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Bad carbs make us hungry, crabby, and fat

Every diet book today talks about bad carbs. But there are lots of different carbs. How do we identify the bad ones?

Which carbs are bad?

sugar bag and bowl
We find them in foods that humans have altered.
For example, the food industry isolates sugar from whole foods like sugar cane and sugar beets. Manufacturers remove the vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water.

They create a white powder that contains only calories. Sugar is a bad carbohydrate. Sugar is not a natural whole food. It doesn't give our bodies any of the nutrients they need. It just gives us empty calories.

Most other sweeteners are bad too. Maple syrup, honey, fructose, brown rice syrup, barley malt, agave nectar, corn syrup, you name it. They are not whole foods either. They give us too many calories too fast, with no fiber and few nutrients.

The only two sweeteners that contain significant nutrients are date sugar and blackstrap molasses. If you need a sweetener once in a while, try to use one of these two. Or use pitted dates or other dried fruits.

Cows' milk contains the carbohydrate lactose. Many people cannot digest lactose. Our body breaks lactose down to galactose. Studies show that galactose increases a woman's risk of ovarian canceer. Lactose and galactose are harmful to our health. Avoid dairy products and you will avoid these two of the worst carbs.

Refined grains v.s. whole grains

white bread
Another source of bad carbs is refined grains
. As with sugar, the food industry removes the healthful parts of whole grains to create a useless white powder: more unhealthy carbohydrates.

Manufacturers remove the bran and fiber from the outside of the grain. They remove the germ that contains vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats. They grind up the remaining endosperm into white flour.

White flour is mainly starch. Most of the fiber and nutrients from the whole grain are gone. Then the food industry adds a handful of the cheapest vitamins back in and calls the flour "enriched". They've got to be kidding.

The food industry loves to make things with white flour. White flour has a long shelf life. It is very profitable. Almost every loaf of bread in the supermarket contains white flour. If your bread and pastries don't say "100% whole wheat", they contain white flour. They are bad carbs.

white spaghetti black plate
Most commercial pasta is made from white flour. It often contains eggs. If the label says "semolina", it is white flour. You can find 100% whole wheat pasta in natural food stores.

White rice is not quite as bad as white flour. It still contains many nutrients, but brown rice is much better. And our favorite, if you can find it, is red rice.

Worse than bad carbs

donuts sprinklesMany of the white flour products we eat are super bad for our health. They contain a macronutrient that is even more harmful than white flour: added fat.

The worst added fats are the partially hydrogenated oils. They contain trans fats that accelerate aging and cause disease. Added saturated fats like coconut oil and palm oil raise our blood cholesterol levels.

People say that donuts, cakes, cookies, pies, and crackers are bad carbs. But they really are bad carb-and-fat combinations. All added fats are bad. It doesn't matter if they come from margarine, butter, lard, shortening, vegetable oil or olive oil. They are all fattening. They are not whole foods, and our bodies want whole foods.

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