Smart Carbs are:
- fruits and vegetables
- beans
- seeds
- nuts
- whole grains
Smart carbs are complex carbohydrates. You can have carbs, as long as you choose them carefully–that is why they are called smart! It’s all about balance. The body’s muscles need smart carbs as fuel and so does the brain.
Carbs that are NOT SMART:
- Food that is full of refined carbohydrates like sugary (even those made with honey, maple syrup, etc.) cakes & cookies.
- White bread & pasta.
- White rice.
- Bottled and canned fruits and juices.
- Pops/sodas and other sugar products.
They are simply empty calories with very little to no nutrition in them.
The Best Smart Carbs are:
· Fruits and vegetables, especially the green ones that grow above the ground like kale or dark, leafy lettuce.
· Beans such as kidney beans and garbanzo beans.
· Seeds including as sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
· Nuts such as almonds.
· Whole grains such as brown rice, millet, quinoa, buckwheat, whole wheat bread & pasta, multigrain cereal/bread, oatmeal and oat bran.
The body requires about 60-65 percent carbohydrates to feed the brain, nervous system and muscles.
The predominant carbohydrate used in the body is glucose. Glucose in the blood is called blood sugar and is a major fuel source for most cells of the body. The muscles store glucose in the form of glycogen for endurance.
The brain relies on glucose to meet its energy needs. Unless the diet supplies adequate carbohydrates, the body’s metabolism switches to a starvation mode, in which body fat is burned to meet most energy needs. To fuel the brain during starvation, glucose is synthesized from amino acids obtained by the breakdown of muscles.
You can see why the right kind of carbohydrates are essential for a balanced body.
The problem with understanding carbohydrates is classification.
For simple distinction, there are three categories of carbohydrates:
· Complex – Cereal grains such as wheat, rice, rye, millet, sorghum and corn. Beans and seeds of legumes contain 40 percent of their weight as starch. Complex carbohydrates occur in plants as starch and fiber.
· Simple - Sucrose, dextrose, fructose and corn syrup or anything on a label ending in -”ose.” Simple carbohydrates are referred to as sugars.
· Refined or Processed – Sugar and white flour are highly purified materials, containing little, if any, of the nutrients found in the whole food from which the carbohydrate was prepared; therefore, they supply mainly calories.
Why We Don’t Eat Smart?
There has been lot of confusion about carbs which has scared some, but another reason is that we don’t know how to COOK complex carbohydrates properly.
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