FOCUS ON CARBOHYDRATES 

Karen Turner·May 5, 2026·0 comments

Apologies, this is another long one! But well worth a read.

FOCUS ON “CARBOHYDRATES”

We need starchy carbs, like bread, rice, cereals and potatoes to properly fuel our bodies as they’re an important source of energy and wholegrain varieties also contain fibre, vitamins and minerals.
They are sometimes wrongly thought of as fattening or to be avoided when trying to manage your health. However, you can have carbs when managing your weight and/or type 2 diabetes, you just need to choose the ones that work with your body, not against it.
It’s all about how much and what type!

Carbs are divided into two groups 

Starchy Carbs and Sugars 

Starchy Carbs  

  • Bread, Naan, Tortilla, Chapatti, Pitta etc,  
  • Rice, Pasta, Noodles 
  • Potatoes, Cassava, Yam and Plantain 
  • Cereals and Porridge Oats 

Sugars 

Naturally Occurring Sugars  
  • fruit (fresh, frozen, dried)  
  • smoothies and juices 
  • Dairy e.g. milk 
  • Unflavoured natural / plain / Greek yoghurt 

Added Sugars 

  • Table sugar (sucrose) and molasses 
  • Cakes and pastries 
  • Sweets, cookies and chocolate 
  • Jam, marmalade and other preserves 
  • Ready made (processed) cooking sauces, ketchup, chutney and condiments 
  • Honey and syrup 


Eating too many starchy carbs (just like any other food group) will lead to weight gain, whatever time of day you eat them.
But we do need carbs for energy. We just need to: –  

  • Try not to exceed the recommended daily servings 
  • Choose wholegrain alternatives wherever possible 
  • Ensure you don’t add lots of high-fat foods to them like butter, cream or cheese. 


Refined Carbs – the not so good kind, are found in foods that have undergone processing that removes the fibre.
Processing also removes some of the micronutrients found in wholegrains, they are generally ‘whiter’ products like white flour, white rice and white pasta.  

Wholegrains, when left intact, contain more fibre, vitamins and minerals and are a much better choice. 

PORTIONS V’S SERVINGS Its knowing the difference that matters!  

A SERVING is a standardised amount of food 

A PORTION is how much you decide to put on your plate 

It’s important to remember that regardless of whether a food/drink is thought of as healthy/unhealthy they all contain calories, so portion size is key to how many calories your snack/food/drink contains.  

Examples of different amounts for each type of food… 

Fruit and Veg – one serving is about 80g e.g. a medium sized apple, or 3 tablespoons of cooked broccoli or beans 

Carbs – one serving is 30g cereal or 100g sweet potato 

Here’s a way that I was given and it really made sense and I found makes it easier to work out without counting calories. 

Recommended Servings of Starchy Carbs per day is 8 for men and 7 for women. 

  • Fewer than this is fine, as long as you have some.   
  • Starchy Carbs can contain valuable fibre, vitamins and minerals when you choose wholegrains and higher fibre varieties. 


One Serving of Starchy Carbs is –  

  • 2 heaped tablespoons of cooked rice (or 1 tbsp of uncooked rice) 
  • 1 slice of bread/toast 
  • ½ a bread roll or bagel 
  • 2 crispbreads 
  • 2 egg-sized potatoes or ½ a jacket potato 
  • 100g sweet potato 
  • 1 mini pitta bread (or ½ a standard one) or ½ a tortilla wrap 
  • 1 small chapati 
  • 1 crumpet 
  • ½ a scone 
  • 1 plain biscuit 
  • 1 medium green banana/plantain 
  • 3 tbsp breakfast cereal or 2 Weetabix 
  • 3 tbsp dry porridge oats 
  • 3 small crackers 
  • 3 tbsp boiled egg noodles 
  • 3 tbsp boiled pasta or couscous (25g /1oz uncooked) 
  • 2 small oat cakes 
  • ½ English muffin 
  • 1 Scotch pancake 
  • 1 small slice of malt loaf 

Have a think about what a daily menu might look like for you.
As an example, does it look something like this?  

  • 2 Weetabix for breakfast with milk, (1 serving) 
  • Cooked meats and cheese salad sandwich on a soft bread roll for lunch, (2 servings) 
  • 4 biscuits in the afternoon with a brew, (4 servings) 
  • Curry with rice (6 servings) and naan/chapati (1-2 servings depending on size) and poppadum’s (1-2 servings) for your evening meal 
  • a full bowl of cereal for supper (4 servings)  

We’re consuming 7 servings before we’ve arrived at the curry. 
Therefore if we ate everything as above, we’re probably on double or more the recommended carb intake for the day. Hence, unless you’re extremely active and exercise endlessly you’ll probably never use all the energy the carbs you’ve eaten, hence putting on or not losing weight. 

How can you do this differently?  

Here’s an example of changes that could be made to reduce the number of servings of starchy carbs without reducing the number of meals or majorly changing the menu  

  • 2 Weetabix for breakfast (1 serving) 
  • Salad, meat, a little cheese (no bread) for lunch 
  • 1 biscuit (1 serving) for afternoon snack or a piece of fruit 
  • Curry with 4 tbsp cooked rice (2 serving), either a ¼ of a naan (1 serving) or small chapati (1 serving) or a poppadum but not all 3 
  • A crumpet (1 serving) 

This would be 6 or 7 portions of starchy carbs. 
You’re still having the same type of meals, the same number of meals, but not as much of the carbs; enabling the body to use up the carbs we’re feeding it throughout the day with basic exercise and movement; and there will be none left that your body needs to store somewhere and ultimately turn to sugar – raising your levels. 

Fancy a TASK! Give this a try!  

Weigh yourself on day 1. 
(Record the time – I find first thing in the morning before eating/drinking/getting dressed works for me – and make a note of what you were wearing, if you need to, when you stood on the scales. Maybe even take a photo of yourself)

Consider your meal plan each day and reduce your starchy carb intake for a week using the examples above on how you could change your meals.  

Keep a daily note on what you’re eating, what you’ve changed and how you’re feeling (be honest).  

Weigh yourself on day 7 

Repeat for another week and weigh yourself on day 14.  

IMPORTANT! Don’t treat this as a diet… 
It’s about being considerate of the choices you’re making about what and how much you’re putting on your plate and how the change makes you feel, If its working, then it’s something to continue being aware of and build on.  

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Karen

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