CARBS ARE NOT YOUR ENEMY

CARBOHYDRATE is an umbrella term for the sugars, starches and fibres found in fruits, grains, vegetables and dairy products.

The body needs them for digestive health, for energy, growth and a whole host of other functions.

Carbs are generally broken down in the digestive system into single sugar molecules – most commonly glucose, sucrose and fructose.

So, whether you eat white bread, brown rice or a banana, the digestible carbs in these foods end up in the blood as the same thing: sugars.

Some low-carb advocates have claimed that, because all carbcontaining foods end up as sugar molecules, eating them has an ‘equivalent effect’ on the body as consuming pure sugar. But just how true is this? Professor Gary Frost says: ‘It’s not. The problem is you’re not comparing like with like because table sugar is chemically different from white bread or rice, and therefore its effect on the body is different.

‘The carbs in bread or rice are broken down into 100 per cent glucose. But table sugar is 50 per cent glucose and 50 per cent fructose – a type of fruit sugar.

‘There is some evidence that fructose may increase the amount of fat in the blood, and that fat is then stored in the liver. If you’ve got diabetes, the effects could be damaging.’

It’s worth also knowing that the speed at which carbs are digested varies, depending on what else is in the foods themselves, such as fibre – which is also a carb, just an indigestible one – fat and protein. Fats in a meal will slow the digestion of carbs.

More complex carbs such as pasta, wholegrain bread, lentils and porridge also make you feel fuller for longer. But there are other factors, too, such as how foods are cooked – baked potatoes digest faster than crisps, for example – and what else is eaten at the same time. Going very-low-carb often means cutting out bread, potatoes, rice and also pulses, fruit and many vegetables. Doing this risks removing important sources of fibre – essential for bowel and cardiovascular health – from the diet.

Further proof that diabetes patients needn’t cut out carbs came in a review which analysed 56 studies involving nearly 4,000 people. It concluded a Mediterranean diet involving a moderate amount of carbs, and high in dietary fibre, was ‘the most effective dietary approach’ in managing blood sugar.