Refined carbs can be unhealthy when they're eaten the typical Western way. For example, a cup of cooked pasta contains under 200 calories. But once you add a meaty or creamy sauce and top it with lots of cheese—which is the way most Westerners eat pasta—the pasta dish can bloat out to 800 or more calories. Then people mistakenly blame the pasta for making them fat.

But what about the rapid rise in blood sugar and insulin-spiking effects of pasta and rice?

Actually, pasta is made from a special type of wheat that has a dense compact structure and is slowly converted to blood sugar, so it doesn’t have the insulin-spiking effect that many people think. Rice, if it’s eaten by itself, can have an impact on blood sugar and insulin levels, but in Asian cultures rice is eaten with other foods which digest slowly such as fish and poultry, fibrous vegetables and healthy fats such as peanut oil. This means the overall meal doesn’t cause a spike in insulin levels.

To learn more check out Refined & Unrefined Grains.

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