Are Carbohydrates Bad for You? A Simple Guide to Simple vs. Complex Carbs

Let me cut to the chase.

There is nothing wrong with carbohydrates.

All you have to understand is that they are mainly meant to provide your body with ample energy.

1. Some do this over a short period of time. Natural sources of this are intended to give you quick energy when you need it while unnatural sources do the same but they do the job badly; I'll explain later how.

These carbohydrates are what make up what can be called "SIMPLE CARBOHYDRATES".

These include but are not limited to:

• fruits,

• rice,

• ugali,

• bread and other processed grains,

• and on the processed end of things:

• sugar, and its products such as soda, sweets and sweet pastries like cakes, cookies, cupcakes, cereals and many "foods" and condiments you'll find on supermarket shelves.

Some natural, simple carbohydrates are packed with good levels of nutrition such as that in some fruits while processed or unnatural sources of carbohydrates give you the carbs without any useful nutrition to accompany it.

Junk food, is "junk", because like junk, which can also be called trash, it contains nothing useful. Processed carbohydrates are the worst because their nutrition which nature intended you to have along with the carbohydrates or sugar is often removed making you eat junk.

This brings the challenge of your body being unable to regulate how much of the carbohydrates or sugar is absorbed into your blood or how much is turned into body fat.

2. Some give you this same energy, but slowly, over a long period of time. This allows your body to use this energy properly, limiting how much is absorbed as sugar into the blood while allowing your body to carefully keep the energy from being turned into body fat.

The carbohydrates that do this also tend to have good amounts of nutrients and minerals to help your body utilise the energy properly, to nourish you while providing you with soluble fibre ,which is good for your bowel movement, digestion and the health of your gut.

These carbohydrates are what make up what can be called "COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES".

These include but are not limited to:

• nuts like cashews, pecans, almonds, peanuts/groundnuts (still don't know whether they're the same thing or different), etc,

• legumes (some call them pulses) like beans, lentils, chickpeas, green grams (ndengu), peas, etc,

• some whole grains like whole wheat, quinoa, millet, sorghum, amaranth (terere; seeds,) etc

• tubers like sweet potatoes(nduma), yams, arrowroot (nduma), potatoes (although this is the least nutritious of these), etc

• some vegetables such as pumpkins, butternut squash,h etc

What I Would Like You to Understand

Clearly, there are those carbohydrates that even your conscious knows aren't good, but again, you can get the idea that the food group, "carbohydrates," aren't a bad thing or something to be avoided.

Legumes are what people mistakenly call "plant proteins". There's no such thing. They are plant carbohydrates first, and that is what they mainly provide. But now they just happen to have some decent amount of proteins that you can benefit from. Therefore, a meal like Githeri, or Rice and Beans, is a carbohydrate meal.

Here's what I mean:

When you're dizzy, nauseated and about to faint because you've not eaten for a long time as you've been walking in the hot sun all day, you're not going to get home or to a shop and ask for a yam or a sweet potato, lol.

Rather, you'll ask for soda, and given that you know that's "junk", you now have the knowledge to realise that the quick sugar and accompanying minerals of a fruit like watermelon will save and quench you quicker, better, without making you feel guilty and better than any complex carb could.

That's why they even come with all that water.

When you have long work days, move around a lot, exercise, and need energy to push through the mental stress or physical strain, the complex carbs will serve you better and for longer than any of the simple carbs ever could.

The simple carbs will give you extreme energy for a short amount of time (you've probably experienced a "sugar rush") but after that, you become lazy, tired, fatigued, depressed and sleepy ---- this is probably your normal state of existence XD; now you know why ---- if you and I have already worked on your diet, that is now history.

While the complex carbs, because of their rich nutrition and high fibre content, will get you full quickly, keep you full for long and help you stay sharp, attentive and strong as they slowly but consistently provide you with energy and accompanying nutrients and minerals.

Natural sources of simple carbohydrates such as fruits are okay in moderation as nature uses them to hydrate you while providing you with relevant nutrients.

This information encourages you to learn food rather than fearing "all carbs" or "all forms of sugar".

Do you get me?

And as I always encourage my client, you're going to be eating your whole life, so why not learn how to do it right?