What’s complex carbs vs simple carbs? Are you feeling unwell and feel it’s a losing battle to feeling well again? Here’s how you can know your enemy to get well again.

The majority of us have a real love and hate for carbohydrates, let’s face it they’re highly addictive. Carbs are known as major cause of weight gain among dieters, while strangely applauded as the best source of energy among fitness enthusiast.

So what exactly are carbs? And, why are there two types? Why are we always at war trying to eat the rights carbs, but get know where? All this can seem very confusing.

Complex Carbs vs Simple Carbs Definition

Know your enemy well that way you’ll never be under its thumb or repression. Today, our adversary is often what we eat, we don’t realise some foods make us very sick. Over the years our food supply has changed.

After the second World War packets of vegetable crisps/chips were invented, everyone was horrified of such an invention. Then potato crisps/chips where invented, which because they were so yummy they totally wiped out vegetable crisps. Today, vegetable crisps are now back in production and a sell out because ‘they’re healthy’…but are they?

The two types are ‘complex carbohydrates’ and simple carbohydrates. When you’re suffering from insulin resistance aka carbohydrate intolerance, it’s especially important to understand what foods you should and shouldn’t eat to be and feel normal again.

Simple Carbohydrates aka Refined

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Simple carbs are anything sugar or refined foods converting to sugar. Sugar, in its simplest form is a pure carbohydrate, it suppresses our system, makes us weak and eventually makes us very sick.

Refined carbs are sometimes known as simple carbs ie cakes, bread, milk, biscuits, pasta, grains. All are problematic foods and they’re highly addictive. It is important to know that refined carbs convert very quickly into sugars, it floods the body very quickly.

Generally the gut breaks down sugars and starches, but people with a compromised gut struggle to break them down. Refined carbs are less nutritious because the processing and refining has generally depleted a great deal of the initial nutrition, all that’s left is sugar and starch making them a bad choice of food.

Complex Carbohydrates aka Non-Refined

Complex carbs consist of a larger number of sugar molecules ie making them and sometimes known as complex.

Complex carbohydrates are derived from plants ie fruit and vegetables, they’re essential for good health and are full of good nutrition to restore us. Most of us can eat all forms of complex carbs, however some people with a compromised gut struggle and so need to be careful what types of complex carbs they can eat. What one person can eat another can’t.

Some professionals suggest other foods such as brown rice, whole-grain pasta, beans, whole wheat bread, whole oats, buckwheat, millet, whole rye, whole-grain barley and whole-grain corn are considered good carbohydrates. Some of these foods are known to be rich in fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.

However, once a natural food has been processed, it no longer supports the body in the way it should before it was processed. This would in effect make some of these processed foods a simple carb. In the Keto world these foods are known to raise blood sugars and thus cause inflammation.

However, there is a fine line, some have a low glycaemic index helping to keep blood sugar levels low. And, there’s an opposite, diets with a high glycaemic index cause high blood sugar levels making them a bad choice if your immune system is compromised.

Simple Carb Foods Not To Eat

Here’s a list of sugar foods, starch foods and foods that convert to sugar once eaten. Please bear in mind as described above some foods in this list have lower glycaemic levels than others. If you have a compromised immune system then it’s best to eliminate them all.

  • Sugars: cane, sweeteners
  • Flours: All white
  • Milk: cows milk, sheep milk, goats milk, yogurts (unless raw and unpasterised)
  • Cheeses: Soft cheeses, cottage cheese, hard cheese (unless raw and unpasterised)
  • Dairy-Free milk: Oat milk, rice milk
  • Chocolate: milk chocolate and all chocolate contain sugar
  • Starch foods: potatoes, white rice, white bread, biscuits, cakes, pasta, cereals, couscous, oats
  • Dried fruits: dates, currants, sultanas, cherries, figs
  • Juice: All processed fruit and vegetable juices

Complex Carb Foods To Eat

These foods will not only make you feel better, you will also be healthier. Here’s a list of foods that can be eaten:

  • Salads: anything green such as lettuce leaves, cucumbers, olives, celery
  • Low glycaemic fresh vegetables: most foods green are low glycaemic such as broccoli, sprouts, cabbage, green beans, aubergine, courgettes, cauliflower
  • *High glycaemic fresh vegetables: carrots, corn, peas, corn, lima beans, squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips, plantain, tomatoes
  • Low glycaemic fresh fruits: avocados, papaya, grapefruit, apples with the skin on, lemons and limes, strawberries and raspberries.
  • *High glycaemic fresh fruits: bananas, grapes, oranges, kiwi, cherries, watermelon, figs, cherries, mangoes
  • Sugars: erythritol, stevia, allulose currently only in USA

* These foods are best avoided or minimised if you have a compromised immune system.

Non-Carb Foods To Eat

When you’re carb intolerant or have a compromised immune system of some sort, you’ll be surprised what other foods you can eat. These foods are definitely worth considering:

  • Meats including sausages (no carb fillers)
  • Fish
  • Eggs
  • Oils: extra virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, beef lard
  • Butters: organic grass fed butter, ghee, coconut butter, cacoa butter
  • Nut milks: almond milk, hazelnut milk
  • Nuts
  • Yogurts: Coconut yogurt, almond yogurt,
  • Flours: Coconut flour, nut flours

Know Your Enemy

People who are carb intolerant constantly face chemical and hormonal changes when they’ve eaten anything with carbs, often grains and even natural high glycaemic foods. There are however people who can eat anything.Carbs, however, can be a silent killer. More often than not we can be a product of what we eat, or what we don’t eat. It’s possible at some point an unhealthy lifestyle could catch up. Often there’s a lot going on inside our bodies that we know nothing of until it’s too late.

Insulin is a hormone that your body uses to drive sugar out of your bloodstream and into your muscles to use as energy. And, insulin also drives sugar and fat into your fat cells to store for energy between meals and while you sleep.

Insulin is normal and healthy and life giving, but for some people if they have carbohydrate intolerance, then it can be a real problem.The outcome of this real problem causes extreme fatigue, inflammation in joints, muscle pain, migraines or heavy headaches, eye strain, intense pain in the neck and shoulders, and weight gain weight. All this is a sign that your body is saying ‘No more, no thank you.’

Eating a keto or a low carb diet can break this cycle and restore your digestive, nervous and endocrine systems. Eventually, your gut will restore itself and it will free you from food cravings and help to re-balance our system making you feel fantastic again.

Topping Up Your Shortfall

To top up your short fall of life giving foods, using a high-quality mineral supplement such as Modere Mineral Solutions is a good choice. This supplement gives a real boost to depleted bodies.