Badger Common’Tater October 2021 Issue
Type and Quality of Carbohydrates Matter Most
Experts propose a nuanced approach to define high-quality carbohydrate foods
Provided by the Alliance for Potato Research and Education (APRE) via a peer-reviewed article in EurekAlert! sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
An omnibus measure of carbohydrate food quality indicators that is accurate and applicable to real-life eating patterns is needed.
For decades, people have often associated higher intakes of carbohydrate-containing foods with less healthy lifestyles. Yet, evidence suggests this perspective view is overly simplistic, and it is instead the type and quality of carbohydrate foods that matter most for supporting health.
While some measures of carbohydrate quality exist, such methods often use highly variable, and thus unreliable, indicators.
In a newly published perspective in Nutrients, a group of nutrition researchers, who collectively make up the Quality Carbohydrate Coalition-Scientific Advisory Council (QCC-SAC), outline the opportunity for a stronger, more evidence-based approach to defining quality carbohydrate foods to support overall health and provide clearer dietary guidance.
“To better guide food choices and nutrition literacy, the dialogue around high-quality carbohydrate foods must be advanced to consider the evolving science,” explains Adam Drewnowski, Ph.D., University of Washington, a QCC-SAC member.
“As a first step, we conducted a scoping review of the scientific literature to examine the evidence behind existing measures of carbohydrate food quality and ways in which to build upon this work,” Drewnowski informs.
The QCC-SAC is a team of six world-renowned experts in carbohydrate research, nutrient profiling, cultural competency and epidemiology.
The group was assembled by the Quality Carbohydrate Coalition, which was spearheaded and is funded by Potatoes USA.
