Carbohydrates are the foundation of diets world wide. Most of your calories come from carbohydrates. Some nutrition plans "demonize" carbohydrates. They blame carbs for the obesity epidemic. Carbs have been falsely accused. While some carbs are "bad" for you, there are just as many that are good for you. Understanding carbohydrates will help you to differentiate the ones you should be eating from the ones you should not be eating.
What Are Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are composed of sugar molecules. Sugar molecules are compounds of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Carbohydrates are divided into two main groups: simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates.
Simple carbohydrates are also called sugars. They consist of one sugar molecule by itself or two sugar molecules linked together. Examples of simple carbohydrates are glucose, fructose, galactose, lactose, maltose, and sucrose. Sucrose is also known as "table sugar" and lactose is the sugar found in milk.
Complex carbohydrates are your fibers and starches. They consist of three or more sugar molecules linked together.
Energy Source
After you eat carbohydrates, your body digests and transforms them into the simple sugar glucose. All of the cells in your body are designed to use glucose for energy. There is one exception to this process. Your body cannot digest or break down dietary fibers into glucose, so these complex carbohydrates are not readily used for energy.
The simple carbohydrate glucose is an important energy source for your body. However, in excess, it can also be harmful to your body.
Insulin
When glucose enters the bloodstream, the hormone insulin is released. Insulin directs the glucose into your cells, to be used as energy. When too much glucose enters the bloodstream too rapidly, a large amount of insulin is released. It is also know as an insulin "spike".
Those insulin spikes will increase your hunger and decrease your metabolism, leading to weight gain. Over time, those insulin spikes will also predispose you to Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes.
When trying to lose weight, the focus should not solely be on the quantity of carbohydrates eaten. The quality of the carbohydrates eaten should also be considered. Now that you know what a carbohydrate is, you can decide which carbohydrates you should be eaten.
