Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the most important and abundant compounds in the world, they’re made of Hydrogen and Oxygen and we can find them mostly in vegetables and cereals. The types of carbohydrates are:

A) Complex: we can find these in breads, pasta, cereals, rice, corn, etc. The body slowly uses the energy from complex carbohydrates, that’s why these have a slow absorption.

B) Simples: We need to take care of these carbohydrates because they have an easy absorption, and they can turn us into fatties if we consume them in large quantities. We can find them in sugar, honey, jams, candy, etc.

Sugar, starch, dextrin, cellulose and glycogen are some examples of carbohydrates. And they are classified in:

1. Monosaccharides: these have an aldehyde or a ketone group, the most important is the glucose (or dextrose, this is cellular’s metabolism principal source of energy; in other words, our body takes energy from glucose), and the fructose (this is the sugar that comes from fruits).

2. Disaccharides: these are the union of two monosaccharides, and the most importants are the saccharose (this is the sugar from the cane), lactose (the sugar from the milk, it is formed by glucose and galactose) and maltose (malt sugar. This is elemental in the elaboration of beer, and is also in milk shakes).

3. Polysaccharides: these are large molecules formed by various monosaccharides. 10 molecules in glycogen, 25 in starch and 100 – 200 in cellulose. Glycogen is our body’s fuel, with this, our body accumulates energy (this is why we get fat sometimes). Starch has a high energetic importance, because they provide us the energy that we consume in food. And cellulose is the one who gives the rigidity to vegetables.

And finally I am going to explain to you the functions that the carbohydrates have:

1. Like I’ve been saying, carbohydrates provide us energy. They give us 4 kcal per gram; a little part of it goes to the liver and the muscles as glycogen and the rest becomes fat and it’s accumulated in the adipose tissue. It is recommended to eat at least 100 grams of carbohydrates per day.

2. They also work as protein savers, when you don’t consume the enough amounts of carbohydrates in your diet, the body uses protein to provide the necessary energy.

3. They participate in the regulation of fat metabolism. When we don’t eat the right amount of carbohydrates the body metabolizes fat and they accumulate in our body as ketone bodies, causing problems like “Ketosis”, this give us bad breath, urine with a strong smell, headaches and dizziness because of the lack of glucose.

4. Structural, they form part of the weight and structure of the organism.

In conclusion, carbohydrates are very important to us because they make us more active and healthy, sometimes, most of the people get the wrong idea and think that they’re bad and if they consume them they are going to be fat, and they end up avoiding them. But this is bad because if we don’t consume them we are going to feel down, we can get some diseases, what we need to do is know how much carbohydrates we need to consume everyday because also if we consume them in large quantities, we can get fat, or worse, we can become diabetic. And that’s it, you can go to a nutritionist for more information, or you can ask me… Haha :P

John, remember when you told us that you wanted to know a little bit about carbohydrates and the different types? When you told us thought that it would be a good topic for the blog. So I did a little research and I found this information, I hope that this clears your doubts :)

And I invite you to read a little about the carbohydrate metabolism, it’s a little bit complex, but it is interesting :). Thank you.