Whats the Difference Between a Refined and an Unrefined Carbohydrate?
Do you remember making papier-mache projects in arts and crafts class? The usual tools were strips of newspaper and a bowl of paste. That paste was made of a simple, cheap combination of ingredients: just standard white flour and water. It was sticky, it was gooey, and it worked like glue that hardened in no time. Now think about the last time you ate a piece of white bread or other refined-flour product. The flour in that white bread, once it was moistened with your saliva, became like that pasty glue, and this is what was sent into your digestive system: a gummy, nutrient-poor glob of starch. This is what your digestive system looked forward to processing. It’s not tough to imagine how little nutrition was drawn from this ball of sticky matter, or how difficult it was for your body to finally eliminate it. What’s been “refined” out of these processed carbohydrates are all the beneficial nutrients that nature originally put into them. The bran, the fiber, and most of the vitamins and
