Carbohydrates: Understand why you should include them in your diet

Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for our cells and are composed of sugars, starches and dietary fibre, all of which play a very important role in our health.  Carbohydrates have been demonised by diet culture, but where the confusion lies is in the understanding between wholefood carbs and refined carbs.  Whether you are in menopause or not, limiting refined carbs and increasing wholefoods will see improvements in health and energy levels. Carbohydrates are one of three of macronutrients (protein and fat are the other two) that we need in our diet for energy.

 What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are classified into two main groups, simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbs include the sugars such as glucose (honey), fructose (fruit sugar), sucrose (table sugar) and lactose (milk sugar). These are known as monosaccharides or disaccharides which further classify them according to their chemical makeup. Complex carbohydrates include starch and dietary fibres, which are known as polysaccharides, based on their chemical makeup. 

When it comes to the digestion of carbohydrates, all you need to understand is that simple carbs (sugars) are digested and absorbed very quickly as they are smaller units, and complex carbohydrates are digested and absorbed at a much slower rate, as they are bigger units. The sugars cause a rapid spike in blood sugar levels, whereas, complex carbs cause a slow and sustained increase in blood sugar levels.  

Simple Carbohydrates

It’s important to note here, that the sugars found in wholefoods such as fruits and vegetables do not want to eliminate these foods from our diet because they contain simple sugars as we need to consider the whole food and the nutrition it provides.  Fruits and vegetables also contain fibre, vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients, all of which are very important for our health.  Simple sugars are abundant in ultra-processed foods (along with saturated fat and salt) such as biscuits, cakes and lollies which do not give us any nutrition at all that fruits and vegetables give us, and instead lead to a rapid rise in blood sugar levels.  If eaten regularly, this will lead you down the track to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, weight gain and exacerbating menopausal symptoms.

 Complex Carbohydrates

Starch and dietary fibre are complex carbohydrates that are further classified according to whether they can be digested or not.  Starch is the storage form of glucose found in plant foods such as rice, wheat, bread, cereals, sweet potatoes, potatoes, legumes and processed foods such as cakes and biscuits.  Grains such as wheat, rice, corn, millet, rye, barley and oats are the richest sources of starch.  

Dietary fibre forms the structural parts of plants and is found in all plant foods.  Humans are unable to digest dietary fibre which means that it does not provide any energy, as it is not broken down into glucose.  Instead, our gut bacteria use dietary fibre for food and digest it for us by a process called fermentation.  Dietary fibre is further classified into soluble fibre, insoluble fibre and resistant starch.

Soluble fibre dissolves in water to form a gel and is easily digested by our gut bacteria. It is found in oats, barley, legumes and citrus fruits.

Insoluble fibre does not dissolve in water and will pass through the digestive tract unchanged and is less readily digested by our gut bacteria.  It is found in bran, vegetables, wholegrain cereals, nuts and seeds.

Resistant starch is not technically dietary fibre, but it acts in a similar way in the digestive tract, in that they are fermented by our gut bacteria.  Resistant starch can be found in legumes, raw potatoes and unripe bananas.

The bottom line is that we need carbohydrates for energy and cutting them out will lead to fatigue, brain fog, low energy, impaired digestion and gut health just to name a few issues.  Include more wholefoods such as wholegrains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds and less refined carbs such as sweets, cakes, biscuits, lollies and soft drinks (but when you do have these, please enjoy them, there is a place for all foods in our diet!).