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Carbs - good guys or bad guys?

There has been a lot of media attention given to no-carbohydrate and low-carbohydrate diets, so is this the best and quickest way of losing weight for the big day?

In a word - NO - not in the long term. You will lose weight but as soon as you are married and you go back to your "normal" and comfortable eating habits you will put on all of the weight you lost, plus more because a no/low carbohydrate diet affects your body's metabolism of glycogen. So unless your husband or wife-to-be won't mind returning from the honeymoon with Mr/Mrs Blobby, don't even go there!

There are two kinds of carbohydrates: simple and complex. Understanding the differences between the two will help you to choose which ones to eat a lot of and which ones to eat a little of.

Put simply, cut down on simple carbohydrates, which are sugars and other sweet tasting substances. Excess consumption is associated with many other factors that are harmful: obesity, the displacement of needed nutrients, and tooth decay. And most simple carbohydrates contain little amounts of vitamins, minerals and fibre. Therefore, it is recommended that not more than 10% of your daily carbohydrate intake should come from the simple variety - these are the bad guys.

It's important to recognise that all caloric sweeteners including fructose, honey, and many others are sugars too. The sugar amount may or may not be revealed in food products ingredient list. But if you look at the ingredients, and one of the many forms of sugar is the first ingredient, you'll know that this is the primary source of substance in that product, and thus does not provide a good source of nutrition.

Also, be on the look out for several different forms of sugar listed separately, such as cornstarch, sucrose, and corn syrup. Even though sugar is the main ingredient of the product, it may not appear first or even second on the ingredient label, but may be included several times throughout the list in different forms.

The following is a list of other forms of sugars that you should be aware of when reading labels: brown sugar, corn sweeteners, raw or white sugar, molasses, maple sugar, maltose, levulose, lactose, invert sugar, honey, high-fructose corn syrup, granulated sugar, fructose, galactose, glucose, and dextrose.

A diet lower in sugars (simple carbs) and higher in complex carbohydrates and fibre is almost always lower in fat, lower in calories, and higher in vitamins and minerals. These factors working together contribute to a lower rate of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and tooth decay.

Complex carbohydrates are the good guys and should contribute approximately 50% to your total daily energy (food) intake.

For a long term healthy diet increase your complex carbohydrate intake - vegetables, fruit, whole grain bread, cereal and pasta, brown rice and potatoes, and decrease your simple carbohydrate intake - sugars, biscuits, cakes, fizzy drinks, white bread, white pasta and jam.

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