The
trick: Cut out processed carbs and replace them with high-quality
carbs. These include fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, quinoa and
whole grains like brown rice, barley, farro and steel-cut oats.
According
to a large and growing body of research, this one swap could help you
lower your risk of cancer and Type 2 diabetes, reduce your likelihood of
dying from heart disease or a stroke and help you shed pounds without
counting calories.
While
it sounds simple, for many people it will be a big change. These
high-quality carbs make up just 9 percent of all the calories that
Americans consume.
For
most people, processed, low-quality carbs are dietary staples. They
make up 42 percent of all the calories that Americans consume. They
include the packaged foods that dominate many supermarket shelves and
household dinner tables, like white bread, pastries, pasta, bagels,
chips, crackers and foods with added sugars, such as breakfast cereals,
flavored yogurts, desserts, juices and soft drinks.
What happens when you swap out processed carbs for high-quality carbs?
Studies
show that the fiber in these foods has multiple benefits. It promotes
satiety, which helps you feel full. It nourishes the microbes that make
up your gut microbiome, which can lower inflammation and protect against
chronic diseases. And it improves your blood sugar control and
cholesterol levels
A large meta-analysis in the Lancet
examined the health effects of eating different types of carbs. The
analysis, based on data collected from 4,635 people in 58 clinical
trials, showed that adults who ate the highest levels of whole grains,
vegetables and other fiber-rich carbs had a 15 to 31 percent reduction
in diabetes, colorectal cancer and their risk of dying from a stroke or
heart disease compared to people who ate the lowest amounts of these
foods.
They
also lost more weight — “despite not being told to eat less food or do
more physical activity,” said Andrew Reynolds, a nutrition
epidemiologist at Otago Medical School and co-author of the research.
Why are processed carbs so bad for you?
On
average, Americans eat five servings a day of foods with refined
grains, like white bread and pasta, and just one serving a day of foods
that are whole grain, like brown rice and barley, said Fang Fang Zhang, a
nutrition epidemiologist at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science
& Policy at Tufts University and author of a study in JAMA that examined the types of carbs and macronutrients that Americans consume.
In
her research, Zhang found that Americans have been cutting back on
their intake of sugary sodas and other foods with added sugar, thanks to
growing public awareness about the damaging health effects of sugar.
But at the same time, we’ve been eating more and more foods with refined grains, in part because they are so ubiquitous.
These
foods have been stripped of their fiber, vitamins and minerals and
industrially converted into flour and sugar. This causes them to be
rapidly absorbed by the body, prompting blood sugar and insulin levels
to spike and activating reward regions in the brain, all of which can
lead to cravings, overeating and a cascade of metabolic changes that
lead to poor health.
Here’s how to swap your carbs
If
your goal is to lose weight and improve your metabolic health, you
don’t need to count calories or go on a restrictive diet. Just start by
cutting the empty carbs from your diet. Here’s how to do it:
Cut the white foods.
Cut back on foods like cereal, pastries, white bread, white pasta,
juices, sweetened beverages and other foods with added sugar.
Add healthy carbs. It’s simple. Eat more vegetables, whole grains, beans and lentils.
Add healthy fats and protein: After
getting rid of those empty carbs, some people find that they feel
better replacing them with foods higher in fat and protein, like nuts,
seeds, avocado, eggs, poultry, yogurt and seafood.
Add healthy grains: Try
replacing white and highly-processed carbs with whole grains, whole
wheat breads, beans, peas, lentils, legumes, quinoa, fruits, vegetables
and other unrefined carbs.
Add higher quality “nutrient dense” foods back into your diet.
These foods carry different labels that can help you identify them.
Look for descriptors like “minimally processed,” “seasonal,”
“grass-fed,” “whole grain” and “pasture-raised.”
It
may be tough at first to cut back on some of your favorite refined
carbs, but you won’t feel as hungry if you replace them with fiber-rich
carbs and healthy fats.
Why the quality of your carbs matters
In one randomized trial that was published in JAMA,
overweight people who were counseled to cut back on added sugar,
refined grains and highly processed foods for a year lost weight —
without counting calories — and showed improvements in their blood sugar
and blood pressure levels.
This
approach worked whether people followed a diet that was relatively low
in fat or relatively low in carbs. The findings showed that for weight
loss, diet quality trumped diet quantity, said Christopher Gardner, the
director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research
Center, who has studied the effects of different diets on metabolic
health and weight loss.
If
you want to eat a healthier diet, your first step, he said, should be
“to get rid of the empty carb calories that just come with glucose and
no fiber, vitamins or minerals.”
He
recommends replacing those foods with what he calls a “foundational
diet” rich in plant foods that are eaten by cultures around the world,
like beans, nuts, seeds and vegetables.
In
Latin American cuisine, red, black and pinto beans are staples. In the
Middle East, people have been using chickpeas and sesame seeds to make
hummus and other dishes for centuries. In India, red and yellow lentils
can be found in delicious dal, soups and stews. And in the
Mediterranean, many dishes incorporate things like fava beans,
cannellini beans and split peas.
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