The South Beach suggests we eat only good carbs vs. bad carbs. Bad carbs are any product that has enriched, bleached or just plain wheat flour as the first ingredient and/or contains less than 3 grams of dietary fiber per serving.

If a food has less than 3 grams of dietary fiber in it, you can rightly assume the nutrition has been processed out of the product.

Even products that are high in dietary fiber due to soy flour being added can be low in nutritional value if the first, second or third ingredient is an enriched, fortified or just plain wheat flour (not whole wheat). That means the main ingredients are comprised of the nutritionally lacking flours.

The same logic applies to rice and legumes. Brown rice has the husk still on the kernel so it digests slower, white rice is polished and lacks the necessary fiber to make it a good carb. Not all legumes are packed with enough dietary fiber if you are buying them in cans. The best beans are the ones slow cooked on your stove, but many of us don't have the time to do the slow cook dance, so we buy canned beans. The fiber in canned beans are much lower than dried beans, but you can still find good fiber choices among them.

The best advice is to learn what comprises a whole food and read labels thoroughly. Unfortunately many products are called "healthy" or "natural" and some are even labeled "whole grain" when only a fraction of the ingredients apply.

There are some stickys on the South Beach forum listing guidelines for bread. Take a minute and read through that listing and maybe you can contribute some finds of your own. There still aren't enough really good for you whole grain products out there....yet!