You can try whole wheat pasta rather than white pasta, brown rice rather than white rice. You get the point on that and this one might seem obvious. Now, make sure that you eat your fruit rather than drink your fruit juice, because it is full of unnecessary sugar, and get rid of soda while you're at it.

Speaker 1: 23:15

All right, so let's sum up carbs 101. One carbs have gotten a bad rap because I believe that most people think of sugar and bread when they think of carbohydrates. Two, we now know that carbs are vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans too, not just desserts and pasta and bread. Three, we want to emphasize complex carbohydrates rather than simple processed carbs. Complex carbohydrates naturally come with fiber, another very missed nutrient in our diets. Complex carbs are full of nutrients that are essential to your health, like I just said, one of the most important being fiber. Simple carbs taste good, but they don't really add anything in the way of nutrition, and every day we need to emphasize vegetables and fruit. These are edible vitamins and use beans and whole grains as great sources of protein and fiber.

Speaker 1: 24:14

And finally, when it comes to carbohydrates, tune out the noise of the diet books and the internet. This is based on science, not fear mongering, so I hope that helps to clear up the air on carbohydrates and you can feel good about what you are eating. I am going to create a blog post for this. You don't have to take notes. Don't worry about sitting down and getting your pen and paper out. It's all going to be on a blog post, which is linked in the show notes. If you have any questions about carbohydrates, if you want to have a conversation about how to get your healthiest, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. My info is again in the show notes and I'm always happy to have a conversation. Okay, carry on, eat your good carbohydrates and bye for now.