Are 'white' foods really that bad?

I recently had to undergo some medical investigations which necessitated a radical change in diet for a few days before the procedure. I read the information leaflet and jumped for joy  - it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to eat all those things I love but on the whole try to avoid, that can broadly be termed as ‘white food.’ White bread, white pasta, white rice, dairy, basically anything with little or no fibre and nothing that’s ‘good for us’ It was like opening a Pandora’s box of treats that had previously been denied – white toast and butter, Calcio e Pepe, mashed potato, victoria sponge the list of ‘treats’ was seemingly endless. Highly processed, simple carbs were my new best friend and what a couple of days it was! As well as being a great excuse to stuff my face with what I thought were ‘comfort foods’ I thought I’d treat it as a bit of an experiment to see how I felt. Day 1 – felt absolutely fine, no different to normal and a bowl of pasta (which I never eat) with a bit of skinless chicken breast in the evening resulted in the best night’s sleep for ages. No veg, fruit, wholegrains to be seen, I was the model student following the instructions to the letter! Day 2. Breakfast more white toast. By lunchtime, despite the aforementioned best night’s sleep for ages, I was really starting to feel sluggish, a bit ‘can’t be bothered’ and starting to crave more white food. By the evening I’d turned into a simple carbs junkie. Grumpy, constantly obsessing about what food to have next, always wanting more. I found that directly after eating there was a (very) temporary euphoria which was rapidly following by an almighty crash back down to the grumpy obsessing and so the cycle carried on. Day 3 saw the last meal of solids to be consumed by 10am and I’ve never been so happy to move onto a diet of clear fluids only! We’ve all read countless articles about the way an overload of simple carbs can ravage your body but now I’ve actually experienced it my view of foods that I previously perceived as ‘treats’ or ‘comfort’ has completely changed. It was quite shocking how quickly my body became addicted to the carb high and the absence of anything green, remotely fibrous or chewy affected everything from my mood to the size of my bloated tummy. I appreciate that my experiment wouldn’t pass any laboratory protocol tests but my conclusion and subsequent words of wisdom to all elfs is in fact just one word, balance. One day of anything isn’t going to hurt anyone but anything that throws our equilibrium into disarray will be problematic. You may feel that this is a bit dull (and if I’m being honest a teeny bit of me always will) and you’re an all or nothing sort of person but believe my when I say I’ve never been so glad to eat a plate of broccoli in my life!!