Carbohydrates: Are They Really Bad for You?

Carbohydrates have had a difficult few years- bread, pasta, potatoes and rice have all found themselves on the list of foods we're apparently supposed to avoid, particularly if we're trying to lose weight or eat more healthily. It’s led to the idea that carbohydrates are somehow 'bad' for us, or that simply removing them from our diet is one of the quickest ways to improve our health and lose weight.

Carbohydrates aren't the enemy - infact, they're one of the main sources of energy our bodies use every day. When we eat carbohydrates, many of them are broken down into glucose, which our bodies can use for energy. Our muscles also store carbohydrate in the form of glycogen, which is particularly useful when we're exercising. That doesn't mean we need enormous amounts of carbohydrates at every meal, but it does mean there’s a perfectly good reason they form part of a balanced diet.

Carbohydrate covers a huge range of foods: oats, fruit, potatoes, beans and wholegrains contain carbohydrates, but so do biscuits, cakes, sweets and sugary drinks and putting all of those foods into the same category and deciding carbohydrates are either "good" or "bad" doesn't tell us very much about their nutritional value. Take a potato, for example - potatoes are a carbohydrate, but they also contain fibre, potassium, vitamin C and other nutrients and how we prepare them makes a difference too, a boiled or baked potato isn't nutritionally the same thing as a large portion of chips, despite them both starting life as a potato.

Carbohydrates aren't automatically 'unhealthy', and eating them doesn't suddenly cause us to gain body fat. Weight gain happens when, over time, we consistently consume more energy than our bodies use. And yes, carbohydrates can contribute to that energy intake, just as fats and proteins can, but there's nothing unique about carbohydrate that means eating a bowl of pasta automatically gets stored as body fat.

Part of the confusion around carbohydrates comes from what can happen when people reduce carbohydrates and initially see the number on the scales drop quite quickly. Our bodies store carbohydrates alongside water, so reducing the amount of carbohydrates we eat can also reduce some of that stored water. That initial change on the scales can look impressive, but it isn't necessarily all body fat being lost.

And the amount and type of carbohydrate does matter - choosing more fruit, vegetables, beans, pulses and wholegrain foods can provide useful fibre and nutrients, while regularly consuming large amounts of highly processed foods that are high in calories, sugar and fat can make maintaining a balanced diet more difficult. If a plate consists almost entirely of pasta with a small amount of protein and vegetables, changing the balance of that meal might be useful. That doesn't require removing the pasta altogether, it could simply mean having a little less pasta, adding a good source of protein and including more vegetables. And that's probably where nutrition becomes much simpler. Instead of asking whether carbohydrates are good or bad, look at the whole meal and ask - where is your protein coming from? Are you eating enough fruit and vegetables? Are you getting enough fibre? Are your portions appropriate for how active you are?

There's no need to fear bread, pasta, rice or potatoes. They can all comfortably form part of a healthy diet, and if you're active, carbohydrates can be particularly useful for providing the energy your body needs. As with most areas of nutrition, the answer isn't found in completely removing one particular food group. It's about choosing sensible portions, getting plenty of variety and looking at what you eat across the week rather than worrying about one individual meal.