According to a large and growing body of research, this exchange can help you lower your risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes, reduce your risk of dying from heart disease or stroke, and help you lose weight. without counting calories.
Although it sounds simple, for many people it will be a big change. These high-quality carbs make up just 9% of all calories consumed by Americans.
For most people, low-quality processed carbs are staple foods. They make up 42% of all calories consumed by Americans. They include packaged foods that dominate many supermarket shelves and household dinner tables, such as white bread, pastries, pasta, bagels, chips, crackers, and foods with added sugars, such as breakfast cereals, flavored yogurts, desserts, juices and soft drinks.
What happens when you replace processed carbs with high quality carbs?
Studies show that the fiber in these foods has multiple benefits. It promotes satiety, which helps you feel full. It feeds the microbes that make up your gut microbiota, which may reduce inflammation and protect against chronic disease. And it improves your blood sugar control and cholesterol levels
A large meta-analysis in the Lancet Review of the health effects of consuming different types of carbohydrates. The analysis, based on data collected from 4,635 people in 58 clinical trials, showed that adults who ate the highest levels of whole grains, vegetables and other fiber-rich carbohydrates had a reduction of 15 31% in diabetes, colorectal cancer and their risk of dying from stroke or heart disease compared to people who ate the lowest amounts of these foods.
They also lost more weight – “although they were not told to eat less food or do more physical activity,” said Andrew Reynolds, a nutrition epidemiologist at Otago Medical School and co- research author.
Why are processed carbs so bad for you?
According to Fang Fang Zhang, a nutrition epidemiologist at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy and author of a study in JAMA which examined the types of carbohydrates and macronutrients that Americans consume.
In his research, Zhang found that Americans were reducing their consumption of sugary sodas and other foods with added sugar, thanks to growing public awareness of the adverse health effects of sugar.
But at the same time, we’re eating more and more foods containing refined grains, in part because they’re so ubiquitous.
“We see a general trend of increasing consumption of refined grains,” Zhang said. With refined grains, we miss our target.
These foods have been stripped of their fiber, vitamins and minerals and industrially processed into flour and sugar. This causes them to be rapidly absorbed by the body, causing blood sugar and insulin levels to rise and activating reward regions in the brain, which can lead to food cravings, overeating and a cascade of metabolic changes. that lead to poor health.
Healthy carbohydrates are those that have not been highly processed and stripped of their natural fibers. Fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains are high in fiber and packed with health-promoting nutrients that help Protects against heart disease and other leading causes of death.
Here’s how to swap your carbs
If your goal is to lose weight and To improve your metabolic health, you don’t need to count calories or follow a restrictive diet. Simply start by removing empty carbs from your diet. Here’s how:
Cut out white foods. Cut down on foods like cereals, pastries, white bread, white pasta, juices, sugary drinks, and other foods with added sugar.
Add healthy carbs. It’s simple. Eat more vegetables, whole grains, beans and lentils.
Add healthy fats and proteins: After getting rid of these empty carbs, some people find they feel better replacing them with foods high in fat and protein, such as nuts, seeds, avocados, eggs, poultry, yogurts and seafood.
Add healthy cereals: Try replacing white and highly processed carbohydrates with whole grains, whole wheat breads, beans, peas, lentils, legumes, quinoa, fruits, vegetables, and other unrefined carbohydrates.
Add higher quality “nutrient dense” foods to your diet. These foods have different labels that can help you identify them. Look for descriptors such as “minimally processed”, “seasonal”, “grass-fed”, “whole grain”, and “pasture-raised”.
It may be difficult at first to cut back on some of your favorite refined carbs, but you won’t feel as hungry if you replace them with fiber-rich carbs and healthy fats.
Why Your Carbohydrate Quality Matters
In a randomized trial that was published in JAMAoverweight people who were advised to cut back on added sugar, refined grains, and highly processed foods for a year lost weight — not counting calories — and showed improvements in blood sugar and blood pressure.
This approach worked whether people were on a relatively low-fat or relatively low-carb diet. The results showed that for weight loss, diet quality prevailed over diet quantity, said Christopher Gardner, director of nutritional studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who studied the effects of different diets on metabolic health and weight loss.
If you want to eat healthier, your first step, he said, should be “to get rid of the empty carb calories that just come with glucose and no fiber, vitamins or minerals.”
He recommends replacing those foods with what he calls a “staple diet” rich in plant foods eaten by cultures around the world, such as beans, nuts, seeds and vegetables.
In Latin American cuisine, red, black and pinto beans are staples. In the Middle East, people have been using chickpeas and sesame seeds to make hummus and other dishes for centuries. In India, red and yellow lentils are found in delicious dal, soups and stews. And in the Mediterranean, many dishes incorporate things like fava beans, cannellini beans and split peas.
“Americans eat an incredibly low number of beans, nuts, and seeds,” he said. “We should eat more like these other cultures around the world.”
Do you have a question about healthy eating? E-mail EatingLab@washpost.com and we may answer your question in a future column.
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