Next topic of What are you Eating: Carbohydrates. Much-maligned and obfuscated, carbohydrates have many folks twisted up into nutritional knots. This blog discusses what a carb is and isn’t, and how our food sources can end up contaminated with carbage.
A carbohydrate is not a food, but is actually a component of all whole foods. Even meat contains a few carbohydrates (in the form of glycogen.)
The organic chemistry term “carbohydrate” simply means carbon (carbo-), linked to hydrogen and oxygen (-hydrate). A chain of 3 carbons could be acetic acid or vinegar, chains of 5 and 6 carbons could be fructose, glucose and other simple sugars. A pair of linked fructose and glucose molecules is called sucrose. Longer branched chains of carbon are starch (digestible and energy-yielding) or cellulose (indigestible fiber), and the list goes on. Any molecule that ends with the suffix “-ose” is a carbohydrate, or in lay terms, ‘sugar’.
Here’s the difference between whole versus processed carbohydrates (“carbage”).
Whole foods have an ingredient list of one word (“grape”, “corn”) and contain varying amounts and types of carbohydrates plus other macro- and micronutrients. Processed foods are whole foods that go through mechanical and chemical processing, becoming purified towards one particular carbohydrate goal, like starch or fructose. A processed carbohydrate is more energy-dense (higher calorie) and excludes the other nutrients of the plants. Sometimes these nutrients are added back in manufactured combinations (“fortified” cereals. Ah, marketing…) Let’s take the example of a wheat berry, a grain or seed found on a stalk of wheat. Each tiny wheat berry has fat (wheat germ, natural oils), protein (gluten) and carbohydrate (starch and fiber/bran) as well as water, vitamins and minerals. To process wheat berries after harvesting, wheat is dried (to eliminate water), ground and sifted (to eliminate fiber and germ) and then bleached, (destroying any remaining vitamins) to result in white flour containing mostly the purified carbohydrate known as starch. Alternatively, if you eat whole wheat berries (< in this recipe they are cooked like rice) all the nutrients and fiber are retained. The fiber slows the absorption of glucose, reducing blood insulin spikes. Another highly processed dietary carbohydrate example is corn, commonly reduced to high-fructose-corn-syrup (HFCS) - a cheap and easily available sweetener added to sodas and baked goods.
Carbage is a term I use to describe processed and high-calorie low-nutrient insulin-spiking sweet foods and beverages. Any baked good wrapped in cellophane or plastic is an example, and they last much longer than anything found in nature. They do not decay normally, and if bacteria won’t touch it, neither should you. HFCS-contatining soda and “Little Debbie snack cakes” are good examples - apologies to all the Debbies out there. Our tastebuds detect sugar and register instant gratification and pleasure, however such carbage has no nutritional value except empty calories that needlessly boost our insulin levels. We evolved as hunter-gatherers to be drawn to sweet high calorie foods to keep our energy reserves up, but we are now much more sedentary. We don’t burn off the excess energy consumed as highly processed carbage. Carbage feeds the national sugar addiction, which contributes to the obesity, diabetes and heart disease epidemic the US currently faces. But we can make different choices.
We can bypass the sugary processed carbohydrate addiction if we eat real food instead of carbage. Our healthiest bet: unprocessed whole vegetables and fruits obtained directly from a farm or supermarket produce section. These choices give us natural and easily managed levels of carbohydrates along with healthy amounts of water, and all the nutrients. Clean up your diet by choosing real whole foods; Take Out The Carbage, your body will thank you.
