Carbs vs. Sugar Clarified
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 August 2021
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this podcast, we’re going to talk about the difference between carbs and sugars.
On a Healthy Keto diet, you want to keep your carbs under 50g per day—preferably around 20g per day.
Carbohydrates are a combination of starches, fibers, and sugars.
Sugars are smaller carbohydrate molecules. For instance, sucrose is a disaccharide, which means that it is made up of two (di, meaning two) simple carbohydrate molecules.
Fructose and glucose are monosaccharides, which are made up of one (mono, meaning one) molecule.
Starches are complex carbohydrates.
Complex carbohydrates are broken down into two categories: oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Oligosaccharides have between 3 and 20 molecules, and polysaccharides have more than 20 molecules.
Then, we have fiber. We deduct fiber from the total carbs because, even though fiber is a carbohydrate, it can’t be broken down by our digestive systems.
Microbes can break down fiber, so fiber is great for supplying your gut microbes with nutrients.
Fiber does not affect your blood sugars like other carbohydrates.
Let’s talk about the glycemic index (GI). The GI tells you how fast a particular carbohydrate turns into blood glucose and affects your blood sugar level.
For example, a raw potato would be relatively low on the GI because the starch isn’t going to break down very quickly. However, cooked potatoes or a bag of potato chips would be much higher on the glycemic index because they are broken down much more quickly, thus causing a spike in blood sugar.
The goal is to consume foods that are low in sugars and carbs but higher in fiber to help keep your blood sugar levels normal.
Some vegetables are very starchy, which means it is high in carbohydrates. Potatoes, carrots, and beats all have higher amounts of carbs compared to leafy greens, asparagus, celery, and broccoli. You don’t have to count your carbs when it comes to non-starchy vegetables.
Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:
Dr. Berg, 51 years of age is a chiropractor who specializes in weight loss through nutritional & natural methods. His private practice is located in Alexandria, Virginia. His clients include senior officials in the U.S. government & the Justice Department, ambassadors, medical doctors, high-level executives of prominent corporations, scientists, engineers, professors, and other clients from all walks of life. He is the author of The 7 Principles of Fat Burning.
Dr. Berg's Website: http://bit.ly/37AV0fk
Dr. Berg's Recipe Ideas: http://bit.ly/37FF6QR
Dr. Berg's Reviews: http://bit.ly/3hkIvbb
Dr. Berg's Shop: http://bit.ly/3mJcLxg
Dr. Berg's Bio: http://bit.ly/3as2cfE
Dr. Berg's Health Coach Training: http://bit.ly/3as2p2q
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drericberg
Messenger: https://www.messenger.com/t/drericberg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drericberg/
YouTube: http://bit.ly/37DXt8C
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Dr. Berg's Healthy Keto and Interminute Fasting podcast, where Dr. Berg takes you on the journey for the truth about getting healthy and losing healthy weight. So I want to clarify the difference between carbs and sugar. |
| 0:27.1 | When you're on keto, normally you want to keep your carbs below 50 grams per day, preferably |
| 0:33.1 | 20 grams per day, maybe 30, but between 20 and 30 on average. So when you're reading labels, |
| 0:39.4 | do you look at carbs? Do you look at sugars? What do you focus on? And really, what is the |
| 0:44.3 | difference between the two? Very simply, the difference between carbs and sugar is this. |
| 0:50.5 | Carbs contain three things. Starches, fiber, and sugars. |
| 0:56.8 | Versus sugar is this sugar. |
| 0:59.7 | I'm going to try to keep this really simple, but let's just first talk about sugars, okay? |
| 1:03.5 | There are a lot of different types of sugar, but they're mainly broken down into two different categories. |
| 1:09.8 | You have monosaccharides, which means one saccharide. |
| 1:15.2 | Now the Latin word for the word saccharide means sweet sand. And the Greek word for saccharide means |
| 1:21.5 | sugar. So when we talk about saccharides, we're really talking about sugars. So you can just have |
| 1:26.3 | one simple sugar, okay? That would be like glucose or fructose. That's called a monosaccharide, monol meaning one. |
| 1:33.7 | And then you have disaccharides, die meaning two. That would be like sucrose, because what makes |
| 1:39.3 | up sucrose is fructose and glucose. So when you think about sugars, just think about really a simple compound |
| 1:45.5 | between like one unit or two units connected. But in actuality, it's a lot more complex, but I don't |
| 1:51.2 | want to get into that. But there's basically over 200 different monosaccharides. Okay, so we're not |
| 1:56.6 | going to go there. All right. Now, let's shift to carbohydrates. We have starches. Okay. They're a little more |
| 2:03.4 | complex. So starches are just a bunch of sugars that are connected. So when we get into starches, |
| 2:09.8 | we have different names like oligosaccharides. So illegal means less than 20 units of those sugar |
| 2:17.4 | compounds all connected. Okay. So they're just a little more |
| 2:19.8 | complex than a monosaccharide and a disaccharide. And then we have a polysaccharide. And so that would be |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Eric Berg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. Eric Berg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.