By Sarah Wildy RD (SA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do carbohydrates belong in a healthy diet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a lot of hype at the moment about what a healthy\ndiet should consist of. We have been told\nin the past to avoid unhealthy fats, and now we are being told to avoid sugar\nand carbohydrates at all cost. One has\nto remember, that there is no such thing as one suitable diet for all as we all\nhave different requirements based on our age, level of activity, medical\nconditions, and individual preferences. \nThe best approach to healthy eating for the average healthy, active\nperson is to have a variety of foods in moderation. Most foods can contribute to your health in a\npositive way, provided they are eaten in modest amounts. Variety is also key.\nDifferent foods offer different nutritional benefits and so a wide variety of\nwholesome foods should be included in your day-to-day eating. It is important\nto differentiate between the good wholegrain, high fibre carbohydrates; and the\nrefined, processed, low-fibre carbohydrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE GOOD CARBOHYDRATES:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wholegrain<\/strong> and\nhigh fibre carbohydrates are a good source of energy for our muscles and\nbrain. Fibre is important for digestive\nhealth and may reduce the risk of colon cancer. \nFibre can stabilise the sugar levels and control blood cholesterol\nlevels. Eating fibre can also make you feel fuller for longer, curb your\nappetite and thereby help with weight-control. \nA few examples of healthy wholegrain carbohydrates include brown rice,\nsweet potatoes, potatoes with the skin, sweetcorn, quinoa, lentils, oats and\nbutterbeans. Fruit, which mainly contains the natural sugar, fructose, is also\nrich in fibre and antioxidant nutrients, and should also be consumed in\nmoderate amounts daily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n THE BAD CARBOHYDRATES:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here we refer to refined\nsugars, added sugars or refined white grains. \n<\/strong>For example cane sugar, corn syrup, cooldrinks, white breads, white\npasta, and confectionary. These foods are high in calories and supply the body\nwith a rapid source of energy, which is great if you are competing in endurance\nsports, but not so great if you are watching your weight. Many people are unaware as to how much\nrefined sugar they are consuming and this is resulting in a high calorie intake\nwhich fuelling the obesity epidemic. Added sugars, also known as caloric sweeteners, are sugars and\nsyrups that are added to foods at the table or during processing or preparation\n(such as high fructose corn syrup in sweetened beverages and baked products). These\nsugars supply calories but few or no nutrients. \nPeople are very aware of low-fat diets and because of that have been\neating more fat-free and low-fat products without taking note of the added\nsugars contained in these products. Unfortunately their calorie intake has exceeded\ntheir output , resulting in weight gain. \nSugary carbohydrates can also cause insulin spikes which can lead to\nfurther cravings for sugary foods and more calories!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\naverage person should get no more than 6% to 10% of our total calories from\nadded sugar — that\u2019s about nine teaspoons a day for most of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To conclude, there is no need to demonise all carbohydrates.\u00a0 It is important that the average healthy person includes these wholegrain, high fibre foods in their daily diets.\u00a0 The intake of refined, sugary foods should, however, be limited in order to prevent obesity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Sarah Wildy RD (SA) Do carbohydrates belong in a healthy diet? There is a lot of hype at the moment about what a healthy diet should consist of. We have been told in the past to avoid unhealthy fats, and now we are being told to avoid sugar and carbohydrates at all cost. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/spaghetti-2931846_1920.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CNFS-yC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2148,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions\/2148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}