Knowing the Difference Between Good and Bad Carbohydrates

A serious lack of education regarding the affects certain food types have upon the body is one of the main reasons why many people consistently put on and attempt to lose weight. It is this lack of education that has also led to many of the misconceptions surrounding carbohydrates with many people believing wrongly, that carbohydrates are bad for you.

It has become something of a mission for many people to completely eradicate carbohydrates from their diet, believing that weight loss will become so much easier by doing so; they could not be further from the truth.

This misconception about carbs has been fuelled with the successful hype surrounding such diets as the Atkins diet; 'hype' being the significant word here. As with many fad diet plans the positives are all that are promoted in order to increase sales and very little is mentioned about the negative side; as with the Atkins Diet the obvious side effects of completely omitting carbohydrates from your diet were censored by the promoters of the plan.

Regardless of what you may have heard, carbs are not all bad but there are some that we would all benefit from either omitting completely or at least reducing drastically from our diets.

There are two types of carbohydrates and for the benefit of simplicity we shall call them good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. Needless to say avoiding the bad carbohydrates is beneficial to your health and will assist in weight loss but if you cut out all carbohydrates you will also be cutting out the good carbohydrates that your body needs to maintain energy levels.

1. Bad Carbohydrates:

Foods that contain bad carbohydrates are generally processed foods that have lost any nutritional value that they may once have had. These foods include; chips, white bread, sweets, candies, biscuits, cakes, soft drinks: If you can leave these out of your diet all together you will be taking a huge step towards successful weight loss through eliminating bad carbohydrates.

It is all about sugar content and processed foods contain high levels of sugar that is hard to burn off due to the high calorific value, and because of the low fiber content they are turned into fat deposits very easily.

2. Good Carbohydrates:

Foods that are classed as good carbohydrates and therefore are a requirement for a healthy disposition are; wholegrain bread, whole meal pasta, raw fruits, vegetables, seeds etc. These foods provide the energy your body needs but also contain high levels of fiber that prolongs the digestive process and as such are classed as slow carbohydrates.
And that is the main difference really, bad carbohydrates are digested quickly therefore your body doesn't have time to turn the calories into energy and burns few off in the digestive process, whereas good carbohydrates are digested slowly, allowing more of the calories to be used correctly and not stored away as fat deposits.

Always make sure you keep your body healthy and energized by eating enough carbohydrates just make sure they are the right sort!

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