Picking the "right" carbs

[l23]

Hi,
I may go to a big health food market and was wondering how do I pick the carbs that are healthiest. I know they don't have pure junk there, obviously. Do I look at the carb grams on the label? For certain ingredients? What?

Also, how do I pick the right carbs at regular stores. I know a lot of foods are "disguised" as being healthy and really aren't much better than the junk.

I'm most interested in buying breads, cereals, pasta, and snack foods like pretzels, crackers, popcorn,...

Thanks!!

 

[mogambo]

Look for real ingredients, things that you can pronounce like wheat flour and salt! Whole grains and 100% whole grain flour are better than white or partly white. So the purest things are grains (millet, wheat, corn, oats, barley, rice, quinoa, whatever), salt, yeast or other leavening, and small quantities of things like herbs, sweeteners, oil. All of these things are foods, not chemicals. And avoid hydrogenated fats of any kind, shortening and such. They are dangerous and fattening. Butter and vegetable oils are ok in reasonable amounts.

Other healthy starches are potatoes and sweet potatoes.

 

[khuynh]

I use a very simple tried and true rule. >= 3 grams of fiber per serving and you'll never go wrong. And you'll be shocked how many foods that you thought were good for you carbs really aren't, like pretzels, breads, and non whole grain pastas.

Get ready for an education.

Keta. ;-)

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[debclements]

Keta-
Could you explain in a bit more detail about 3 grams per serving of fiber? Does this mean that everything combined should equal 3 grams per serving or each ingredient by itself? Sorry...I'm just not getting it! Because at best if a person eats 3 meals a day and 2 snacks that would only be 15 grams of fiber a day which, according to the articles I've read, is way below what is recommended.

Many thanks-
Deb

 

[Beets]

As far as prepackaged foods, choose those with the shortest ingredient list and, like one of the previous posts indicated, contain ingredients you can understand. Don't worry about carb grams per se since whole grains, etc will be high in carbs--but good carbs. Check the label and compare the grams of sugar to the total number of carbs. If most of the carbs are coming from added sugars, then this is not a great choice. Regarding breads, make sure the label says 100% whole wheat and that one of the first ingredients in the list is whole wheat flour. Some breads labeled "wheat bread" are not made from 100% whole wheat and companies will add molasses or other coloring to make it look brown and healthy. Look for high fiber content--the higher, the better. Compare labels. I recently bought Prince Healthy Harvest whole wheat pasta but did not scrutinize the label until I got home. It turned out that their pasta only had 3 grams of fiber, only one more gram than their white flour pasta. Hodgson Mill whole wheat pasta (the brand I usually buy) has 6 grams of fiber per serving, clearly the better pasta! One of the best crackers to get is Wasa Fiber Rye and some of their other types but read the labels because some of the different varieties contain partially hydrogenated oils which are bad. Look for the ones with only 3-4 ingredients--whole wheat flour, salt, etc. Good luck and have fun shopping for your health!

 

[khuynh]

Hi Deb:

It depends, when you're looking at packaged foods, it's at least 3 grams per serving. If it's fruits, veggies, and whole grains, then it doesn't matter. But the 3 gram rule works very very well with prepackaged goods. Just as another member indicated, Hodgson Mill pasta is one of the best on the market and they exceed the 3 gram rule. The higher the fiber grams the better.

If you all it all up, you'll be at 30 - 45 grams of fiber a day. I usually get between 35 - 50 grams a day and that's not even trying. The great thing is, is that higher fiber food is generally lower in fat and more whole than not. It's a great rule and talk about an education.

Give it a try the next time that you're in the grocery store and watch how many things that you thought were healthy really weren't as healthy as you thought. ;-)

Keta.

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[Bobbi]

When wheat is refined, 22 nutrients are removed and only four are put back in. Wheat bread often has molasses in it so it looks brown like whole wheat, but in fact, is not. The fewer the ingredients the better. And if an ingredient is unpronoucable and multisyllabic, it's probably not too good for you!

Bobbi http://www.plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif Chick's Rule!