We hear a lot about carbs these days, but there is something I’ve seen several times which I find irritating. Let’s start with a few basic questions.

What are carbohydrates, or carbs, exactly?

Foods fall into three broad categories.: proteins, fats, and carbs. Now protein is pretty easy to figure out. Meat is a protein. Dairy contains a lot of protein. And depending on how you look at it and what you pair them with, legumes can be protein sources.

Fats are easy also. Any type of oil, butter, nuts contain a lot of fat, as do olives and avocados.

Now, what about carbohydrates?

This is where I have questions. I have seen several different articles and posts about the order you should eat your food in, especially if you’re dealing with blood sugar issues. And the one thing they all have in common is this.

Eat your vegetables first, then fats and proteins, and then carbs.

Hold on.

What category of food is meant by “vegetables?”

If something isn’t a fat or a protein, it has to be a carbohydrate. How do you separate vegetables from carbohydrates? All vegetables are carbs, like it or not. It’s just that some of them are dense carbs, which contain a lot of energy per serving, such as starchy vegetables, sugars, grains, legumes, Others have a lower carb density, but are more nutrient dense. Think things like kale, broccoli, green beans, and cauliflower.

Yes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, peas, winter squash, are all high in carbohydrates per serving. They are all also vegetables.

I know. I’m being pick. But to me it is confusing when you separate one part of something and try to make it something it isn’t. If you want to separate vegetables into categories, then label them correctly.

Instead of saying eat your vegetables first, define what you mean. Low calorie vegetables. Low density carbs. Vegetables would include potatoes and beets. Low carb veggies would not. Just as High carb veggies would leave out all that broccoli and spinach.

Don’t mislabel a thing and call it a convenience. All vegetables are carbohydrates. It’s just that some of them go overboard on it. Others go light on the carb load. Maybe they’re watching their figures…

So, there are only three categories of foods. Protein. Carbohydrates. And Fats. From there, you can separate proteins into white meats, red meats, and somewhere you can put fish. Add dairy and eggs into the protein category.

Fats can be separated into animal fats and vegetable fats. So you have butter and ghee, lard, goose or chicken fat. No, I’m not going to list every single fat on Earth. Then you have olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, soybean oil, etc. But they are all fats of one kind or another.

And then there are carbohydrates. Fruits and vegetables. I refuse to get into the whole tomato argument., so decide that one for yourself. But vegetables can be divided into starches or high density carbohydrates. And non-starchy vegetables, or low density carbohydrates.

But they are all carbohydrates.

So are your fruits.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I just wanted to clarify for any of you who may have been confused by these posts and articles. If you’re watching your carbs, make sure you know what a carb is.

Thanks for listening to my complaining. I just get irritated when people misrepresent things and call them facts.

Stay healthy.

Stay safe.

And as always,

Remember To Be Kind…