YMCA Healthy Living Magazine, powered by n4 food and health (Summer 2016) | Page 4

SKYE SWANEY, APD
Skye is a Sydney-based Accredited Practising Dietitian, nutritionist and food lover.
Founder of Shift Nutrition (www.shiftnutrition.com.au), Skye is passionate about
making healthy eating easy, fun and delicious. She believes everyone should
understand the power of eating well, so they can enjoy wholesome, nutritious food
and be as happy and healthy as possible. You can learn more about Skye at
n4foodandhealth.com

THE TRUTH
ABOUT CARBS

Nutrition expert Skye Swaney clarifies carbohydrates and its role in weight loss.
arbohydrate has become a dirty word with low carb
diets promoted as being the easiest way to lose
weight, fast. But the truth is, there is nothing
magically ‘fattening’ about carbs.

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Carbohydrates are one of the three macronutrients (the other
two are protein and fat). Most foods are made up of a
combination of these macronutrients, rather than just being
one or the other. Carbohydrates are found in foods such as
bread, cereal, rice and pasta, starchy vegetables such as
potato and sweet potato, legumes, fruit, milk, yoghurt and
sugar. When we eat carbs, our body converts them to
glucose, which provides energy to our cells.
Carbohydrates are our body’s favourite fuel source and
provide energy to our cells so that we can think, speak,
move, work and even sleep. Yes, your body can get this
energy from other sources but it prefers to get it from carbs. If
we deprive our body of its preferred fuel, we generally end up
feeling tired, lethargic and grumpy. This is often accompanied
by overwhelming sugar cravings as the body tries its best to
coax us to give it some much needed fuel (sugar is a very
concentrated form of carbohydrate).

Eating too many carbs can cause you to gain weight, but so
can eating too much protein or fat.
The issue with carbs is that they are often very easy to overeat.
Think about your favourite food – cake, freshly baked bread,
chocolate, biscuits, chips… chances are they are high in carbs,
high in calories, delicious, and easy to overeat. Eating more
calories than we burn off, results in weight gain.
There are a couple of reasons why cutting out carbs often
results in some dramatic, but generally short-term, weight
loss. Firstly, our body stores up carbohydrates so that they
have energy ready to go when we need it. These carbs are
stored in the muscles and liver along with water as glycogen.
So when we cut out carbs, we use up this glycogen, and in

the process, we lose water. Water loss equals weight loss
(but not fat loss!). This is often referred to as ‘water weight’.
The other reason is simply that a low carbohydrate diet generally
means a lower calorie diet. Because so many foods contain
carbs, the choices on a low carb diet are limited and hence
calorie restriction is often automatic, even if unintentional.

The thing about carbohydrates is that they’re a very broad
category of foods. At one end of the spectrum is pure sugar
added to foods such as soft drink, lollies, cakes and biscuits
– the foods best kept to a minimum. Then there are natural
sugars found in fruit and dairy products. Then we have
starchy foods such as bread, rice, pasta, cereal and potatoes.
And finally, at the other end of the spectrum, fibre-rich foods
such as wholegrains, fruits, vegetables and legumes – the
healthiest foods we can eat.
Added sugars are unnecessary in our diet and can lead to
weight gain and tooth decay. Likewise, highly processed
carbohydrate foods containing large amounts of saturated fat
(such as snack foods, cakes and biscuits) can contribute to
weight gain and cardiovascular disease, so are best kept to a
minimum.
Natural sugars and starchy foods, on the other hand, are
good sources of sustained energy while fibre is extremely
important for bowel health and has been found to reduce the
risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain
types of cancer.

Overall, the type of carbohydrates you eat is much more
important than the amount. If you choose whole, minimally
processed foods as close to their natural state as possible, you
are automatically choosing the healthy types of carbs, rich in
natural sugars, starch and fibre and low in added sugar. Choose
high fibre, low GI carbs such as fruit, starchy vegetables (potato,
sweet potato), wholegrain breakfast cereals (oats), bread, rice
and pasta (preferably brown or wholemeal), quinoa, cous cous,
buckwheat, dairy products (plain milk and yoghurt), legumes
(beans, lentils and chickpeas).
The ideal amount of carbs for you will depend on your age,
gender, height, weight and activity levels. Ideally around one
quarter of your meals should be made up of starchy carbs
(bread, rice, wholegrain pasta, potatoes) and your diet
should include plenty of fruit and vegetables and two to
three serves of dairy.

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YMCA HEALTHY LIVING MAGAZINE SUMMER 2016