A Simple Guide to Understand the Role of Carbohydrates and How to Control Them.

In recent times, the topic of carbohydrates has been the main subject of many situations in the common life, it is spoken in any conversation, TV programs, at gyms, and social network. And maybe is because of it, that there’s been misinformation about it, bringing as result a lot of diseases in consequence of random diets creating health problems.

Fortunately, there’s been something good in the bad, and it’s that the glitches presented have generated interest in the consumers and populations, in general, to know more about them, to understand them, and to have the ability to know how to control them. So this has brought many questions in the society like: are carbs good or bad? Should I eradicate them? What are them? So continue reading and you’ll find many answers.

What Are Carbohydrates?

If there’s something you need to be sure about is that carbohydrates are the gasoline that brings energy to get our body ready and active for the day by day. They are found in an extensive way of equally healthy and unhealthy foods – bread, milk, popcorn, potatoes, beans, etc. They come in different forms as well, such as fiber, sugars, and starches.

How are Carbohydrates Used by the Body?

When we consume carbohydrates, they come into the form of sugars that suffer many processes to create glucose, being this the truly combustible that’s moved around the body in the blood system to get to the brain, muscles, and other essential cells.

The human body acts as an extraordinary machine, when glucose is around there are so many glands and hormones that participate in the process to control glucose levels, such as insulin and glucagon, hormones produced by the pancreas that act like soldiers. You sure have heard about them, don’t you?

When levels of glucose are up, insulin acts by moving this glucose to different parts of the body and assisting its absorption, this way the levels decrease and the excesses can be stowed in the liver or in fat around the organism.

Contrary to up levels, when glucose levels are down, the glucagon is the soldier that goes in the search of glucose in the deposits of the liver, to bring it back into the bloodstream. Just like a perfect mechanism, nothing is lost, it’s transformed instead.

Why Carbohydrates Matter

Carbohydrates play an important role in digestion, assimilation in metabolism and proteins and fats oxidation. Along with proteins and fats, carbohydrates form the three principal macronutrients essentials for an equilibrated diet.

High-fiber carbs are important to come across the body’s daily nutritional requirements while reducing risks for chronic disease, this is founded on studies that have indicated a bigger risk for heart disease with low-fiber nutrition. Furthermore, there is some indication to put forward that fiber in the diet may help to promote weight control and prevent colon cancer as well.

Even though the organism acts like a machine, it’s really conservator, and still, when it can produce glucose from proteins and fats through different processes, it will always go for the convenient and easiest way to create energy, which is using the carbohydrates first. This is why some diets reduce or exclude carbohydrates intakes prompting the body to transform its source of fat to glucose.

Fiber in Carbohydrates

Fiber is the fragment in plant foods that human being can’t digest. Although it isn’t absorbed, it has an important role in our organism. Fiber reduces the absorption of additional nutrients consumed at the same meal, counting carbohydrates.

• This reduction may aid avoid peaks and valleys in blood sugar levels, decreasing risk for type 2 diabetes.
• Certain kinds of fiber set up in beans, some fruits and oats can low blood cholesterol as well.
• Another advantage is that it helps people feel full, adding to satiety.

Types of Carbohydrates

What we don’t know is how to differentiate the quality of carbohydrates, they change according to its chemical composition. Not all carbohydrates provide the same nutrients than others, ones are always better options than those that bring only calories and a little combustible that runs out easily, and these are called simple carbohydrates.

On the other hand, complex carbohydrates have a higher nutritional value than the simple ones. These contain fiber and vitamins and the energy that they bring has more durability due to longevity it takes to get completely absorbed in the body.

Differences between Simple and Complex Carbs

As its name indicates, simple carbohydrates are formed by simple sugars with a chemical structure that is constructed by one or two refined sugars, they are digested quickly and generate insufficiently nutritive value, due to they don’t contain enough essential nutrients, as this process goes fast, you’re more perspective to feel hungry again soon.

You must know which the ones we’re talking about are:  refined sugars, white bread, sweets, cakes, sugars, syrups, honey, marmalades, puddings, packed cereals, chocolates, etc. All of that food full of that addictive sugar that we love and let us nothing but desiring more of it.

Fruits are also considered simple carbs, but what differentiates them from the previous ones is that they do have real elements that our organism knows how to take advantage of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants and they are ideal for our diary diet, taking care of the portions and hours we consume them.

Complex carbohydrates have a complex chemical structure and they take much longer to get digested and that’s why they don’t raise sugar levels up in blood and act like the gasoline the body needs for energy production this the reason you’ll feel satisfied for a longer time. The principal foods are Zucchini, broccoli, vegetables, beans, chickpeas, and others.

The difference between simple a complex carbohydrate is that the first ones are for immediate use and they are stored and transformed in fats that stock in the tissues for future use. On the other side, the complex ones have a high nutritional value, which has innumerable benefits for our organism and gives the energy we need as well.     

Recommendations

• Don’t go with the mass, every organism is different and not everybody has the same needs. There are some foods and ways of foods that work perfect for some people but not for others and you have to be conscious of that.
• Make distributions of your foods and eat sufficiently of fruits and vegetables, incorporate beans, and bean products.
• Change to whole grains every time you have the chance.
• Choose to eat whole fruit in its place of juice, the fruit has two times more fiber and a half as much sugar as a 10-ounce glass of juice.
• Knowing this, you can create a comparison between the foods and its forms, benefits, and disadvantages, and that way you now can choose wisely what you eat.

Keywords: Carbohydrates, Carbohydrate, Carbs, Simple Carbohydrates, Complex Carbohydrates, Fiber.