In this instructional YouTube Q&A, Dr. A (a physician, educator, and researcher) challenges the common mantra that “a carb is a carb.” He explains that carbohydrates are a macronutrient that ultimately become various sugars, and the amount and type of sugar released differ dramatically between foods. Dr. A and Speaker B break down carbohydrates into simple sugars (e.g., fructose, sucrose), complex starches, and fibers (soluble and insoluble), describing how each is digested and its physiological effects. The discussion highlights the role of insoluble and soluble fiber in satiety, fat absorption, and gut microbiota health. Dr. A then introduces the glycemic index (GI) as a practical, easily accessible tool to gauge how quickly a carbohydrate source raises blood glucose, providing examples from high‑GI foods (pure glucose, dates, white bread) to low‑GI foods (asparagus, celery, broccoli). He emphasizes that using GI can help people prevent or manage diabetes and control weight, because 100 g of a low‑GI food does not produce the same insulin response as 100 g of a high‑GI food. The video concludes with a call to like, share, and subscribe.
Chapters
But when you get back to this thing of a carb is a carb, no, it's not. A carbohydrate is a measurement of the sugar content in that quantity of food. But because the sugar content may be totally different from one food to the next, between simple, different types of complex carbohydrates, soluble and insoluble fiber, 100 grams of one food is not the same as 100 grams of another food. Hey, I'm Dr. A. So sugar in food, what's the big deal? Question comes in, I was told a carb is a carb and it doesn't matter if it's X number of carbs, it's going to affect me and my health and my blood sugar the same way as any other X number of carbs will. Well, I'm Dr. A and I answer your questions. I've been in medicine as physician, educator, writer, researcher for the last 3 decades. I have a lot of fun doing these Q&As on YouTube, and I hope you do too as well. So let's get into this. This is very common information that's given to people. It was a little more common about 10 years ago or longer, especially if you were diabetic, where you were told, well, you know, carb is a carb and insulin needs to just match your sugar and don't worry about what kind of carbs you're eating, just eat the right amount of carbs. Well, here's the thing to think about. The first thing is, what is a carb? Carbohydrate is the longer term for Carb. You have a carbohydrate that is a macronutrient that turns to a micronutrient, which is sugar. Now there is a YouTube video I did on diet macros. So about macronutrients, we get a little bit more into this, but that's the bottom line. A carb is a macronutrient.
This is sort of where sometimes this advice of a carb is a carb comes from.
A carb does turn into sugar, but here's the thing that makes it A little bit more nuanced, if you will.
When a carbohydrate source in your food gets converted down to sugar, sugar is not one thing, and there are many different types of sugars that are at the end of digestion when you eat a carbohydrate. So this is where people talking about carb is not a carb, because if I eat, you know, 100 grams of carbs from Asparagus, I'm going to get a different amount and a different grouping of sugars than if I eat 100 grams of carbs, say from white bread. Types of sugars, generally speaking, that you can get that come out: a simple sugar. This would be like you know fructose or sucrose, maltose, things like that. And then they get down to the intestinal border and they're actually broken apart into their individual sugar rings that go in. Then there are complex sugars, complex carbohydrates you hear about, and there's a Couple of different forms of these, but the bottom line is these are starches or storing sugars. Meaning instead of two sugars put together into like a sucrose molecule, now you have hundreds of those in a string. And we have those both in plant form and also in us, like in our liver. We store sugar in that way. So then there comes the ones that break down less or not at all, which are the fibers. There is soluble fiber, which basically breaks. Down in, in water, and you can get some caloric, uh, you know, benefit out of a soluble fiber, but mostly, uh, a lot of it is indigestible. And then there is an insoluble fiber that is not digestible and doesn't give you any, uh, direct sugar input. For example, if you had a food that was highly soluble in insoluble fiber and you ate it, The amount of sugar you'd get out of it would be very tiny. Whereas if you have a food that is high in complex starch and simple sugars, you're going to get a lot of sugar out of that. The macro for both of them would be 80 grams of carbohydrate, but the amount of sugar you get on the other end is totally different. Now, just as a side note, I've had people ask, so insoluble fiber and even some soluble fibers, like if they don't digest into sugars, I can't get those sugars out. You know, you maybe heard that like ruminant animals, like cows, they can eat grass and humans can't, because cows can get the sugars out of the grass and, you know, use it as a food source. Well, if we're eating stuff— maybe you're not eating grass, I hope— but you're eating insoluble fibers, does it do anything for you? Yeah, insoluble fiber has a number of physiologic benefits. It helps you feel full.
It slows the absorption of fat, which is not a bad thing. It feeds the good bacteria, the good flora in your GI tract. So fiber is important. But when you get back to this thing of a carb is a carb, no, it's not. A carbohydrate is a measurement of the sugar content in that quantity of food. But because the sugar content may be totally different from one food to the next, between simple different types of complex carbohydrates, soluble and insoluble fiber. 100 grams of one food is not the same as 100 grams of another food. So how do you sort this out? A real easy way to do it, and you can find it online easy and quick, is the glycemic index. So you have a glycemic index that goes from 0 to 100, just sort of an arbitrary scale. And if you look at a glycemic index of 100, that would be just pure glucose. 10 grams of Pure glucose. It's got a glycemic index of 100. That's because it's all going to be sugar right away. What are other things that are real high glycemic index? Dates, because the sugars are all converted really well. It's why dates are used as a sweetener. Also white bread. So they're all at the 100 end of the scale. In the middle, you've got stuff like corn. Then you get down to the other end and you've got like asparagus, celery, broccoli, or like 10 to 15. So the way to sort this out is to first look in, in on the order of nomenclature, a carbohydrate is a carbohydrate, but when it breaks down, it turns into different micronutrients, different types of sugars and starches and things. Look at the glycemic index. You can look it up easy online. The lower the number, the less it's going to affect you sugar-wise. And especially if you are trying to prevent diabetes because you're, you're headed that way, or you're trying to get your diabetes under control, or you just don't want to gain a lot of weight from a lot of sugar, knowing the glycemic index of the food you're eating is incredibly useful. And because you can literally pull it up on your phone, on your computer, anywhere. You can tell right away and you can get a glycemic index for anything pretty much that has carbohydrate in it. So a carb is a carb in one sense that carbohydrates say designation, but for your health, a carb is not a carb because as I say, 100 grams of a low glycemic food, celery, asparagus, broccoli is not going to give you the same amount of sugar and insulin activity. as 100 grams of white bread would, or a high glycemic food as well. All right, I'm Dr. A answering your questions. Please like, share, and subscribe. Do the notification bell. We put these videos out based on the questions that come in. It's been really fun. I want to thank everybody who subscribed, and I will see you all in the next video.
