Until recently, carbohydrates were generally regarded as non-essential, “health-neutral” calories that supply around 50% of the nutritional energy consumed daily by most of the world’s populations. For decades, the prevailing view was that carbohydrates are the “good guys” and fats the “bad guys” among the main nutrients important for health.
However, in recent years it has emerged that dietary carbohydrates also have different health effects, depending on the type of carbohydrates, their sources in food and the amount consumed. In April 2007, a group of experts from the Federal Commission for Nutrition was commissioned by the Federal Office of Public Health to prepare a scientific opinion on “Carbohydrates in focus: nutritional and health aspects”. This was prompted by new findings on the health significance of carbohydrate-rich foods.
