Carbohydrates-What, Why and How: One of the Essential Nutrients for Good Health (#2 in series)
You need 7 nutrients in your diet to prevent disease and maintain good health. They are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber, vitamins, minerals and water.
Carbohydrates, Proteins, fats and fiber are to referred as macronutrients. Macro means large and you need these nutrients in large quantities. Vitamins and mineral are known as your micronutrients and you these in small quantities.
Last week you learned about protein. This week you discover what are carbohydrates, why you need them and how to chooses the right ones.
Carbohydrates (CHO):
Carbohydrates have gotten a bad reputation over the past years. It has been blamed for obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases. There are many diets that restrict carbohydrate intake or claim you do not need them, which is just wrong.
You absolutely need carbohydrates in your diet. Carbohydrates come in many forms and there are certain forms you should avoid, but carbohydrates are essential to a healthy diet
Why carbohydrates are important?
The primary function of carbohydrates is to supply energy for cells in the body. Your brain, nervous system and muscles are fueled mostly by glucose the simplest form of a carbohydrate.
The fiber in carbohydrates is needed for proper digestion, a healthy colon and helps stabilize blood glucose levels in the blood.
Eating adequate amounts of carbohydrates spares protein breakdown and prevents the loss of muscle mass.
Carbohydrates prevent Ketosis, which is the breakdown of fatty acids in the body. Ketosis occurs when you your carbohydrate intake drops below 50g a day. People often do it for rapid weight loss. While you do lose weight on a ketogenic diet, it should only be attempted under a physician’s supervision (1).
What are Carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are merely saccharides, which are sugar molecules. Think of carbohydrates as a strand of beads. The number of beads in the strand tells you what type of carbohydrate it is. Some strands only have one or two beads. These are your simple carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates can come in the form of monosaccharides (one molecule of sugar) or disaccharides (two molecules of sugar).
Other carbohydrates have many beads and these are your complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are either oligosaccharides (3-10 sugar molecules) or polysaccharides (10+ sugar molecules).
Eventually, all carbohydrates are broken down to into glucose. It is the useable form of energy in your body. Simple carbohydrates contain only one or two molecules of sugar and are easier for the body to break down to glucose. The problem arises when you consume too many simple carbohydrates and cause an influx of glucose into the blood.
Over time, high blood glucose levels can lead to type 2 diabetes, CVD, stroke and other health problems. This does not mean all simple carbohydrates are bad, but you should try to choose naturally occurring sugar opposed to added sugar.
Fructose is a naturally occurring simple sugar found in whole fruit. It is a little special because it has to pass though the liver where it is converted to glucose. This extra step slows down the metabolism of fructose by about half. Many fruits also contain fiber that further slows its breakdown. Whole fruits contain vitamins and minerals that your body needs too.
Another naturally occurring simple sugar is lactose. Lactose is found in milk and dairy products. They are a major source of calcium in the diet and most are fortified with vitamin D. Calcium is needed for strong bones and teeth, muscle contraction and proper heart rhythm.
On the other hand, sugar added is done in the manufacturing process and has no health benefits. Added sugars are literally everywhere. You find them in soda, fruit juices, energy drinks, chocolate, baked goods, cereals, package goods, condiments, breads and ice cream to name a few.
You can check the food label for total grams of sugar, but you really should check the ingredient label. There are about 60 different names manufactures use to describe added sugar. Besides those ending in “ose,” such as maltose or sucrose, other names for sugar include high fructose corn syrup, molasses, cane sugar, corn sweetener, raw sugar, syrup, honey or fruit juice concentrates High fructose corn syrup is a big one and it is not the same as naturally occurring fructose. (2).
Processes or refined grains are complex carbohydrates by definition, but act more like simple carbohydrates in the body due manufacturing. In manufacturing the whole grain is stripped of its bran and gem. The endosperm is all that remains.
This process removes fiber, essential fatty acids, vitamin E, B vitamins and essential mineral. You are left with a chain of simple sugar with many sugar molecules.
Processors add back some vitamins and minerals to enrich refined grains, but they still do not provide as many nutrients as their whole grain counterparts.
Products that include refined carbohydrates include packaged cereals, white bread, white rice, pasta, cakes, biscuits, sweets, candy, pastries, pies, white flour and many others.
Why do you need fiber?
Cellulose is where you get your fiber. There is strong evidence that dietary fiber protects against CVD, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Dietary fiber is also considered essential for optimal digestive health.
Dietary fiber is found in the indigestible parts of plants. There are two kinds of dietary fiber soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber will dissolve in water. It can bind with fatty acids and prolong stomach emptying so that sugar is released and absorbed more slowly.
Insoluble fiber will not dissolve in water. It moves bulk through the intestines and helps control the pH balance (acidity) in the intestines. Both, soluble and insoluble fiber keeps your
gut healthy.
How much fiber do you need?
The RDA for fiber is 25.2g/day for an average healthy adult female and 33.6g/day for an average healthy adult male. Most Americans do not come close to these amounts. Foods high in dietary fiber include: fruits, vegetables, whole grain breads, oats, nuts, seeds, and most legumes.
How would you increase your daily fiber?
Maybe you could have a high fiber cereal for breakfast (1/2 of cup: 9.1g), then some lentils (1/2 cup: 7.8g) at lunch and some whole wheat pasta (1/2 cup: 3.2g) at dinner and some raspberries (1/2 cup: 4g) in between meals. If you are an adult female you are already there.
One word of caution is portion size. Would you only eat ½ cup of pasta or one ounce of nuts? If not then you may want to just add them to food-like vegetables with pasta or grilled chicken with peanuts. Remember calories do count.
Next week you will learn about the last macronutrient-Dietary Fat.
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