Carbohydrates & food pyramid

Carbohydrates (carbs) are indeed essential to life, and without them we literally cannot function. I like to look at carbs as being great choices or poor choices rather than good or bad. Your great choice carbs are fruits, veggies and salads; whilst your poor choice carbs are most grains and cereals, pasta, white rice, potatoes and sugar. So what does this mean?

Since 1910 we have been encouraged to follow a food pyramid model that was designed with little thought given to the long term effects of eating more processed foods and grains than fresh veggies and fruits. In fact as time has gone on and over the last 100 years the concept of the food pyramid has changed very slightly, if at all.

The food pyramid was initially designed with two immediate intentions. Firstly; to reduce the occurrence of bowel disease and cancer and secondly to reduce the dietary absorption of cholesterol. Neither of these outcomes has been met. In fact both of these serious diseases are worsening. Other diseases such as diabetes and obesity are also associated with high carbohydrate consumption, and it is indeed this pyramid that has encouraged over consumption of grain-based carbohydrates.

The discussion regarding carbohydrate consumption has become confusing and in some cases misleading. Fruit, vegetables and salads are in their own right carbohydrates. They contain more nutrition from a vitamin and mineral point of view and contain many different types of fibres that aid in the production of B Vitamins in our gastrointestinal system as well as nutrients that assist in repair of the gastrointestinal system throughout the day. The fibres in fruit and veggies are both digestible and indigestible and this means that the effects of these fibres are both inside the blood stream and in the colon. This is a great thing. Due to the relatively moderate quantity of sugars and starches present in fruits and veggies they deliver sugar slowly into the blood stream and at the same time are safe carbs for diabetics and people with sugar problems like insulin resistance, resistant weight gain and hypoglycemia.