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By Dr. Leslie Van Romer

In Parts 1 and 2 of “Don’t Carbs Make Me Fat?†we talked about carbs – the good guys and the bad guys. Miss out on those Lifelines? I’d be happy to email those to you.

Let’s review:

=> Where do you get your energy? Good guy carbs.

=> Where do you get the most nutrition for the calorie buck? Good guy carbs.

=> Which foods satisfy your hunger drive? Good guy carbs.

=> Which foods should you fill up on first to consistently lose weight? Good guy carbs.

=> Which foods crush cravings? Good guy carbs

Will the good guy carbs please stand up? Oh, yes, there you are – whole fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains, and legumes. Applause please for our health heroes and disease and weight warriors. Applause to you for eating them!

Now for the bad boys. Refined sugar (Part 2) for one – not to be confused with the natural sugars in whole fruits and vegetables that are critical for energy and health.

And refined sugars love to hang out with other bad-boy carbs: refined flours and grains:

White flour, breads, dried-up boxed cereals, pastries, bagels, muffins, pastas, tortillas, white rice, instant oats, cream of wheat, desserts, baked goodies – you get it.

The bad in refined grains and flours:

=> leave you overfed and undernourished => increasing appetite and cravings for more nutrients => resulting in eating more food, more bad carbs, more calories, more fat, more weight, and more bad self-talk

=> trigger blood sugar spikes, hypoglycemia, and diabetes

=> raise triglycerides (fat in blood), increase risk of heart disease, increase the risk of some cancers (stomach, colorectal, pancreas, breast) and gastro-intestinal disorders like irritable bowel syndrome

=> contribute to osteoporosis, leaching hard minerals, like calcium, from your bones (yes, white flours dissolve your bones)

White sugars and white flours love to hang out together. Even worse, they gang up with other baddies, like salt, oils, fats, chemicals, preservatives, and artificial who-knows-what-elses to make up processed and packaged food faves.

Watch out for breads. “Wheat flour†is synonymous with white flour, not whole wheat flour. Ninety-nine percent of all breads contain white flour. If bread is not labeled 100% whole wheat, 100% whole grain, or 100% sprouted grain, then white flour lies within. And, even with that 100% on the packaging, be suspicious. Labelers are expert tricksters! Read the label carefully, not just for bad carbs, but also for the other baddies – salt, sugar, oil, additives, preservatives, etc.

If a label has lots of ingredients on it, beware! And take a look – most bread products have at least 30 ingredients.

Note: even if bread is 100% whole grain or sprouted grain, bread is still not a “whole grain,†as is brown rice, whole barley, millet, or whole oats. No matter how you slice it, bread is a highly processed food.

Breads are made from the altered fragments of nature’s whole grains or sprouts, stripping vital nutrients and leaving a very dense, compromised food that is addictive and not weight-loss or health friendly.

Welcome to Club Carb!

You’re now an official member of the carb-savvy club.

You now know:

1. Your energy today is sourced by the good carbs you ate yesterday.

2. Good carbs are sourced by whole plant foods: fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.

3. Bad carbs, empty of nutrition and high in calories, are sourced by refined and processed plant foods, as in white sugar and white flour.

4. Read your labels!

And after putting your carb-savvy knowledge into practice for a while and those pounds slip away, when someone comments, “Wow! You look great. How did you lose weight?†your automatic response will be:

“I’ve said goodbye to the bad carbs – no more sweets and white flour goodies for me. I’m filling up on the good carbs found in fresh, whole fruits and vegetables. This works for me.â€

And remember - it’s not a matter of being right, it’s a matter of doing what’s right for you.

“Losing weight is a shedding process – from the inside out.â€

- Dr. Leslie