Carbohydrates

Carbohydrate is the most common nutrient found in food today. If you enter a supermarket, grab a random box and check the nutritional values there are very high chances for it to contain over 50% carbs. You may think that this macronutrient has its role in the body so it is normal to be found in such quantities but as we shall later see there a lot more important factors to be kept in mind.

Carbohydrate is obtained from combining hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. Generally their arrangement takes the form of a circle. Its main function in the body is to serve as fuel for the brain, nervous system, and energy for muscles. If you’re thinking how much energy they provide, the answer is simple: the same as protein, 4 calories per gram.
But let’s not forget that they don’t require the extra process of eliminating the nitrogen (gluconeogenesis). Unlike protein, carbs can be stored internally in the liver or in the muscle reserves. These stores are called glycogen, a term which I’m sure you’ve heard of before.

Sugars are the building blocks of carbohydrates and they are obtained through the process of digestion or by eating them in their simple form. Using the number of sugar units contained, carbohydrates can be of 2 kinds:

-              Simple: they can be monosaccharides or disaccharides ( sucrose= glucose + fructose; maltoxe = glucose + glucose; lactose = glucose + galactose ). Each of these 3 disaccharides has its own specific enzyme that can process it. I’m sure you’ve heard of people that can’t drink milk because they are lactose intolerant. What happens is they don’t have the enzyme called lactase (or enough of it) which role is to break down lactose into its 2 monomers.

-              Complex: they contain more than 2 sugar units. After analyzing their structure we see that they can be branched or chained. In theory they are preferred over simple carbohydrates because their digestion will take longer, which means that the amount of sugar dropped into the bloodstream at any moment will be typically smaller.

However time showed that there are complex carbohydrates that elevates blood sugar levels more than simple ones, so this classification is not optimal. This is where the glycemic index enters the scene. The glycemic index of a food tries to determine how much blood glucose rises after consuming that food over a period of 2 hours. So whenever you have to decide between 2 carbohydrates, don’t judge only on their complexity. A glycemic index table will always be the better and more accurate solution.

So coming back to the initial story of the amount of carbohydrates found in certain foods, it’s always best to check how many of those grams are actually sugars. If this information is missing it should bring up some questions in your head.

In the end let’s look at some good and bad sources of carbohydrates:

GOOD SOURCES:

Oatmeal, Yams/Sweet Potatoes, lentils, beans, brown rice, vegetables, fruits (), whole grains

BAD SOURCES:

white rice, pasta, white bread, juices, cereals, candy, sodas,

Posted in: Macronutrients