The Ultimate Complex Carb Breakfast: Oatmeal

I believe that carbohydrates are the ultimate fuel source. If you want to swim, run, or ride a bike significantly faster or more efficiently--carbohydrates can help.

There is another side of carbohydrates. Many people's understanding of nutrition does not include the benefits of complex carbohydrates. Many people probably understand, however superficially, that there are "good" carbs. What is a "good" carb, though? I mean, I like oatmeal and I consider oatmeal to be good carbohydrates.

An excellent way to describe the benefits of "good" carbs is to talk about why many people believe that carbohydrates are inherently wrong for you. In simple terms, consuming too many grams of (simple) carbohydrates in one sitting can produce spikes in blood sugar, and is generally not good. 

For example, if you are in the middle of a strenuous exercise, a spike in blood sugar may not be a bad thing at all. It is just that when most of us spike our blood sugar, we do so unintentionally.  

A spike in blood sugar leads to a spike in insulin--and that is not good. Insulin causes cells to grow, which means muscle cells and fat cells grow. And, again, this might be good if you are in the middle of strenuous exercise, but in general, most people do not eat things that cause insulin spikes in the middle of their typical exercise routine. 

Whiles many people would support the idea of avoiding insulin spikes like the plague, a spike in insulin might not be that bad if you have fasted all day and just finished an hour in the weight room, lifting weights. Most everyone can agree, the results of an insulin spike after exercise is far more favorable than an insulin spike when you are relatively sedentary. 

In such an instance, even if you are gaining fat cells after an insulin spike because the spike in insulin happens after exercise, the body is far more likely to get more muscle cells. Furthermore, if you have adapted to being able to metabolize fat, you can, in theory, get back into ketosis with relative ease making it easier to hold on to your gains.

So that is the story with simple, or "bad" carbs. One prime example of a "bad" carb is a great tasting cookie that is so good you cannot eat just one. There is little nutrition in this cookie, and to make things worse, it becomes more and more difficult to refrain from eating only one or two. 

Now the other half of the story is just as good--if not better. Complex carbohydrates--also referred to as good carbs, can be found in various types of beans and grains. Some other complex carbohydrates I gravitate towards are whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, broccoli, some beans, peas, and spinach. While it is hard to imagine myself consuming too much of any of my favorite complex carbohydrates I listed above, I can eat a lot of cookies! 

Yes, I can eat a lot of cookies it is just that the downside is that cookies contain next to no nutrients.

Most of what I understand about simple sugars either has to do with improving physical performance or inflammation. Interestingly enough, from my experience, complex carbohydrates help to reduce inflammation and do not improve physical performance that much. 

For most of my life until now, I have had issues eating some complex carbs. What was even more frustrating to me at first was the fact that you cannot really talk about gut health without addressing the benefits of complex carbs.

Until recently, I stayed away from most types of beans. After recently discovering the many benefits of float tank therapy, I have noticed that I no longer experience gastrointestinal stress when I eat certain complex carbs that had created digestion problems for me in the past. Now foods such as beans and oatmeal play a regular part in helping me navigate my way to becoming a more robust version of the person I was yesterday.

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