Identifying 'good' carbohydrates

Most of you know that I'm not a fan of very low carbohydrate diets. I eat, and recommend others eat, regular small-moderate servings of carbohydrate food sources. I don't just recommend this to the people I train for fitness, strength or sport development, I recommend this to everyone including those training for weight loss! Carbohydrates are an essential component of all well balanced diets however poor carbohydrate food choices increase the risk of weight gain and development of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic disease. Being able to identify the 'good' carbohydrates from the 'bad' is the difference between weight control, improved energy levels and optimal training performance and weight gain, fluctuating energy levels and poor health. Read on to find out the simplest way to make the right carbohydrate choices!


The process of identifying 'good' from 'bad' carbohydrates is often complicated and impossible to apply without hours of research. Not this time... let's make this as easy as possible. Forget simple & complex, forget low & high GI, instead, remember what food looks like before any modification. Focus on consuming carbohydrate food sources that exist in their 'natural' unaltered form, or as close as possible to it. Unprocessed or minimally processed carbohydrate food sources have a number of health and weight control advantages:

• higher in fibre 
• higher in other nutrients
• lower in sugar
• lower energy density
• lower GI 
• greater metabolic affect 

Examples of minimally processed / unprocessed carbohydrate food choices:

• vegetables

• raw with no / minimal dressing
• cooked with no / minimal added fat / oil 
• non-starchy varieties are preferred for lowering carbohydrate intake (more information about starchy vegetables at 'Starchy vegetables: a weight loss pitfall')

• fruit

• whole fruit
• fruit salad and stewed fruit with no added sugar
• fruit juice and fruit drink with no added sugar
• low sugar varieties are preferred for lowering carbohydrate intake (more information about low sugar fruits at 'Fruit with the lowest sugar content')

• beans

• whole grains
• 100% whole grain cereals, breads, tortillas, tacos, rice, crackers etc
• no / minimal added sugar or fat

• milk & yogurt
• reduced fat varieties are preferred for lowering fat intake (more information about fat in foods at 'Fat % of foods - you may be surprised')
• no added sugar

5 guidelines for consuming carbohydrates:

1. Consume unprocessed / minimally processed carbohydrate food sources
2. Consume carbohydrate food sources with no / minimal added sugar or fat
3. Consume a variety of different carbohydrate food sources every day
4. Consume carbohydrate food sources in small servings spread as evenly as possible over the day and avoid large servings at one time (more information about carbohydrate serving sizes at 'What foods are high in carbohydrate?')
5. Consume carbohydrate food sources with foods that contain protein (more information about consuming protein at 'Consume protein at every meal to promote weight loss and weight control')