Healthy & Unhealthy Carbs

Low carb diets like Atkins or South Beach limit the intake of carbohydrates, encouraging increased portions of protein and fat. Well...we all know what happened to Dr. Atkins, dropping dead of a heart attaack--was it all the animal fat? I'm learning from The Insulin Resistance Diet that it's more a matter of the quality of carbs than it is of strictly limiting their intake.

These carbs will cause those nasty insulin spikes in my blood that lead to higher sugar levels, increased appetite and unwanted weight gain:

Flour
Sugar
Sweetened dairy products
Most snack foods and baked goods
Processed grains, crackers, rice cakes, most breads
Soft drinks
High fructose corn syrup

Note: These are all processed foods! Another thing I learned from the book is that our ancestors didn't have this stuff and so for them, it was better to have spiking insulin levels. Now that most of our foods come from factories and we sit on our butts almost all day, those spikes are very very bad and so is processed food!

All foods have carbs. However, these are the "good" ones:

Whole grains (such as dense whole grain bread, basmati rice, barley and quinoa)
Beans
Nuts
Vegetables and fruits

They're all natural.

And more expensive...but the cost is well worth it!