Each person is different. And each athlete is different as well. As such nutritional requirements can vary depending on the demands put on the body and what the body needs short, medium and long term to sustain itself in the most optimum manner.

If we just examine the two on their own merits we will need te closely examine what is the  difference between simple and complex carbohydrates.

Yes, I know, everybody, knows what’s the difference, right?

Wrong.

So I set out to find the answer, and make it a bit more palatable for the average person.

There are a few main nutrients that the body needs to maintain, re-charge and revitalize the organs and cells of the body:

1) Fats
2) Proteins
3) Carbohydrates
4) Minerals
5) Probiotics
6) Water

For the purposes of this post, I will be focusing just on carbohydrates.

The word carbohydrates, comes from the fact that it is made of  three separate biological molecules, consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms or more easily think of them as hydrated carbons.

Carbohydrates can be generally classified into three categories:

1) Starch (Complex carbohydrates)
2) Sugar (Simple carbohydrates)
3) Fiber (Complex carbohydrates)

Starches, fiber and sugars are fuel for the body. Your body uses either of these as energy.

If you get nothing else from this article and only remember that carbohydrates fall into these three respective categories you pretty much have a basic understanding of carbohydrates. Most people to some degree or another know that carbohydrates are starches, those two words (carbs and starches) have been used interchangeably. What most people don’t realize are the other tow: sugar and fiber.

As you break down (no pun intended) carbohydrates further there are two main sub-groupings that differentiate one from the other in terms of how your body goes about using that food as energy.

The two sub-groupings are: simple and complex carbohydrates.

When it comes to simple versus complex carbohydrates the best way to differentiate the two is in the two words themselves, simple versus complex.

Simple carbohydrates are easily (simple) broken down and digested quickly. In other words, its a lot simpler, but this does not necessarily mean better. Examples include fruits, vegetables, unprocessed plant products, table sugar, fruit juice, milk, yogurt, honey, molasses, maple syrup and brown sugar.

Complex carbohydrates are a bit more complex or take longer to digest and break down in the body as they typically have more fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Examples include vegetables, whole grain breads, oatmeal, legumes, brown rice and wheat pasta.

One other note worth mentioning when it comes to complex carbohydrates is that there are two sub-categories that fall under it, starchy and fibrous carbohydrates.

Starchy carbohydrates include food choices such as brown rice, baked and sweet potatoes, oatmeal, brown pastas and whole grains.

Fibrous carbohydrates include asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, mushrooms, spinach and peppers and can also be found in most varieties of dark green leafy vegetables.

According to Brian Calkins, in his article Simple Sugars versus Complex Carbs, there are six simple steps when it comes to carbs:

1) Start to put the good carbs into your body: Complex Starchy and Fibrous Carbs that have not been altered or processed.
2) Eat small meals more frequently – every 3-3½ hours, 5-6 times per day.
3) Begin to gain an awareness of food labels and the “sugar” ingredients.
4) Start to reduce or eliminate the simple sugars and the processed carbohydrates.  Remember:  If your goal is fat reduction, sugar is your worst enemy!
5) Focus on making progress and forget about being perfect.  You’ll mess up every so often. Forgive yourself and just move on!
6) Remember that small changes over time will stack up on themselves…and eventually will bring you to a new destination of physical excellence!

The Carb Test

A great way to know what type of carbs you are eating is by gauging how you feel 5-15 minutes after you eat. This is of course presuming that you ate an adequate  portion of food. A good rule of thumb is to use your hand to measure of portions of food.

The palm of your hand, not counting your fingers, is considered one portion size of food. (Remember the size of your stomach is the size of your fist. So the huge servings that you sometimes see at restaurants is way too much food.)

If you have roughly three servings (using the palm of your hand as a measurement), and you wait 5-15 minutes for your food to properly digest, this is typically a good way to measure whether your food was nutrient dense or nutrient poor. If after 15 minutes or so you feel hungry you may be eating nutrient poor food.

Many people can eat, what is often called, “empty calorie” foods, like soda and processed foods with enriched flour, and still feel hungry after. Now granted empty calories can help, it all depends on the circumstances you find yourself in.

The reason for this, is that, the food they are eating is devoid of any nutrients the body can use for energy.

The body is still in desperate need of life sustaining and energizing foods, and therefore sends a signal to send more food, because the body has no idea what to do with the “empty calorie” food ti has just received.

If on the other hand, you eat nutrient rich foods, like kale, spinach, broccoli, brown rice, quinoa, sprouted grains, you will often find that it doesn’t require a lot of food to fill your body.

Your body sends a message to your brain, telling it, that it has received the adequate amount of nutrient rich foods and no more food is required.

Another thing worth noting, many people, confuse hunger for thirst, as the vast majority of the people on the planet are dehydrated.

So if you feel the need to eat, drink some water and you may find that that was what your body was needing.

The Glycemic Index of Common Foods

According to Wikipedia, The glycemic index or glycaemic index (GI) is a number associated with a particular type of food, normally carbohydrates, that indicates the food’s effect on a person’s blood glucose (also called blood sugar) level. The number typically ranges between 50 and 100, where 100 represents the standard, an equivalent amount of pure glucose.

In a nutshell, this is a number that can tell you whether or not that can have positive or negative effects with respect to your blood sugar levels.

Many health related industries use a “high,” medium” and “low” rating system for GI. Using this system, foods get classified in the following way(1):

GI Ratings for the World’s Healthiest Foods

The glycemic index is a good measure to know whether the food you are about to eat may cause serious issues or not. As you can see from the chart above that the “healthy” foods typically are low in the GI index.

In conclusion, not all carbs are created equal. Realizing that there is a huge difference in how your body actually stores and uses carbs for energy can make an enormous impact on the quality of your overall health.

We are bombarded with carbs wherever we go, many of them are really just simple sugars and as a result we are lacking the other type of good carbs, complex carbohydrates, that are bodies so desperately need.

Each has their place, and knowing the difference can really help you to build that body you always wanted.

Reference: (1) http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=32