What foods contain Carbohydrates and constitute a healthy diet?

Dr Shahid has summarized his six principles of health in a very simple form. Simplicity sometimes is not politically correct. Well.. what is wrong if people get the message and decide to live until 100 - 125 years and longer, without ever having to see any health care provider of any kind.

Dr Shahid's First Principle of Preventive Holistic Lifestyle (PHL) is your diet. Your diet is your LIFE. What you eat as nutrition (balanced diet) becomes life. That is why it is so important to eat a balanced diet.

Carbohydrates are the most important part of the balanced diet after proteins and fats. (proteins and fats have been discussed in detail already).

We have discussed carbohydrates as well as its role in a balanced diet.

Most frequently asked question about carbohydrates is:

What are the foods that contain carbohydrates?

There are at least 12 kind of foods that contain carbohydrates. Let us count those one by one.

1. Cereal and grains

Cereal crops or grains are mostly found cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds. Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple crops. They are also a rich source of carbohydrates. In most developing nations (specially for the poor), grain in the form of maize, wheat and rice constitutes practically the entire diet. In developed nations, cereal consumption is more moderate and varied but still substantial.

The word cereal derives from Ceres, the name of the pre-Roman goddess of harvest and agriculture. Grains are traditionally called corn in the United Kingdom, though that word became specified for maize in the United States.

Maize, wheat and rice, between them, accounted for 87% of all grain production, worldwide, and 43% of all food calories.

MAIZE (CORN)

Maize is the most widely grown crop in the Americas (270 million tonnes annually in the United States alone). Hybrid maize, due to its high grain yield as a result of heterosis ("hybrid vigour"), is preferred by farmers over conventional varieties. While some maize varieties grow up to 7 metres (23 ft) tall, most commercially grown maize has been bred for a standardized height of 2.5 metres (8 ft). Sweet corn is usually shorter than field-corn varieties.

They are of various colors: blackish, bluish-gray, red, white and yellow. When ground into flour, maize yields more flour, with much less bran, than wheat does. However, it lacks the protein gluten of wheat and, therefore, makes baked goods with poor rising capability and coherence. A genetic variation that accumulates more sugar and less starch in the ear is consumed as a vegetable and is called sweet corn.

Corn and cornmeal (corn flour) constitutes a staple food in many regions of the world. Corn meal is also used as a replacement for wheat flour, to make cornbread and other baked products. Masa (cornmeal treated with lime water) is the main ingredient for tortillas atole and many other dishes of Mexican food.

Popcorn is kernels of certain varieties that explode when heated, forming fluffy pieces that are eaten as a snack. Corn flakes are a common breakfast staple in the United States, and are increasingly popular all over the world. Maize can also be prepared as hominy, in which the kernels are soaked with lye; or grits, which are coarsely ground corn. These are commonly eaten in the Southeastern United States, foods handed down from Native Americans. The Brazilian dessert canjica is made by boiling maize kernels in sweetened milk.

Maize can also be harvested and consumed in the unripe state, when the kernels are fully grown but still soft. Unripe corn must usually be cooked to become palatable; this may be done by simply boiling or roasting the whole ears and eating the kernels right off the cob. Such corn on the cob is a common dish in the United States and some parts of South America, but virtually unheard of in some European countries. The cooked unripe kernels may also be shaved off the cob and served as a vegetable in side dishes, salads, garnishes, etc. Alternatively, the raw unripe kernels may also be grated off the cobs and processed into a variety of cooked dishes, such as corn purée, tamales, pamonhas, curau, cakes, ice creams, etc. Sweetcorn, a genetic variety that is high in sugars and low in starch, is usually consumed in the unripe state.

Maize is a major source of starch, a major ingredient in home cooking and in many industrialized food products. It is also a major source of cooking oil (corn oil) and of gluten Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce syrups, particularly high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener; and also fermented and distilled to produce grain alcohol. Grain alcohol from maize is traditionally the source of bourbon whiskey. Maize is used to make chicha, a fermented beverage of Central and South America; and sometimes as the starch source for beer.

Wheat

Wheat is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most produced food among the cereal crops; rice ranks third. Wheat grain is a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads; cookies, cakes, pasta, juice, noodles and couscous; and for fermentation to make beer, alcohol, vodka or biofuel.

Although wheat supplies much of the world's dietary protein and food supply, as many as one in every 100 to 200 people has Coeliac disease, a condition which results from an immune system response to a protein found in wheat: gluten.

Raw wheat can be powdered into flour, germinated and dried creating malt, crushed and de-branned into cracked wheat, parboiled (or steamed), dried, crushed and de-branned into bulgur, or processed into semolina, pasta, or roux. They are a major ingredient in such foods as bread, breakfast cereals (e.g. Wheatena, Cream of Wheat, Shredded Wheat), porridge, crackers, biscuits, Muesli, pancakes, cakes, gravy and boza (a fermented beverage).

100 grams of hard red winter wheat contain about 12.6 grams of protein, 1.5 grams of total fat, 71 grams of carbohydrate, 12.2 grams of dietary fiber, and 3.2 mg of iron (17% of the daily requirement

Rice

Rice is a cereal foodstuff which forms an important part of the diet of many people worldwide and as such it is a staple food for many such as Latin America, and East, South and Southeast Asia, making it the third-most consumed cereal grain after maize and wheat being number one and two respectively. Rice provides more than one fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by humans. In early 2008, some governments and retailers began rationing supplies of the grain due to fears of a global rice shortage.

The traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields with or after setting the young seedlings. This simple method requires sound planning and servicing of the water damming and channeling, but reduces the growth of less robust weed and pest plants that have no submerged growth state, and deters vermin. While with rice growing and cultivation the flooding is not mandatory, all other methods of irrigation require higher effort in weed and pest control during growth periods and a different approach for fertilizing the soil.

The seeds of the rice plant are first milled using a rice huller to remove the chaff (the outer husks of the grain). At this point in the process, the product is called brown rice. The milling may be continued, removing the 'bran' (i.e. the rest of the husk and the germ), thereby creating white rice. White rice, which keeps longer, lacks some important nutrients; in a limited diet which does not supplement the rice, brown rice helps to prevent the deficiency disease beriberi.

White rice may be also buffed with glucose or talc powder (often called polished rice, though this term may also refer to white rice in general), parboiled, or processed into flour. White rice may also be enriched by adding nutrients, especially those lost during the milling process. While the cheapest method of enriching involves adding a powdered blend of nutrients that will easily wash off (in the United States, rice which has been so treated requires a label warning against rinsing), more sophisticated methods apply nutrients directly to the grain, coating the grain with a water insoluble substance which is resistant to washing.

Raw rice may be ground into flour for many uses, including making many kinds of beverages such as amazake, horchata, rice milk, and sake. Rice flour does not contain gluten and is suitable for people on a gluten-free diet. Rice may also be made into various types of noodles.

Rice is a good source of protein and a staple food in many parts of the world, but it is not a complete protein: it does not contain all of the essential amino acids in sufficient amounts for good health, and should be combined with other sources of protein, such as nuts, seeds, beans or meat.

Rice is cooked by boiling or steaming, and absorbs water during cooking. It can be cooked in just as much water as it absorbs (the absorption method), or in a large quantity of water which is drained before serving (the rapid-boil method). Electric rice cookers, popular in Asia and Latin America, simplify the process of cooking rice. Rice is often heated in oil before boiling, or oil is added to the water; this is thought to make the cooked rice less sticky.

In Arab cuisine rice is an ingredient of many soups and dishes with fish, poultry and meat. Arab cuisine is only seen in the Middle East, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Bangladesh. Advantage of adding fish poultry and meat not only makes the rice more delicious but also makes it more nutricious. A very special kind of rice, a long-grained and aromatic rice (Basmati), is the most popular rice for Arab cuisines. It adds flavor and taste to the dish.

Whole grains vs refined grains

Whole grains are cereal grains that bran and germ as well as the endosperm, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm. Whole grains can generally be sprouted while processed grains generally will not sprout. Whole-meal products are made from whole-grain flour.

Common whole-grain products include rolled oats or oat groats, hulled (not pearled) barley, popcorn, brown rice, whole-wheat flour, sprouted grains, and whole-wheat bread. Common refined-grain products include white rice, white flour, white bread, hominy, and pasta(although whole-grain varieties of pasta are available).

Whole grains are nutritionally superior to refined grains, richer in dietary fiber, antioxidants, protein (although notably low in the amino acid lysine), dietary minerals (including magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and selenium), and vitamins (including niacin, vitamin B6, and vitamin E). Manufacturers are sometimes required by law to fortify refined grain products to make up for the loss of vitamins and minerals.

The greater amount of dietary fiber, as much as four times that found in refined grains, is likely the most important benefit, as it has been shown to reduce the incidence of some forms of cancer, digestive system diseases, gum disease, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. The higher fiber content also results in a modest caloric reduction in whole grain foods. Some of these protective effects occur because carbohydrates from whole grains are digested and enter the bloodstream more slowly (as measured by the glycemic index). Many health studies have shown that whole grains have numerous cardiovascular benefits.

Other cereal and grains of less importance:

Barley, sorghum, millets, oats, Rye, buckwheat, fonio, quinoa. wild rice.

Next we will discuss #2 category of carbohydrates widly consumed in the world: Pulses (legumes).

For question and comment please write to:

syedshahidmd@yahoo.com.au


.