Fruits, vegetables, tubers, nuts, seeds and their butters are some of the unprocessed carbohydrates you can include in your diet without compromising your health. Not only do these carbohydrates come with plenty of healthy fiber, but they also contain many important vitamins and minerals. Most of the carbohydrates present in the standard American diet are highly processed and provide many calories without packing a lot of nutrition. Processed carbohydrates can lead to overeating and promote weight gain.
Breakfast Cereals
Unprocessed carbohydrates are the type of foods that you can grow yourself and find in nature. Breakfast cereals do not fit this description and have to undergo many processing steps before being packaged and sold to you at the grocery store. If you look at the ingredient list, you will see that most breakfast cereals contain unpronounceable ingredients, which indicates they are highly processed.
Breads
Breads do not naturally grow in fields and are therefore processed. Making your own bread at home allows you to consume a product that is minimally processed. However, most breads found at the grocery store, including bagels, English muffins, sliced breads, baguettes and rolls, are made from refined, processed flours. Even breads promoted as being whole grains are heavily processed and contain many additives, preservatives and other chemicals.
Snack Foods
Most snack foods are made of processed carbs, including potato chips, pretzels, rice cakes, crackers, granola bars, cookies and chocolate bars. If you look at the ingredients in snack foods, you will find that they contain many ingredients you don't have in your kitchen and that only the food industry has access to. The food industry heavily processes foods to extend their shelf life and entice consumers.
Sugars
Sugar is a processed carbohydrate, whether you choose table sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar, molasses, agave syrup, high-fructose corn syrup or any other type of sugar. All foods containing sugar are a source of processed carbs.
French Fries
If you make your own french fries at home by cutting up a potato and baking it in the oven with olive oil and salt, your french fries will correspond to a source of unprocessed carbs. However, if you buy frozen french fries or get them at a restaurant, they are likely to contain many additional ingredients and to undergo extra processing steps, making them a source of processed carbs. Read the ingredients list to see how processed your favorite french fries are.
Fruit Juices
Whole fruits are unprocessed, but fruit juices are an example of processed carbs. The food industry removes the fiber of the fruits and often has to add back some of the nutrients that are lost during the processing, in addition to adding preservatives and other food additives to the juice. Fruit punches and fruit cocktails are even worse because they also contain added sugar.
Member Comments