I used to run and bike a lot and I was always told that simple carbohydrates were high in glucose, sucrose, and fructose -- any of the *oses. Supposedly, they convert quickly to sugar-fuel in the body. Quick spike in your glucose levels, or so they said. In turn, they used to claim that "complex carbohydrates," because they came in the form of high fiber foods (such as a potato or pasta), were slower to digest and convert to sugar-fuel. Athletes would "load carbs" (complex) the night before competition because they supposedly would get the sugar from the pasta and potatoes the next day.
Actually, a potato will pump sugar into your system faster than two apples. The average person's blood glucose response to whole-grain bread is the same as that of highly processed white bread. (Ask a diabetic:
In the 1980s, they started using the glycemic index as a measure of how carbohydrates were converted to energy.
High GIs (above 70): White bread, wheat bread (they are a couple points diff on the glycemic index!), unsweetened breakfast cereals (shredded wheat, puffed wheat, Special K, Rice Crispies, Corn Flakes), sports drinks containing glucose, potatoes, couscous, rice cakes, dried fruit (raisins, prunes, etc), pineapple, carrots, watermelon, nutri grain bars, frozen tofu desserts, long grain white rice.
Med GIs (55-70): tropical fruit, sugar, soft drinks, low fat and regular ice cream, and drinks containing sugar or *ose s such as dextrose, maltodextrose, sucrose, rice (short grain white or brown, about the same), oranges, banana, pasta, chocolate, pumpernickel, oat bran bread, high fiber rye crisps, peanuts, corn, sweet potatoes.
Low GIs (up to 55): cold weather fruit, potato chips, ice cream, apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, dairy, lentils, beans/legumes, oats, buckwheat, barley, sugar free ice cream, yogurt (fruit and sugar sweetened), pastas, peas.
take yourself off the high and medium GIs--even the stuff that is supposedly "good for you". you will be amazed at how much more energy you have.
kelley