Christoph Egel's Friday Post - Good Carbs, Bad Carbs....
There are many web pages and blogs that talk about this topic but unfortunately, they mostly focus on the comparison between simple (bad) and complex (good) carbohydrates. While correct, this point of view is too simplistic. As mentioned in Tuesday's post about the Glycemic Index, the Human Nutrition Unit of the School of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Sydney has conducted extensive research to which extent carbohydrates effects blood sugar levels after eating. It is well documented that this glycemic response varies for different carbohydrates. According to the International Life Sciences Institute "there is clear scientific evidence that glycaemic response can influence health outcomes related to key public health priorities like type 2 diabetes and blood glucose control. In Western countries, impaired glucose metabolism is already prevalent in a substantial part of the general adult population. Furthermore, a "meta-analysis found that overweight or obese people following low GI and/or low GL diets lost more weight than those consuming control diets. Low GI and/or low GL diets resulted in significantly greater reductions in body mass, body mass index and total fat mass." Tools like Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) are imperative to select good carbs and to avoid bad carbs - though the International Life Sciences Institute concluded in 2011 "that modifying the glycaemic response of the diet should not be seen as a stand-alone strategy but rather as an element of an overall balanced diet and lifestyle." The metabolic balance® all-natural nutrition program, which is based on GL, provides exactly such a holistic approach!
Christoph.
[photo used with cc permission from Banalities]