Fara 9 November 2008 Food Pyramid, General Health, Nutritions 352 views No Comment/Trackback Print This Post  Email This Post

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Importance of carbohydrate: Carbohydrate groups and functions

We often heard of bad carbohydrates and good carbohydrates. So what’s the real deal about it? It is best that we consider taking some time off learning a little more about carbohydrates than simply knowing it as an energy supplier.

Nevertheless, carbohydrate is still famous and essential source of energy for human beings. On a considerable scale, it should be about fifty to sixty percent of your diet. By all means too, carbohydrate is fundamental for your daily healthy eating plans. How does carbohydrate provide the body with energy? Carbohydrate can be broken into glucose sugar in the body, which will be absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream and delivered to all parts of the body. This glucose is taken up into cells, providing fuel for the brain, muscles, organs and tissues or stored as glycogen, especially in the muscles and the liver for use in between meals and during exercise.

Basically, carbohydrates can be divided into three groups: sugars, starches and fibers. Fibers is considered as a family of carbohydrate too since it is a kind of resistant starch that is not digested or absorbed by the small intestines. The terms complex and simple carbohydrates are rather commonly used by people, however, this only indicates the physical structure of it. Although it proves to be true, this information is somewhat insufficient as far as the real thing about carbohydrate is concern.

Carbohydrates are groups according to the rate how they are absorbed and digested by the system, which in turn determines how high they send your blood level after eating (that is why carbohydrate is not good for diabetics). Therefore, there are two types of carbohydrates: high glycaemic index carbohydrates and low glycaemic index.

What’s the big deal about high or low glycaemic index (GI)? When carbohydrates are digested slower than usual, the release of glucose into the bloodstream will be at a rate that ensures that your blood sugar level doesn’t go up as high. This is actually pretty much reflects the former idea of complex carbohydrate when more time is taken up to break the component of the carbohydrate (and more calories are needed as well). Advance technology has produced more refined carbohydrates that made the high glycaemic index range. Over-consumption of this type of carbohydrates can cause an increase on the risk of developing heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer as well as promoting weight gain.

Carbohydrates in foods consist of different starches and sugars. They are found in grains and their products, as well as legumes, fruits and starchy vegetable.

If you attempt to reduce carbohydrate intake drastically, your body will be force to use up the energy from fats and protein and you will lose consequently. This is mostly loss of water in the body, which is released from the muscle and the liver when you use up the glycogen, you will also lose muscle. That is exactly what will happen when your calorie intake falls too low. On the contrary, if you are taking too much carbohydrate, you will gain body fat faster, especially in case when your body is receiving more calories than the body needs to run on the daily activities. So, if you are thinking of losing wealth and be healthy too, consider taking ‘good’ carbohydrate with a little less calories than you actually need within a day.

 Related posts:

1. List of Carbohydrate Foods – Foods Rich In Carbohydrate
2. The importance of fats: Type of fats and fats functions in general
3. The importance of protein: Protein functions and food sources
4. From Bed to Breakfast: The Importance of Breakfast
5. Dietary Fiber functions and food sources