Before I jump into this topic, let me quickly clear the air about something you are probably thinking – “Are carbs even allowed if you want to lose weight?”, thankfully the answer is YES, and if you want to learn how, click here for more info
Now that you know you can still enjoy your carbs, it’s time to understand which carbs are best. What are carbs? Carbs are a short form of carbohydrate. For the purpose of this article, by carbs I’m referring to starches, so your yam, plantain, rice, bread and the likes. So, what makes one carb better than another?
1) Fiber Content
First thing is the amount of fiber it contains. Not all starches are made equal in this regard, and generally speaking, the more fiber the better. More fiber means better bowel movement, more fiber means you stay fuller and likely eat les, which is obviously great if you are trying to lose weight. More fiber also means that your body absorbs the carbs more slowly, which keeps your blood sugar stable, this in turn helps control your cravings. So always yes to the fiber! ?
As I’ll show you below, these healthier options are higher in fiber, but this doesn’t mean you can have lots and lots of them, no no no, because the calories are pretty similar to their lower fiber options.
Now for your non-grain starches, your plantains, yam, potatoes, they already contain pretty good amounts of fiber, so just enjoy them in moderation, but let me say 2 things – don’t fry them and don’t sweeten them. So if you are one of those awesome people who like to fry their yam all the time or can’t boil it without adding sugar, you need to stop eeet! And that brings us to our next point…
2) Sugar content
The second thing you want to consider is the amount of added sugar. Starches already contain carbohydrates, adding sugar is just upping the carb content. So let’s do some comparisons, your regular cornflakes has about 2g of added sugar in 1 cup, but frosties has a whopping 15.2g! The funny thing about sugar is that when you have significant amounts, it makes you want more! Sugar is very addictive people! Now I’m not saying you should absolutely have no sugar, I mean everyone needs some ice-cream once in a while, but like I said, once in a while. Sugar has little nutritional benefit besides satisfying our sugary desires, lol.
Nooooo
Here’s what you need to do, if the price of brown rice is out of budget for you, go ahead and enjoy your white rice, just ensure you are having it with lots of vegetables, so you can at least get a good amount of fiber from there. Super important! You can see that the regular carbs can be used for weight loss.
Bottom line? You can enjoy most starches, as long as you practice caution with your portions, and you are getting in those vegetables! So whether it’s eba or oat meal flour, it’s fine! Stop demonizing your eba or semo, they are not your enemy, the problem comes when you mount it in your bowl, and the same problem still exists if you mount up oat flour anyway. So go on and enjoy those carbs….in moderation!