Jilian's Email about Carbs

Learn the Whole Story About Carbs

It's time to get over the idea that all carbs are bad. Even the media are starting to forget that the no-carb craze existed, and you should, too. Good carbs exist, and they should be a part of your diet.
"But Jillian," you ask, "how can that be when so many other diets have banished carbs?" Here's why: My program evaluates carbs differently. Some diets define carbs as "good" or "bad" solely in terms of the glycemic index (GI). The GI gives each food a rating based on how quickly the carbohydrates it contains break down and release glucose into your blood. The problem is, these GI-based diets evaluate only the quality, not the quantity, of carbs in any given food. So you're not getting the whole story. As a result, these diets forbid you to eat many foods that actually belong in a healthy diet.
The poor innocent carrot is a perfect example of how the glycemic index can give a good food a bad name. The carbohydrates in carrots turn into blood sugar quickly, which gives carrots a high glycemic rating, making them a no-no on many popular diets. If you step back and look at the big picture, though, you see that the total number of carbs in a carrot is low. Even though those carbs turn into blood sugar quickly, there are so few that their overall effect on blood sugar is not very dramatic — so in fact carrots are okay to eat.
If you consider the quantity as well as the quality of carbs in a food, you have a much more holistic and useful way of assessing the food's nutritional value. This more accurate measurement is known as the glycemic load (GL). It pertains mainly to carbohydrates, such as vegetables, fruits, and grains (proteins and fats do not have the same kind of direct effect on blood sugar), and is designed to help you quickly figure out which carbs are okay and which you should avoid. You can find a glycemic load chart on my Web site to use in evaluating individual foods; it can also help you think about the entire value of a meal before you eat it.
JILLIAN'S TIP OF THE DAY

Carbs Are Nature's Disease Fighters


Without carbs, we'd be sitting ducks for cancer, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, chronic inflammation, and digestive problems. Carbs are the source for many of nature's disease fighters, thanks to the phytochemicals they contain. These compounds are produced by plants and are therefore present in almost all vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes — all foods that contain carbs. Also, eating fiber, a carbohydrate we can get only from plant sources, is one of the few ways we can help our bodies flush out the toxins that have built up in our tissues and messed with our endocrine systems for years.