Carbohydrates - What They Are and What They Do - Part 1
OK! So your doctor just told you that your blood work isn't looking great and you need to watch your carbohydrate intake.
Well, you say, just what are "carbs" and what do they do? Why is it so important for me to watch my intake? Let's take a walk through "Carbohydrate Cavern" and see if we can answer some of these questions.
Careful - don't bump your head! What are carbohydrates? Carbohydrates are a type of food that the body uses for energy.
While they come in a wide variety of foods - bread, beans, potatoes, milk, cereals, popcorn, cookies, pasta, soft drinks, corn and desserts of all shapes and sizes - the most common forms are sugars, fibers and starches.
Sugars According to the Harvard School of Public Health, the basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple joining of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
They go on to say that starches and fibers are chains of sugar molecules.
Now, we could get real technical here with this description but we're not going there.
The purpose of this article is to help provide some basic understanding of what is going on in our bodies.
In order to do that, I feel we must maintain a fair amount of simplicity.
There is a pretty complex chemistry involved in how fibers and starches are made up and, for the sake of simplicity; the above explanation of sugar molecules is as complicated as I will get at this point.
At one time, carbohydrates were grouped into two categories: simple and complex.
I know you've heard, as I have, that simple carbohydrates were bad and complex ones were good.
Apparently, research has shown the carbohydrate picture is quite a bit more complex.
Simple carbohydrates include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose) and table sugar (sucrose).
A complex carbohydrate includes anything made up of three or more linked sugars.
It was thought that complex carbohydrates were healthier to eat and simple carbohydrates really weren't so good for you.
It appears that the body breaks down (or tries to break down) the different sugars into single sugar molecules because that's the only way the sugars can get into the bloodstream.
The most digestible sources of carbohydrate are broken down first into glucose (blood sugar) because the cells are designed to use this type of sugar for energy.
Fibers Fiber works a quite a bit different in that fiber is constructed in such a complex way that the body can't break it down into single sugar molecules.
Hence, it passes through the digestive system and remains undigested.
This food type also comes in two varieties: soluble and insoluble.
Soluble fiber dissolves in water and insoluble does not.
Interestingly, neither type of fiber nourishes the body but they help good health in many ways.
Soluble Fiber and Insoluble Fiber Soluble fiber helps move fatty substances through the digestive system, removing them as waste products.
This helps to reduce LDL levels (bad cholesterol) in the bloodstream.
It also helps regulate how the body uses sugars and helps to keep hunger and blood sugar in better control.
Insoluble fiber helps to push foods through the intestinal tract, promoting regularity and helping to prevent constipation.
Well, you say, just what are "carbs" and what do they do? Why is it so important for me to watch my intake? Let's take a walk through "Carbohydrate Cavern" and see if we can answer some of these questions.
Careful - don't bump your head! What are carbohydrates? Carbohydrates are a type of food that the body uses for energy.
While they come in a wide variety of foods - bread, beans, potatoes, milk, cereals, popcorn, cookies, pasta, soft drinks, corn and desserts of all shapes and sizes - the most common forms are sugars, fibers and starches.
Sugars According to the Harvard School of Public Health, the basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple joining of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
They go on to say that starches and fibers are chains of sugar molecules.
Now, we could get real technical here with this description but we're not going there.
The purpose of this article is to help provide some basic understanding of what is going on in our bodies.
In order to do that, I feel we must maintain a fair amount of simplicity.
There is a pretty complex chemistry involved in how fibers and starches are made up and, for the sake of simplicity; the above explanation of sugar molecules is as complicated as I will get at this point.
At one time, carbohydrates were grouped into two categories: simple and complex.
I know you've heard, as I have, that simple carbohydrates were bad and complex ones were good.
Apparently, research has shown the carbohydrate picture is quite a bit more complex.
Simple carbohydrates include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose) and table sugar (sucrose).
A complex carbohydrate includes anything made up of three or more linked sugars.
It was thought that complex carbohydrates were healthier to eat and simple carbohydrates really weren't so good for you.
It appears that the body breaks down (or tries to break down) the different sugars into single sugar molecules because that's the only way the sugars can get into the bloodstream.
The most digestible sources of carbohydrate are broken down first into glucose (blood sugar) because the cells are designed to use this type of sugar for energy.
Fibers Fiber works a quite a bit different in that fiber is constructed in such a complex way that the body can't break it down into single sugar molecules.
Hence, it passes through the digestive system and remains undigested.
This food type also comes in two varieties: soluble and insoluble.
Soluble fiber dissolves in water and insoluble does not.
Interestingly, neither type of fiber nourishes the body but they help good health in many ways.
Soluble Fiber and Insoluble Fiber Soluble fiber helps move fatty substances through the digestive system, removing them as waste products.
This helps to reduce LDL levels (bad cholesterol) in the bloodstream.
It also helps regulate how the body uses sugars and helps to keep hunger and blood sugar in better control.
Insoluble fiber helps to push foods through the intestinal tract, promoting regularity and helping to prevent constipation.
