http://www.carbsexplained.com/carbohydrates/n41.html What are complex carbohydrates is the question on many dieters' minds. Read on and find out once and for all what are complex carbohydrates. en-us Wed, 09 Nov 2005 14:37:56 EST Wed, 09 Nov 2005 14:37:56 EST Weblog Editor 2.0 We have been dealing with this low carb craze for a few years now and still some of us do not know what are complex carbohydrates. It's funny how so ,many of us will follow something without actually having a clear understanding of why we are doing it. But, now as many of the diets that are based on cutting carbohydrates from the diet are being questioned, there is a lot more information about what are complex carbohydrates? So many people failed at the diets that pro-ported to be the end all to our weight problems and that caused more studies to be done on low carb diets in general. Now that we have more information we can make even better decisions regarding our health. What are complex carbohydrates? Complex carbohydrates, or good carbohydrates as they are sometimes referred to as, are an integral part of the proper functioning of our bodies. They can be found in many fruits and vegetables as well as the whole grains. They are the bodies primary energy source and the fiber that we get from them is need by the digestive track for optimum health. When asking the question, "what are complex carbohydrates?" we also need to define what the opposite of them is and they are what we call simple, or bad, carbohydrates. The simple carbs can be found in many of the pre-packaged baked goods, white breads and pastas, and other products containing very refined flour or sugar, and there are a lot of things that we like to eat that are full of the bad carbs. Bad carbs have little or no nutritional value and are chock full of empty calories. That is translated as they go directly to your hips and other such places with no intention of leaving anytime soon! So, what we lacked the most from all the low carb diets that were so popular is the right information. Those diets made no distinction between the two types of carbs, which was detrimental to many dieters. Most of the low carb diets stated that you did have to have some carbs throughout your day, especially in the later stages of many of the diets, but they did not make mention of the fact that the carbs you should be eating are the good ones. Many people who were on those diets are only now finding out what are complex carbohydrates and why they are much better for your overall health than the simple ones. Now that we have a clear understanding of what are complex carbohydrates, we will surely be much more successful with our future diets. cc Wed, 09 Nov 2005 14:37:56 EST