Carbs and Heart Health

Podcast Transcript

Announcer:

Welcome to Love Your Heart, brought to you by Cleveland Clinic’s Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. These podcasts will help you learn more about your heart, thoracic and vascular systems, ways to stay healthy and information about diseases and treatment options. Enjoy.

Julia Zumpano, RD, LD:

Hello. I'm Julia Zumpano, Registered Dietician with the Department of Preventive Cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. Oftentimes I get the question if carbs are heart healthy. So carbs, carbohydrates specifically, are macronutrients. There are three main macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins and fats, and that's where a majority or most of our calories are coming from. Most foods fall within one of those three categories.

Julia Zumpano, RD, LD:

Carbohydrates include breads, pastas, rice, potatoes, corn, beans, peas, sweets and desserts, any sweetened drinks, fruit and some dairy. It's a large class of foods that fall within carbohydrates. More specifically starches, which are the bread products or the rice or pasta or potatoes or crackers, starches are what most people think of when they think of carbs. Choosing healthy starches are essential for heart health and overall health. Carbohydrates are body's main source of energy, so they're very important, and they also provide a lot of vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber, so very important food group.

Julia Zumpano, RD, LD:

Healthy carbs are whole grains or grain-based carbs, or any carbs that contain fiber and that will maximize the amount of vitamins and minerals you can gain from that carbohydrate. Examples would be things like whole grain bread, brown or wild rice, barley, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, beans, lentils, dried peas, sweet potatoes, redskin potatoes, vegetables and fruit. Those are where you can maximize the amount of nutrition because you're gaining fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

Julia Zumpano, RD, LD:

Refined carbohydrates like white bread, white pasta, white crackers or cereal, sugar-sweetened cereals, snack foods, those do not provide fiber and do not provide as much nutritional benefit. Not to mention they can also cause blood sugars to rise and blood triglycerides to rise, which both of those elevations are not helpful for a healthy heart. We want to keep the grains as frequent as possible and minimize the refined carbohydrates to maximize on your heart health.

Announcer:

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