How to Make Carbs Healthy Again

Experts recommend considering multiple factors when choosing carbs.

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You pick up two oatmeal options at the store. Both claim to be 100 percent whole-grain oats. Both have 27 grams of carbohydrates. One takes 30 minutes to cook; the other is ready in 90 seconds. To you, it’s a matter of convenience—but to your body, they’re two entirely different foods. That subtle difference can affect everything from your energy and appetite to your blood sugar.

In recent years, carbs have gotten a bad rap—but not all of them deserve it. So what makes a carbohydrate truly healthy? It’s not just the number of grams on the label—it’s how the carb behaves in your body.

Carbohydrates are chains that your body has to break apart. Digestion is how your body clips those chains into smaller molecules that your cells can actually use. The more processed a carb is—whether by a factory, knife, or blender—the faster it’s absorbed. And that speed changes how your body reacts. Sometimes health isn’t just about what kind of food you eat, but how hard your body has to work to process it, and how long that takes.

With Dr. David A. Kessler, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, now calling for a low-carb option in the official dietary guidelines, it’s the perfect time to rethink what makes a carbohydrate truly healthy and combat the misperception that all carbs are unhealthy.

Several factors shape carb response, including fiber content, food combinations, the carb’s processing, and your activity level. Understanding how these factors affect digestion and blood sugar can help you make more informed and personalized choices.

Define Carbs

In addition to protein and fat, carbohydrates are one of three macronutrients. The term “macro” means that your body needs them in large amounts to function properly. Carbs are the body’s primary and most readily available source of energy. They are classified based on their chemical structure and how many sugar units they contain.

Lourdes Castro, a registered dietitian and director of the NYU Food Lab, told The Epoch Times to think about carbohydrates in three buckets:

• Simple carbs
• Complex carbs
• Fiber

Simple carbs are like a short strand of one or two pearls that your body can snap apart easily. Complex carbs are longer strands of 10 or more pearls, which take more time and effort to digest.

Fiber looks like complex carbs but with a twist: The “pearls” are linked in a way your body can’t break. So fiber passes through your digestive system mostly intact, playing a crucial role in digestive health, blood sugar regulation, and satiety.

“Some carbohydrates are more difficult to digest,“ Castro said. ”But that’s a good thing, especially if you are in a healthy state.”

In general, the harder a carb is to break down, the more metabolic benefits it can offer. That’s why digestion isn’t just about what you eat, but how much chewing, cooking, and processing the food has undergone before it hits your bloodstream.

Why Carbs Aren’t the Enemy

Carbohydrates are not technically essential for human survival, but that doesn’t mean that they’re the enemy.

Anayanci Masis-Vargas, a neuroscientist-nutritionist, told The Epoch Times that eliminating carbohydrates entirely may cause you to miss out on a crucial part of the puzzle: gut health.

“You are not really exploring what a healthy gut can do for you,” Masis-Vargas said. “You’re missing other things, like the fiber. If you are strictly a carnivore, unfortunately, there are micronutrients and vitamins that you will be missing.”

Specifically, fiber feeds gut microbes that produce important vitamins such as B and K.

According to Castro, one of the most frustrating myths is the idea that carbs are fattening. She noted that in the 1990s, when carb consumption was in its heyday, obesity rates were lower than they are today.

“So, it’s not that they’re fattening—it’s the processing and what we’re doing to them,“ she said. ”All the additives are causing the problems.”

A long-term study published in 2023 in The British Medical Journal supports processing as a key factor. The authors noted that more refined carbs, such as added sugars and refined grains, were linked to weight gain over time, while whole grains and fiber-rich carbs were associated with more stable weight—or even weight loss.

Why Digestion Speed and Fiber Content Matter

Carbs are a quick-burning source of fuel for your body, but some burn faster than others. Let’s revisit the oatmeal: You pick up two options at the store that are 100 percent whole-grain oats and that have the same amount of carbs per serving. The only difference seems to lie in the time it takes to cook them. That speed matters more than you think.

When a carb is refined, such as in that packet of instant oatmeal you zap for 90 seconds in the microwave, much of its natural fiber and structure is stripped away. This allows your digestive system to “clip” those chains almost instantly, leading to a rapid flood of glucose into your bloodstream and a quick spike in blood sugar. Your body has to work less to get the energy, but you might experience an energy crash and feel hungry again soon after.

On the other hand, whole carbohydrates—such as the rolled oats you have to simmer for half an hour—retain their intact structure and ample fiber. This means that your body has to work much harder and longer to break them down, leading to a slower, more gradual release of sugar. That steady supply of energy keeps you feeling full longer and helps regulate your blood sugar more effectively.

The Hidden Way Carbs Affect Your Body

Masis-Vargas noted that the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates begin with how thoroughly food is chewed—something often overlooked with highly refined foods such as instant oatmeal, which require minimal chewing.

Saliva contains enzymes that help break down complex carbs in the mouth. The more processed the carb, the less chewing is required, accelerating digestion and causing glucose to hit your bloodstream faster, she said.

Cooking also affects how fast you absorb carbs.

“It’s not only whether the grain is whole or not, but also the cooking method,” Masis-Vargas said.

She noted that when you cook and eat white rice immediately, its sugars are absorbed quickly. However, if you cook the rice, let it cool completely, and then reheat it, it becomes more resistant to digestion. This is because the starch molecules rearrange themselves during the cooling process, forming resistant starch. As the name suggests, resistant starch is harder for your digestive enzymes to break down, which slows the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream.

Castro said the way oats are prepared can influence how refined they are. Overnight oats aren’t heated—instead, they’re soaked and softened in yogurt, milk, or similar ingredients and then eaten. This process makes them more difficult for the body to break down.

She likened the preparation of carbs to a spectrum. On one end, you have instant, powdery, highly refined instant oatmeal, which your body can process almost immediately. Moving along the spectrum, you find cooked whole oats such as rolled or steel-cut oats—which require a bit more effort. At the other end are overnight oats, which are the hardest for your body to break down.

What About Fruit?

Both Castro and Masis-Vargas agree that fruit is often unfairly criticized for its carbohydrate content. While it’s true that fruit contains simple sugars such as fructose (a single sugar “pearl” on the necklace), it’s only part of the picture.

Fruit also provides beneficial fiber, vitamins, and minerals, which help your body process the sugar more effectively. Castro likens the fiber in fruit to a “knotted mess” in the necklace that slows the absorption of fructose. Unlike isolated sugars in sweetened drinks, the natural sugars in fruit are released into your bloodstream more gradually.

Still, Masis-Vargas said today’s fruit is often much sweeter than the wild varieties our ancestors ate. Selective crossbreeding for taste has increased the sugar content over time.

She noted that the wild berries you find in the forest in summer are more acidic and less sugary than what’s on supermarket shelves. Whether fruit was ever meant to be this sweet is still up for debate, but it’s a factor worth considering in conversations about carbs.

That doesn’t mean that fruit is bad, but it’s a reminder that not all fruit is metabolically equal.

To help slow down the sugar effect, Masis-Vargas recommends pairing fruit with a source of fat, such as Greek yogurt or nuts, to help moderate digestion and blunt blood sugar spikes. However, she noted that there is no need to overthink it.

“ There’s nothing to be afraid of,“ she said. ”If you’re a healthy person, you can have it normally [on its own], especially for a snack if you’re going to exercise.”

Fruit is still a nutrient-dense carb choice, but how much, how often, and in what context we eat it may matter more than we think.

Monitor Your Carbs

With the rise of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), even among people without diabetes, tracking blood sugar has become a popular wellness trend. These devices offer real-time feedback on how your body responds to carbs.

“ Is any spike inherently bad?“ Castro said. ”The answer I’ve been getting is ‘No.’ It’s a natural thing to happen after you eat something.”

What’s more important than the spike is how long your blood sugar stays elevated. Ideally, it should rise and fall quickly—not remain high or swing dramatically throughout the day. Castro cautions that some people using CGMs may hyperfocus on flattening every spike, which isn’t necessary if you’re metabolically healthy.

Instead, she sees CGMs as a tool for insight.

“If a CGM helps a person understand that rice and beans are better than just rice, then that’s great,” she said.

Choose Natural Sources of Fiber

Castro thinks that we should shift our focus to fiber from natural sources, as it’s the real key to unlocking a much healthier diet.

“ If I gave somebody a goal of 40 to 50 grams of fiber a day from natural sources, it would be very, very hard to eat a lot of junk,” she said.

Focusing on fiber from natural sources naturally crowds out ultra-processed carbs and encourages a shift toward whole food carbs.

When it comes to shopping for better carbs, Masis-Vargas suggested opting for whole, minimally processed foods.

“Stick to the perimeter of the supermarket—fresh produce, unprocessed animal products, and whole  grains that haven’t been heavily modified,” she said.

And while the nutrition facts panel is useful, Castro argues that ingredients matter more. She offered guidance for reading labels: “ If you want to look at any one number, it would be the fiber and the added sugar. But I think the ingredients tell a bigger story.”

Often, “junk food” has a long list of ingredients. While added vitamins are fine, it’s when you see many other ingredients—such as various sugars, emulsifiers, texture enhancers, and thickeners—that a food becomes a bit more trouble, Castro said. With all these added components, your body tends to digest the food quite quickly, which can lead to metabolic issues.

Masis-Vargas agreed, saying she avoids foods with long ingredient lists—especially when many of the items are difficult to pronounce or highly processed.

She said carbohydrate needs vary from person to person and depend largely on activity level, suggesting that it may be helpful to eat fewer carbs on days when you are less active.

“But there’s nothing to be afraid of,“ she said. ”Just keep up the physical activity.”