We are always concerned about eating carbs. Carbs (glucose) are needed by every tissue of the body especially the brain and Red Blood Cells.  

There are two kinds of carbs. Simple sugar and complex sugar (starch).

Simple sugar includes sucrose, fructose, glucose, raw sugar, molasses. It is easily digested and absorbed in the gut and raise your blood sugar quickly.

Complex sugar are starches such as potato, flour, vegetable, fibers and so on. They are also digested and absorbed in the gut and raise the blood sugar not as quickly as simple sugar.

Based on how fast a food raises the glucose in the blood, after ingestion of a carb food, is measured as Glycemic index (GI).  Generally, it tells us the quality of the carb food.

The amount of the glucose, in the particular food per serving, is calculated as Gylcemic load (GL).  It also tells the  quantity of the carb.

When we choose the carbs, not only GI is important but also GL is important. High GI food does not necessarily give you high GL. It is like a marathon race. One starts out first does not mean that he/she will finish first.

Another factor we need to consider is preparation of the food and even the crops' age. So among all the potatoes, different potatoes can have different GI  and GL depending on the preparation, crops age etc.

So it is confusing. Right! The reason I am explaining this concept is for you to have right knowledge when you read the food labels.

I do not support cutting carbohydrate completely while you are trying to lose weight.

We can simply give small frequent portions of carbs. Carbs not only give you the energy, they also prevent you from wasting of lean muscle. The protein has the "carb sparing ability". When you avoid the carb completely, it can reduce your weight by wasting your muscle. This is because the energy now has to come from protein. That is the wrong method of losing weight because it guarantees you to gain it all back with rebound.

Remember! the cavemen did not learn all this GI, GL and all that. They did not count on the carbs intake. But Obesity issues were not there as much as we have now.  

The reason we are increasingly  obese is two sided. Food makers prepare the food more refined and more sweeter. We as customers engorge on them limitlessly. I do see very frequently people drinking two liter bottles of soda,  a pack of 6 cans of beer, a gallon of sweet tea, 8 slices of bread, 6 stacks of pancake a single day. We almost lost the meaning of eating. We are almost junking the food into our body.

We need to strike a balance. We do not need to be scared of eating. "We were born to eat". But be careful and do not focus on gulping one food item in large amount either.