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Ask ten people whether honey is healthier than white rice and you'll get ten confident answers, and a surprising number will say honey. Ask whether baked potatoes are "bad" and many will say yes. A 2026 study set out to measure exactly how far public opinion about carbohydrate foods drifts from what nutrition scientists would say, and the gap was wider than most of us would guess.
The paper, in the Journal of the American Nutrition Association and reported by News-Medical on 30 July, is a small pilot, so we'll treat its numbers carefully. But the question it asks is one every macro tracker faces: when you're counting carbs, how do you tell the useful ones from the empty ones?
The short version: researchers compared how Americans perceived the healthfulness of 20 common carbohydrate foods with ratings built from several expert nutrition-profiling systems. They found misperceptions for every food, with about 85% scoring poorly for alignment. People tended to underrate some foods (potatoes, popcorn) and overrate others (honey, juice, "whole wheat" bread), and experts themselves were uncertain about about three-quarters of the foods, particularly grains and snacks. White rice, white bread, corn tortillas and fortified fruit juice were flagged as priorities for clearer guidance.
Why "Good Carbs" and "Bad Carbs" Confuse Everyone
Carbohydrate is one macronutrient covering wildly different foods: an apple, a doughnut, a lentil, a cola. Advice has swung from "avoid all carbs" to "carbs are your main fuel", leaving most of us with a tangle of rules of thumb. The result is that food reputations are often driven by fashion, marketing language and half-remembered headlines, not by fibre, sugar and processing.
The Perception Study at a Glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Educational gaps and communication priorities for the healthfulness of carbohydrate foods |
| Journal and date | Journal of the American Nutrition Association, 2026 (Erndt-Marino and Ghirardelli); News-Medical summary 30 July 2026 |
| Design | Pilot analysis of 20 common carbohydrate-rich foods; US convenience sample of consumers |
| Comparison | Consumer perceptions versus expert-derived ratings that combine multiple nutrition-profiling systems (the FRESH platform), graded A to D for alignment |
| Main finding | Misperceptions for all 20 foods; roughly 85% of foods scored C or D for alignment; expert uncertainty for about 75% of foods |
| Priority foods | White rice, white bread, corn tortillas and vitamin C-fortified fruit juice |
| Stated limits | Only 20 foods; US convenience sample; merging expert systems involves analytic choices |
How the Study Compared Public Opinion With Expert Ratings
The team asked consumers to place each food on a healthfulness scale. In parallel, they built an "expert" rating by combining several established nutrition-profiling systems, which score foods on nutrients such as fibre, sugar, sodium and processing. The comparison produced an alignment grade for each food: A means the public view matches the expert view, D means they're far apart. They also tracked where the expert systems themselves disagreed, since that's another signal that guidance is unclear.
What They Found
- Every food had misperceptions, from honey (the largest overall) to cola (the smallest).
- About 85% of foods scored C or D for alignment between consumer and expert views.
- People underrate more often than overrate: negative misperceptions were about 2.3 times as common as positive ones.
- Experts were uncertain about about 75% of foods, mostly grains and snack foods, while fruit and vegetable ratings agreed well.
- The biggest overall gaps included honey-oat cereal, 100% fruit juice, whole-wheat bread, buttered popcorn and corn tortillas.
The takeaway isn't that the public is clueless. It's that carbohydrate foods genuinely sit in grey areas, and science itself hasn't settled how to score several of them.
The Honey and Juice Halo
Honey is the clearest overrated example. It's natural and unprocessed in the everyday sense, but nutritionally it's concentrated sugar: roughly 60 calories and 17 g of sugar per tablespoon, with trace amounts of anything else. The World Health Organization counts honey, syrups and fruit juice as free sugars, the kind to keep below about 10% of daily energy and ideally below 5%.
100% fruit juice sounds like fruit in a glass, but juicing removes most of the fibre and concentrates the sugar. A cup of orange juice has around 110 calories and 21 g of sugar, compared with about 60 calories, 12 g of sugar and 3 g of fibre in a whole orange. It does supply vitamin C and potassium, and a small glass isn't a disaster, but it behaves more like a sugary drink than a piece of fruit in your body.
Potatoes and Popcorn: The Unfair Reputations
On the other side, several foods were rated lower than their nutrition deserves. French fries and chips are rightly dense in fat and calories, but baked or boiled potatoes and air-popped, unbuttered popcorn were also judged harshly by consumers. A medium baked potato with skin has about 160 calories and nearly 4 g of fibre, plus potassium and vitamin C. In a classic 1995 study of 38 foods, Holt and colleagues found boiled potatoes had the highest satiety score of all, more than three times that of white bread.
Air-popped popcorn is a whole grain: three cups give roughly 90 calories and 3–4 g of fibre. The trouble starts with butter, oil and sugar coatings, which change it into a different food. The lesson is that preparation, not the base ingredient, often determines nutritional quality.
White Rice, White Bread and Tortillas: Why Experts Disagree
These are the foods the authors flagged for clearer communication, partly because experts themselves are split. White rice and white bread are refined grains: low in fibre, quickly digested, and generally advised to be limited in favour of whole grains, as the 2025–2030 US Dietary Guidelines do. Yet white rice is a staple for billions of people, a convenient fuel for athletes and, for some, a gentle food during gut upsets. Corn tortillas are made from nixtamalised corn, which adds calcium and tends to give them more fibre and less sodium than many flour tortillas, but they're still a refined-ish starch.
The truth is that context matters. A bowl of white rice with beans, vegetables and fish is a very different meal from white rice alone, and a slice of white bread is fine in a balanced day for most people. The more useful question is what else is on the plate and how much you're eating.
A 10-Second Carb Quality Check
Researchers have proposed simple screens for carbohydrate quality. One expert-panel approach looks at whether a carbohydrate food has more than about 10% fibre and less than about 10% free sugar relative to its total carbohydrate. You can approximate it at the shelf:
- Fibre: for every 10 g of carbohydrate per serving, look for about 1 g or more of fibre (for example 3 g fibre in a 30 g-carb serving).
- Sugar: check added or free sugars. Under about 5 g per serving is a good sign for non-dessert foods.
- Ingredient list: "whole grain" or "100% whole wheat" should come first, not "enriched wheat flour" with caramel colour.
- Sodium and fat: compare brands; some breads and tortillas are surprisingly salty.
- Portion: even great carbs add up. Count them against your target.
For the "whole wheat" bread problem, which was one of the most misjudged foods, look for at least 3 g of fibre per slice and a whole grain as the first ingredient. To check your own recipes, paste them into our recipe nutrition calculator, which shows fibre and sugar per serving.
Twelve Everyday Carbs Side by Side
| Food (approx. serving) | Calories | Carbs (g) | Fibre (g) | Sugar (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White rice, 1 cup cooked | 205 | 45 | 0.6 | 0 |
| Brown rice, 1 cup cooked | 215 | 45 | 3.5 | 0.7 |
| White bread, 1 slice | 75 | 14 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| 100% whole-wheat bread, 1 slice | 80–95 | 15–17 | 2.5–3.5 | 1–3 |
| Corn tortilla, 6-inch | 55 | 11 | 1.5 | 0.2 |
| Flour tortilla, 8-inch | 140 | 24 | 1.5 | 1 |
| Baked potato with skin, medium | 160 | 37 | 3.8 | 2 |
| French fries, medium | 365 | 48 | 4.5 | 0.5 |
| Honey, 1 tablespoon | 64 | 17 | 0 | 17 |
| Orange juice, 1 cup | 112 | 26 | 0.5 | 21 |
| Orange, 1 medium | 62 | 15 | 3 | 12 |
| Rolled oats, ½ cup dry | 150 | 27 | 4 | 1 |
Values are approximate and vary by brand and preparation. Notice how fibre, not calories or carb grams, separates the "useful" carbs from the "empty" ones, and how fries differ from a baked potato mainly through fat and portion, not through the potato itself.
Context Matters: Athletes, Diabetes and Weight Loss
- Athletes often benefit from quick carbs around training. White rice, white bread or even juice can be useful before or after hard sessions, which we discuss in our pre- and post-workout nutrition guide.
- People managing blood sugar usually do better with fibre-rich, slowly digested carbohydrates, and with food order (vegetables and protein first). If you take diabetes medication, discuss changes with your care team.
- People losing weight benefit from low-energy-density, high-fibre carbohydrates (oats, beans, fruit, potatoes with skin) because they fill you up for fewer calories.
- People with higher calorie needs, or small appetites, may value refined carbohydrates as easy energy, which is a legitimate use.
To set a sensible carbohydrate target, start with the carb calculator and macro calculator, then use the checks above to choose which carbs fill it. Our macro calculator guide explains how to split your day.
The Bottom Line
This pilot study won't settle the carb wars, and its authors don't claim it will. What it does is show that opinions about carbohydrate foods are shaky almost across the board: honey and juice get too much credit, potatoes and popcorn too little, and even experts are unsure about breads, rice and tortillas. That's why simple, portable checks (fibre, sugar, whole grain first, portion and what else is on the plate) beat a list of "good" and "bad" foods.
If you take one thing away, let it be this: stop sorting carbs by reputation and start sorting them by label. A baked potato with skin, oats and beans will usually beat honey, juice and fries, and a bowl of white rice with fish and vegetables can still be a perfectly good dinner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is honey healthier than sugar?
Not in any way that matters much for daily eating. Honey has about 60 calories and 17 g of sugar per tablespoon and counts as a free sugar under WHO guidance. It has trace compounds, but it should be treated as a sweetener, not a health food.
Is 100% fruit juice as good as whole fruit?
No. Juicing removes most of the fibre and concentrates the sugar. A cup of orange juice has about 21 g of sugar and little fibre, compared with 12 g of sugar and 3 g of fibre in a whole orange. A small glass is fine, but whole fruit is more filling.
Are potatoes bad for you?
Not when baked or boiled with the skin. A medium baked potato has about 160 calories, nearly 4 g of fibre, potassium and vitamin C, and in one classic study boiled potatoes were the most satiating food tested. Frying and heavy toppings change the picture.
Is white rice unhealthy?
It's a low-fibre refined grain, so guidelines favour whole grains. But it's a staple food, a convenient athletic fuel, and fine in a balanced meal with protein, vegetables and healthy fats.
How do I know if my "whole wheat" bread is really whole grain?
Check that a whole grain is the first ingredient, that it says 100% whole wheat or whole grain, and that it provides at least about 3 g of fibre per slice.
What makes a carbohydrate "high quality"?
One expert-panel approach looks for more than about 10% fibre and less than about 10% free sugar relative to total carbohydrate. Simpler: favour foods with fibre and without much added sugar.
How many carbs should I eat?
It depends on your calories, activity and goals. Use the carb and macro calculators to find a starting range, then choose fibre-rich sources to fill it.
References & Sources
- Erndt-Marino, J. & Ghirardelli, A. (2026). Educational gaps and communication priorities for the healthfulness of carbohydrate foods. Journal of the American Nutrition Association. doi:10.1080/27697061.2026.2687436; News-Medical (30 July 2026).
- Miller, K. B. et al. (2022). A new carbohydrate food quality scoring system to reflect dietary guidelines: an expert panel report. Nutrients, 14(7), 1485.
- World Health Organization (2023). Carbohydrate intake for adults and children: WHO guideline.
- US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Agriculture (2026). Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030.
- Holt, S. H. A. et al. (1995). A satiety index of common foods. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 49(9), 675–690.
- MacrosMeasure (2026). Free Carb Calculator.
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