If you’re looking for a list of good carbs and bad carbs, you might need to change your ideas about dieting a little. While certain carbs that are worse for your body than others, there aren’t really good carbs and bad carbs, just good amounts and less healthy amounts.

Counting Carbs
It seems like more and more people are counting carbs, or at least paying more attention to the amount and type of carbs they eat. Popular diets such as the Atkins Diet have convinced people that there are good carbs and bad carbs, and the bad carbs need to be avoided and the good carbs limited.

While it’s a good idea to keep your intake of “bad” carbs in check, many health experts recommend that carbohydrates should make up at least 55 percent of a person’s total caloric intake, while others say that number should be as high as 65 percent.

This is fairly high so you don’t want to discount carbs. At the same time, it’s clear these people aren’t talking about the carbs you’ll find in candy, cookies and other highly processed foods, so that’s where the idea of a list of good carbs and bad carbs comes from.

A List of Good Carbs and Bad Carbs
If you had to make a list of carbs that you should eat more of versus carbs you should avoid, it basically breaks down into simple carbs being “bad” and complex carbs being “good.”

Complex and simple are terms that have to do with how the food is broken down into energy (sugar) in the body. Simple carbs are broken down quickly, giving your blood sugar a spike and sending you running back to the kitchen or snack machine within hours of your last fix.

Complex carbs are the ones that give your body the best fuel. They are usually found in foods high in fiber, which break down more slowly, giving you a more steady blood sugar level through the day and making you feel less hungry and irritable when mid-afternoon rolls around.

It’s a great idea to get more of these carbs into your daily diet.

Here is a list of good carbohydrates :
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Whole grains and foods made from whole grains, such as bread and cereal
- Beans
- Nuts
- Legumes

Bad carbohydrates are :
- Refined grains like white bread and white rice
- Processed foods such as cake, cookies and chips
- Soft drinks
- Alcohol

Just because these foods have less desirable carbs does not mean you should kick them out of your life forever. A list of good carbs and bad carbs should not be seen as a strict rule. Yes, you should get most of your carbs each day from the “good” list, but you certainly don’t have to cut our alcohol or skip the birthday cake, as long as you don’t make it an every day or every meal thing.

Cutting carbs for Weight Loss
Cutting back on the bad carbs can help you lose weight, as well as give you a feeling of more energy and less irritability. Carbs are the fuel that makes your body run. Putting the right fuel in your engine makes a world of difference.

Because the good carb foods tend to have higher fiber and lower calories than many processed bad carb foods, you’ll find yourself feeling fuller while eating fewer calories though it’s possible you’ll be eating a bigger volume of food.

If you think about the kinds of foods you’re adding and the ones you’re giving up, then this makes sense.

It would take a lot more fruit to equal the same number of calories you’d eat in a candy bar, and you’ll probably feel satisfied after one piece or serving of fruit which is much lower in calories than the candy bar. Even better, you’ll feel satisfied for a long period of time and won’t feel the need for another unhealthy snack later in the day.

What Is Blood Sugar?
Your blood sugar level, or blood glucose level, refers to the concentration of sugar (in the form of glucose) in your blood. The unit of measurement is millimoles per liter (mmol/L).

Why is there sugar in the blood?
Every time you eat food, your body has the task of breaking that food down into a useable form of energy it can use to keep you functioning properly. All foods are (generally) made up of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fiber and water. Carbohydrate rich foods give your body its main form of energy. They get broken down into glucose and move into the bloodstream where they are absorbed by cells for use or storage. Glucose, or “blood sugar”, is likened to “the gasoline that is essential to make your car run”.

Why would i need to manage my sugar blood levels?
Your body needs a constant supply of carbohydrates during the day and you should be aware of your blood carbohydrates levels.
During the day there are two types of problems that can occur that are carbohydrate related.
a) your blood does not have enough carbohydrate during the day : your body will start break down the fat that you have stored to produce carbohydrate. This is done at the expense of releasing toxins which are not good for you. This is also tapping in your body mass and the fat stored in your muscles.
b) you blood has too much carbohydrate : Probably after a big meal or you’ve eaten too much sweets. Your blood now has too much sugar which risks to harm your body, so Insulin is released in your blood to bring down sugars to an acceptable level. Producing insulin is a tiring experience and during this time you will feel sluggish.

Why Blood Sugar Levels Change During The Day
Your blood sugar levels vary during the day/night. The direction it varies (up or down) is due to a number of factors such as those listed below:
1. Eating food :  As the carbs in food break down, glucose is released into the bloodstream ready to be absorbed by cells. Increased glucose in the bloodstream = higher blood sugar level.
2. Exercise : Exercise provides many benefits to your body, including burning excess sugar and reducing insulin resistance (by making cells more receptive to insulin, so rather than requiring more insulin to facilitate glucose uptake, the insulin you already have becomes a bit more effective). However the effect on blood sugar depends on the type of exercise, the duration of exercise, glucose and insulin levels before you start exercising.
During long, intense workouts the body may release adrenaline which counteracts the efforts of insulin. The normal process for blood sugar would be to be absorbed by cells (via insulin) for utilization or storage. Adrenaline causes the glucose to be redirected to where it is required for use immediately rather than for storage. Read more here.
3. Your physiology : The fitter you are the better. More specifically, if you have a greater muscle to fat ratio, you will burn energy at a faster rate and therefore be more effective at reducing your blood glucose level. Also, muscles do not rely on insulin to absorb/use blood glucose – same goes for the brain.
(My sister gave me this great analogy – imagine a small muscle and a large muscle contracting at the same time. Which one would use/burn more energy to contract? The big one, simply because it is a bigger muscle!)
4. Emotions : Stress increases your blood glucose level. It also causes some people to forget to take their medication, turn to comfort foods, overeat and therefore introduce a higher than normal amount of glucose in the blood.
5. Sleeping : People often talk about “dawn phenomenon” with regard to diabetes, where your blood sugar level spikes in the mornings as a result of the body releasing hormones which increase insulin resistance (perhaps). The cause of this is unknown. However, another explanation could be a slow metabolism of dinner from the night before. Some research also suggests that not getting enough sleep causes the liver to produce/release more glucose, hence increasing your blood sugar levels.
6. Medications : Obviously, the medication you take regulates your blood sugar level and therefore your readings during the day, depending on when you took the medication.