Carbohydrates: All You Need to Know

Crispy rolls, delicious pasta: We love carbohydrates, but they are not suitable for losing weight. Or are they? The most important facts.

Are all carbohydrates the same?

No, because carbohydrates are divided into three groups according to the number of their sugar components. These include:

• Monosaccharides (simple sugar): These include dextrose (glucose) and fructose.
• Disaccharides (double sugar): The most important representatives are simple household sugar (sucrose) as well as milk and malt sugar. Both monosaccharides and disaccharides are found in foods that taste sweet – and do not contain vitamins or minerals, such as sweets. The only exception is fruit. Disaccharides cause the blood sugar level to rise rapidly.
• Polysaccharides (multiple sugar): This refers primarily to starch and cellulose. And they are found especially in cereals, wholemeal products, pulses and potatoes. Polysaccharides cause the blood sugar level to rise slowly, as it must first be broken down before it can be absorbed into the blood.

If you want to lose weight, you should only integrate the latter into your diet plan – and take an additional look at a calorie table, which provides information about the nutritional value of a food per 100 g. Glucose and fructose should be avoided as far as possible. Raw vegetables, on the other hand, may be nibbled en masse as a snack.

Conclusion: Not all carbohydrates are bad. It is worth taking a closer look and making a targeted selection.

Do carbohydrates really make you fat?

No, as long as your daily calorie intake is balanced. But bread, noodles and cakes made from white flour do not keep you full, so you tend to snack on something in between. This is how one calorie comes to the next kcal. And that’s not all: fat burning works better if you take at least four hours off between meals. If you’re worried about extra pounds and only eat very few foods rich in carbohydrates, you’ll often resort to fatter, low-carbohydrate foods such as sausage and cheese to compensate. But fat contains twice as many calories as carbohydrates.

In liquid form, carbohydrates can actually make you fat. Fruit juices and sugared soft drinks are not as filling as solid food, we easily drink them away by the litre. And they provide many calories, drive up the blood sugar level quickly, and thus the fat storage hormone insulin comes into action more often. Studies show that anyone who regularly drinks large quantities of juices and lemonades increases their risk of diabetes. So: pay more attention to the kcal in the calorie table.

Conclusion: Whoever wants to lose weight needs a negative energy balance in order to burn more fat. This works best if you put the brakes on carbohydrates – especially white flour products, sugar and sweets. These have a high energy density, do not fill up for long and do not have much to offer in terms of vitamins and minerals. It is difficult to do without carbohydrates almost completely, as the diet becomes one-sided and boring – and there is no need for it at all. Wholemeal products, for example, are absolutely desirable because they contain considerably more minerals and, above all, fibre.

Do you want to give up bread, noodles, potatoes in the evening?

Normally the body burns all nutrients around the clock, whether fat, protein or carbohydrates. Carbohydrates have a special feature: as soon as we eat them, insulin is released into the blood and the burning of fat is briefly slowed down. The more carbohydrates we consume, the longer the fat-burning brake remains on. This can be particularly unfavourable in the evening, when we come to rest and hardly move at all. Only muscles that are active consume proper amounts of carbohydrates, and then nothing stands in the way of fat burning. But in the end, the whole thing is a question of quantity. If we only eat small amounts of carbohydrates (100g) in the evening, we will not gain any weight.

Conclusion: We gain weight if we permanently eat more than we consume – and not because we had the 100g spaghetti in the evening and not for lunch.

What if you cut out carbs completely?

Bread, potatoes, pasta, rice & co. are part of a balanced diet. The body can quickly and smoothly utilise the carbohydrates in them to provide the brain and muscles with energy quickly. If we were to do without carbohydrates completely, as in the Atkins diet, the body would have to assemble the required glucose from protein – this is time-consuming and robs the body of energy. We also need carbohydrates to produce serotonin in the brain, the messenger substance for good mood. Therefore, the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) recommends that we cover about half of our energy requirements with carbohydrates. A nutrition diary can help to determine the right daily amounts of proteins, carbs and fats.

Conclusion: Carbohydrates are brain food and muscle fuel and are the fastest available source of energy for the body. Bread and pasta made from whole grains and potatoes are also good sources of minerals.

Eat protein and carbohydrates better separately?

The separation of both nutrients on the plate is the purpose of food combining diets. Proponents of food combining diets claim: “Dangerous toxins are formed during the digestion of meat and potatoes, for example, which overacidify, make the whole body sick and fat. But that is nonsense. Protein and carbohydrates can very well be digested together. Nevertheless, people who eat according to the rules of the food combining diet lose weight – because they avoid “strongly acid-forming” products (and fatteners) such as sausage, sweets, white flour biscuits and alcohol.

Conclusion: There is no physiological reason for separation.