Carbohydrates need a better public relations team.

There is no macro-nutrient that’s been more vilified than poor old carbs. Even fat—the nutritional super villain—has enjoyed a popularity boost thanks to a resurgence in the Keto diet. But all types of carbs have been lumped into one group and blamed for the weight epidemic that’s rolling across the nation.

That’s a shame, because your brain runs on carbs. If it’s not getting it from carbs in your diet, your body will start breaking down protein, and the easiest protein to break down is muscle. And as we’ve discussed, muscle is the metabolic furnace that’s going to help us lose the fat.
So, if we’re eliminating carbs, were basically breaking down our own fat-burning machines.

On the flip side, when you overeat carbs, your body will pump out a hormone called insulin to keep your blood sugar within a certain range. Insulin also happens to be a powerful fat storage hormone, so your body stores the excess sugar as fat.

Low-carb diets such as the Atkins™ Plan seem to “succeed” only by accident; when we eliminate a complete macro-nutrient (carbs) from our diet we tend to eat less overall. Resulting in a decrease in calorie consumption and overall body mass. Just because a diet works doesn’t mean it’s healthy or sustainable long term.

The truth is not all carbs are bad. Simple, or refined, carbs—like cakes, white bread, crackers, cookies and products made from flour and sugar—yeah, they deserve the bad rap. But complex, or unrefined, carbs—for example, yams, lentils, oatmeal—are unfairly tarred with the same brush. These good carbs will not only give you the energy you need all day long, but they’ll also help you burn fat.

What separates good carbs from the bad? Most refined (bad) carbs are converted to sugar very quickly. In addition, their naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals have been stripped away, which means they offer very little nutrition for the calories.

Sources of unrefined (good) carbs, on the other hand, contain fiber, so they require more digestion and are broken down slowly. By eating protein with our complex carbs we’ll slow down digestion, increasing energy and reducing chances of fat storage. This is one of several reasons why we should eat complex carbs paired with protein.