As a personal trainer and fitness coach trying my best to help my clients get great results...
teaching is as important as knowing.
I use the list below to help to teach my clients a simple way to think about which carbohydrates are good, and which are bad especially with regards to fat loss and weight loss, but also with regards to nutrition value and health.
There is a larger possibility of intolerance and allergy especially with grains and in Caucasian populations.
Here is the list of best to worst forms of carbohydrates...
1.
Green veggies - Broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and Asian green leafy veggies, spinach etc 2.
Non-Green Veggies - carrots, peas 3.
Lower fructose fruits - Apricots avocado (1/3 medium; yes, it's a fruit) blackberries (1/2 cup) figs grapefruit (1/2 medium) papaya peach plum raspberries (1/2 cup) strawberries (1/2 cup) tomato (yes, also a fruit) 4.
Higher Fructose Fruits - apple banana cherries (1 Cup) grapes (1 Cup) mango melon (2 wedges) orange pear pineapple (2 rings) watermelon (1 large slice) 5.
High Nutrient Natural Starches - yam, sweet potato, tapioca, some potatoes (but these arent as nutritious) 6.
Grains - bread, pasta etc (rice falls under here too, but its not as problematic) 7.
Nonsense crap foods - the rest! If you are naturally tolerant to starches and are already lean (can see your abs), stay at number 1-5 with an occasional 6 if you have no grain related allergies.
If you are a natural fat boy or want to lose a bit more of that belly, stay within number 1-3 for best fat loss results.
If you are very overly fat - more than 20% for women and 15-18% for men then stay within 1-2...
If you don't care eat number 7 all day :)