Pasta, rice and bread roll into favour as carbs prove health credentials

Research shows that carbohydrates can protect us from a range of diseases.

Foods packed with carbs contain crucial nutrients.

If you thought carbohydrates were bad for you (and who could blame you, given the popularity of low-carb, high-fat, high-protein diets?) then it’s time to think again.

New research shows if we cut out carbs we also cut out crucial nutrients. This month a report in The Lancet found that eating wholemeal bread, grains and pulses cuts the risk of suffering from three deadly diseases by a third.

Jim Mann, from the University of Otago in New Zealand, analysed studies involving more than a million people.

His team found that overall death rates were 15 per cent lower in those eating the highest amount of fibre, which is present in many carbohydrate foods. These people were 31 per cent less likely to die of heart disease, 22 per cent less likely to have a stroke and 16 per cent less likely to get bowel cancer.

“By cutting out carbs you immediately eliminate very good sources of fibre,” says Helen Bond, a spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association.

Fibre is crucial for healthy digestion and to feed our microbiota, the vast ecosystem of bacteria, fungi and yeasts in our digestive systems. Researchers at Tufts University in Massachusetts found that a high consumption of wholegrain carbs boosted healthy gut bacteria and certain immune responses.

Carbohydrates are also essential brain and muscle fuel.

“Our bodies and brains rely on glycogen as an energy source and can’t function properly without it,” says John Brewer, professor of applied sports science at St Mary’s University in London.

“Carbohydrate foods are the main provider of glucose, which is stored as glycogen, and if you avoid them, then the limited stores of glycogen become depleted, meaning physical and mental performance will suffer.”

Indeed, there are many reasons why you should not cut some of the most unfashionable carbs from your diet. Bread, for example, is a low-fat, energy-packed convenience food.

Consume two slices of a typical wholemeal and you have about a fifth of your daily fibre requirement, 12 per cent of your daily calcium requirement, plus a useful amount of iron and B vitamins.

“There’s this misconception that bread, in particular white bread, is unhealthy,” says Bond. “But it’s not.”

Wholegrain bread is made with the entire grain so is richest in fibre and naturally occurring vitamins, minerals and healthy fats. White bread is made from wheat that has had the germ (nutrient-rich centre) and bran (outer layer) removed, but still contains fibre — about the same amount as you would get in a banana, Bond says.

“White bread is fortified with calcium, providing a fifth of your daily needs in two slices,” she adds.

Then there’s pasta. Last year John Sievenpiper, from the Clinical Nutrition Centre at St Michael’s Hospital in Canada, reported on findings from his review of 30 clinical trials involving more than 2500 people in the BMJ Open journal. According to Sievenpiper, pasta is unlike most “refined” carbohydrates in that it has a lower glycaemic index (GI) and doesn’t send blood sugar soaring.

It may even help with weight loss, he found. Those taking part in the trials ate an average of 3.3 servings of pasta a week — with one serving equalling about 60-70g of cooked pasta — in place of other carbohydrates. They lost about 1.5kg over 12 weeks.

“The study found pasta didn’t contribute to weight gain or an ­increase in body fat,” he wrote. “In fact, analysis showed a small weight loss. So … perhaps pasta can be part of a healthy diet, such as a low GI diet.”

All rice is a great source of carbohydrate. Brown rice is a wholegrain, whereas white rice is processed, with its nutrients discarded. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have both.

“Brown rice is better for you because it contains more fibre and B vitamins,” says Azmina Govindji, a BDA dietitian. “But there’s no reason you can’t eat some white rice or mix the two together.”

Bond adds: “If you prefer white rice, opt for basmati, which has a lower GI than other forms of white rice, keeping blood sugar levels more stable.”

Our potato consumption has fallen by 40 per cent over the past two decades. But researchers from the University of Surrey recently urged us to reintroduce them to our diets after publishing a review of evidence last December.

Their report showed that white potatoes are a valuable source of nutrients, including vitamin C, potassium and some of the B vitamins, and that a single jacket potato can contain almost half of a man’s recommended daily intake of vitamin C and vitamin B6.

Sweet potatoes aren’t necessarily better for us — they contain more betacarotene (which gives them their colour) and are considered to be low GI, but white potatoes trump them in terms of fibre. And you can reduce the GI of potatoes by choosing new pota­toes, or by eating them cold, ­Govindji says.

“One of the best ways to eat them is in a salad, as the composition of the starch in them changes so that they cause less of a spike in blood sugar,” she explains.

Sales of breakfast cereals have fallen in recent years. And yet they can be a healthy way to start the day. Findings presented at the 2017 meeting of the American Heart Association warned that people are at higher risk of getting type 2 diabetes if they cut their intake of cereal fibre.

“Minimally processed breakfast cereals, such as Weet-Bix, are a good source of fibre,” Bond says.

Unprocessed oat and oat bran-based cereals provide beta-glucan, a form of soluble fibre that feeds the good bacteria in your gut and has been shown to have cholesterol-lowering benefits.

It is also present in barley and rye, but the highest quantities are found in oats. “Research suggests that eating 3g of beta glucan daily — and a bowl of porridge made with 30g oats provides 1g of beta glucan — can reduce your levels of harmful LDL cholesterol by as much as 7 per cent,” Bond says.

The Times