The thing that people should realize about carbohydrates and sugar is that all carbohydrates get broken down into sugar. For some foods this happens faster than others. The quicker it happens, the higher the 'glycemic index' of the food. Foods with a lower GI are considered to be more nutritious. The faster things get turned into sugar, the faster your body has to respond with things like insulin.

When you eat something like a potato, your body breaks it down into sugar very quickly so it is more or less the same as eating a similar amount of sugar from a carbohydrate perspective. Things like brown rice and whole wheat foods have more complex carbohydrates and take longer to be turned into sugar. This is the reason why regimens such as Atkins (since the old man died they're pretty much a joke) and Protein Power tell you that things like potatos and white bread are bad. Your best bet to be healthy is aovid the white stuff (white bread, white rice, potato, etc) and eat things like whole wheat bread and brown rice. Dessert itself is probably better left for some afternoon. It's not that beneficial to you to have a nice insulin spike after you've just eaten a full meal.