The difference between refined carbohydrates like white rice and brown rice is the fiber and maybe some protein that is added to the rice in brown rice? And the main consideration is the glycemic effect? So like, if one were to eat vegetables with fiber first and then eat white rice or eat them together, maybe with some fat, that has the same effect as eating brown rice straight up? I am just trying to figure out why refined carbs are so vilified. I feel that other than this whole blood sugar insulin thing going on with pure refined carbs like sugar or rice, a carb is a carb whether it’s from fruit or vegetables or whole grain rice or noodles or whatever. Is this correct?
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It depends. Rich people died in Japan 150 years ago because they ate polished rice and too few other things, leading to fatal vitamin B1 deficiency. Eating refined carbs makes it more difficult to get all the stuff the body needs. People who do so a lot often don’t know or don’t care about proper nutrition, and the manufacturers aren’t helping either.
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Sugars are simple carbohydrates (think of them like building blocks). Complex carbohydrates (like starch found in rice) are chains of 2 or more sugar molecules.
Sugar: o
Complex carbohydrate: o-o-o-o-o
Our body used sugar to give us energy.
We have an enzyme in our body called Amylase which, as part of our digestion process, breaks down complex carbohydrates in to usable sugars. Amylase can only work on the ends of the complex carbohydrates, this takes time. The time this takes results in a slower release of sugar, and thus energy.
Carbs, also called saccharides, are subdivided into several groups
Mono s: the simplest and shortest form of carbs and the form that the cells in the body can absorb and use. Here also fructose (think High Fructose Corn Sirup)
Di s: Two monos combined. Among these normal sugar
Oligo s: 3-9 monos combined. In general shorter chains found i fruit and other
Poly s: chains over 9 monos combined. Here are a lot of the energy from potato, rice, oat, veggies etc. Both as chains you can break down and those you can not (fibers and starch)
Common for all is that everything that is not already mono need to be broken down and this cost a bit of energy and hence a disaccharide gives a little bit less energy than 2 mono saccharides (sugar vs HFCS). Long polys require more energy to break apart and more time. So that energy is released later and less abrupt compared to the rush of a spoonful of sugar
All in all, carbs are not equal nor the same… But you need both simple and long carbs in you diet, including those you can’t break down (fibers)
The other answers are to one degree or another true, so I’m going to approach your question from a slightly different angle. What is the difference between a whole grain and a processed one (i.e. brown vs white rice, whole grain vs white bread).
The basic difference is that to make “white” grains, we remove the outer layers of the individual grains. These outer layers are full of protein and fat and fiber, making them nutritionally valuable, but that high fat content also means they go rancid fairly quickly. The inner layers are almost entirely starch, which generally tastes pretty good to us humans, but they aren’t super good for anything but energy.
Basically, the reason whole grains are seen as so much healthier is because they contain more non starch nutrients.
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