What is a carbohydrate? What is the difference between a simple carb and a complex carb?

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Well first off, a carbohydrate (aka carb) is an energy source for the body and is found in foods composed of starches and sugars. The body uses carbs not only as energy but is also used in the immune system, fertilization, pathogenesis, blood clotting, and development. Carbs are broken down into two kinds. Simple carbs and complex carbs.

Simple carbs are composed of one smaller molecule sugar (monosaccharides) or two sugars bonded together (disaccharides). These are fast digesting carbs that the body can use immediately but the downside is that if you consume too much of these simple carbs the body will need to store it. Simple carbs are then converted to glycogen as storage until the body is ready to use it. Areas that glycogen stores occur are in the liver and in the muscle cells. However there is only a certain amount of space the cell can hold as glycogen so the excess amount of simple carbs will then be converted into the body as fat as a storage.

Sources of simple carbs are pastry’s, candies, fruits, bakery’s, and table sugar to name a few. Fruits are a naturally occurring simple carb, but most fruits have fiber in them which help slow the digestion and unless you consume a lot of fruit and stay inactive after you consume them the chance of them converting to fat as storage is slim.

Complex carbs are a chain of three or more single sugar molecule linked together which are composed from a wholegrain form such as, brown rice, oats, wholegrain bread, muesli, nuts, fruits, cereal, pasta, potatoes, corn, carrots, and vegetables. Complex carbs are not digested fast like simple carbs are; rather they are digested more slowly giving a more even disbursement of energy throughout the day.

Here are some foods that have simple carbs:

Table sugar, cakes, pickles, biscuits, jam, chocolate, fudge, candy, toffee, gum, boiled sweets, tinned fruits, sodas, honey, liquorice

Here are some foods that have complex carbs:

Lentils, beans, peas, oatcakes, yam, corn, muesli, shredded wheat, oat bran, porridge, high fiber cereals, wholegrain cereal, pita bread, brown bread, bagel, potatoes, root vegetables, brown rice, spaghetti, macaroni, pasta.