As much as I’m a protein gal at heart and don’t by any stretch of the imagination eat a diet high in carbohydrates, there are times I look around in restaurants – or even while eating dinner with my super-carb-tolerant husband – and just long for some good old comfort carbs. It’s not as though I necessarily long to down a big bowl of simple sugars or any of the really refined carbohydrates really, but I do sometimes wonder what life would be like if I actually believed all the rubbish about carbs being an ideal source of energy.

you don’t ‘need’ carbohydrates for energy

Of course unfortunately I know it’s just not true; the vast majority of us (the experts I listen to believe around 75%) just don’t need carbs for energy and when we do consume more than we can tolerate – especially in the form of refined carbohydrates – we not only mis-manage our blood sugar but can even cause increased body fat and eventually serious health problems such as diabetes.

The truth is that when all is said and done even those oh-so-(NOT)-good-for-you whole grains and complex carbohydrates break down into little more than simple sugars in your body.

the good (make that great!) news on smart carbohydrates

Of course it’s not all doom and gloom 🙂 Quite the opposite in fact! If you’re smart about it then you can include carbs in your diet regularly and even positively impact your body fat as well as your health.

I’m not talking so much about vegetables here (although people do often seem to forget they are also carbs) – your vegies are a great source of nutrition and should be a daily food choice, but what this post is really about is which of the complex carbs and even which of the starches you can ‘get away with’.

carbohydrates I like to indulge in on occasion!

• Gluten free breads
• Low GI fruits: berries (all forms, fresh or frozen) and stone fruits (seasonally) are very smart choices when it comes to low-sugar fruits. Fructose is not your friend when it comes to fat loss, so if you are going to include fruits these would be the best choices.
• Home-made buckwheat pancakes (buckwheat is a gluten-free whole grain)
• Wild or brown rice (see below for a recipe or make cinnamon rice pudding with organic full-fat cream, lemon zest, cinnamon, water, vanilla and some stevia)
• Quinoa, if soaked overnight and then drained. Use it to make porridge, or as a salad base where others might use pasta
• Legumes (also soaked; preferably not tinned): try this delicious recipe for Cajun Red Beans and Rice
• Cereals are usually a no-no, but not if you’re smart about it: try gluten-free oats made into chocolate porridge (O.M.G)
• Chocolate cake done the healthy way! Actually this recipe is pretty low in carbs, but cake is definitely one of the foods we tend to resist so I wanted to show you that you don’t have to live a cake-free life! It does contain Agave though, which essentially is no better than table sugar so this one is more of a treat. A pretty smart treat 🙂
• Garlic sweet potato or pumpkin mash: I like to add some organic cream and butter, Himalayan salt, and plenty of garlic. These healthy starches are also a great source of dietary fiber.

Hmmm – I could go on and on here I think, but I’m starting to get a real hunger coming on so best to stop now! For now, just be sure to get that shopping list out girls! Your next treat meal is just around the corner 🙂

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