Simple Carbohydrates & Their Effects on Cholesterol Levels

If you think simple means good, this is not the case when it comes to carbohydrates. Ideally, 55 to 60 percent of your daily food intake should be carbohydrates. Yet, it is the complex carbohydrates that you want to consume to positively impact cholesterol.

Simple Carbohydrates

• Simple carbohydrates are quite simply sugar. You can find them in cakes, donuts, brownies, pastries, candy bars, sodas, some cereals, honey, corn syrup and more. These foods do not contain many vitamins or minerals, so excess can get stored as fat.

Complex Carbohydrates

• You will find complex carbohydrates in fruits, whole grain breads, brown rice, vegetables, spaghetti noodles and more. Since these have vitamins and minerals, they are more useful for your body and get used up. But even an excess of complex carbohydrates can be stored as fat.

Triglycerides

• Any excess carbohydrate, fat or protein can be turned into triglycerides (fats) and get packed away on the body. But since simple carbohydrates have more calories per bite, they can contribute to weight gain and elevated triglycerides. Triglycerides are part of your cholesterol score. A lower number (less than 150 mg/dl) is advised.

Fructose and Sucrose

• Fructose and sucrose are two simple sugars. According to a newsletter published by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, these two types can increase low-density lipoproteins (LDLs). LDLs are the bad cholesterol type that elevates cholesterol scores and lines coronary arteries with plaque.

Insulin Resistance

• Eating simple carbohydrates can increase your chance of becoming insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is diagnosed when you meet certain criteria. Criteria includes having a waist over 40 inches or having very few high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), which are the good type of cholesterol, and others.