dustycanyon6 said:I guess you’ve said it all... and really shown your true colors here... You probably tell sick people: hey, let's go to McDonald's, you'll get tons of food loaded with monosaccharides and feel just fine. People are becoming more aware of how bad sugar is, yet you try to "prove" your wrong views by leaving out vital info. Just keep it up, I suppose. 👎 Hopefully, nobody actually listens to you. 😉
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Carbohydrates
Carbs are the primary energy source for all bodily functions and muscle activity, and they're necessary to help with digestion and the assimilation of other substances.
How are they categorized within the group?
Where is the truth in this?
Excess sugar - fat
Disaccharides-polysaccharides
Complex carbohydrates
The name carbohydrate comes from an old assumption that these were compounds made of carbon and water. That old definition has been expanded significantly now, as the group includes a whole range of compounds classified into the following categories:
a) sugar alcohols;
b) amino sugars;
c) anhydro sugars and
d) deoxy sugars.
For our bodies, carbohydrates are basically fuel for vehicles. This means these substances are required just so our metabolism can function at all.
Carbohydrates represent the most significant energy source among all the nutrients we consume daily. In the American diet, carbs make up about 55-60% of total calories consumed through food during the day. One gram of carbohydrate provides about 4 calories when burned—similar to protein—which is more than double what 1 gram of fat provides.
For a long time, it was thought that the amount of carbohydrates in a diet was an indicator of the dietary habits of a certain population or even the economic status of the people being observed. Essentially, the common belief was that people with lower purchasing power used more carbohydrates in their daily diet (bread, potatoes, rice) than those with higher economic standards, who included significantly fewer carbohydrates and more proteins (meat, milk, cheese) and fats. But, does such a division mean that populations with better economic standing eat healthier? Not necessarily!
How are they categorized within the group?
Carbohydrates, or sugars, are a group of very diverse compounds found in our bodies, and since they also make up parts of animal and plant species, we get them largely through food. They are divided into simple sugars or monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and complex sugars or polysaccharides.
Monosaccharides, or simple sugars, consist of just one carbohydrate molecule. In food, we mainly find glucose (which is abundant in corn and other vegetables) and fructose (found in honey, various fruits, fruit products, and also called fruit or grape sugar). Glucose is also the main monosaccharide in our blood, and its concentrations must always stay within certain limits (63-99 mg/dL) to ensure all tissues, especially the brain, have a sufficient source of "food and energy."Oligosaccharides are sugars consisting of two to ten monosaccharide units. In the diet, the most significant are disaccharides (composed of two monosaccharide units). The most famous disaccharide is sucrose, or table sugar. It is obtained from processing sugar beets or sugarcane. Lately, this type of sugar has come under heavy fire, and it's often recommended to only consume it in the form of so-called "unrefined, raw brown sugar."
Where’s the truth in all this?
The term "raw sugar" is pretty much a misnomer. I guess you can't actually buy truly raw sugar at the store. Any sugar you find on a shelf in an American supermarket has been processed at least partially just to strip out impurities and other junk. Brown sugar is really just refined sugar coated in molasses. Maybe the only real upside to using it over white sugar is that it might not trigger as much fermentation or extra bloating from microbes in your gut.
Sucrose—or plain old table sugar—is a dangerous substance in any form, honestly. It’s probably best to keep it to an absolute minimum in your daily diet. Our bodies aren't built for, or even adapted to, the massive amounts of sucrose we consume every single day. The worst part is that we often don't even realize we're eating it because it's "hidden" in various products (see the chart). When people talk about "hidden calories," they're usually referring to sugars and fats that you wouldn't notice at first glance.
Excess sugar equals fat.
It's worth noting that any extra sugar our bodies don't use for immediate energy gets converted into stored fat, which is a major culprit behind obesity. Beyond weight gain, overdoing it on sugar can damage the pancreas; when you factor in stress and genetics, that's how you end up with diabetes. Plus, it damages blood vessels and leads to atherosclerosis.
Just remember: table sugar provides energy and builds fat, but it doesn't provide a single vitamin or mineral. Disaccharides and Polysaccharides
Regarding other disaccharides, we should mention lactose, or milk sugar. That's produced by mammary glands and is the primary sugar found in milk. Breast milk has the highest concentration (around 7%), while cow, sheep, or goat milk is lower (between 4.5% and 4.8%). Lactose is roughly three times less sweet than sucrose, but it still provides significant nutritional value.
Polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates made up of many monosaccharide units. Usually, that building block is glucose. Polysaccharides include:
a) energy storage in plants (starch) and animals (glycogen);
b) structural components in plants (cellulose).
While our bodies can break down starch and glycogen normally, cellulose falls into the category of "dietary fiber." We can't digest it, but it's necessary for keeping digestion regular and maintaining healthy stool.
Complex Carbohydrates
Complex carbs are a major food group that provides enough energy for our metabolism to function properly. Since these come from high-quality sources like rice, potatoes, grains, fruits, and vegetables, they are highly recommended today. They provide carbohydrates along with a whole spectrum of essential vitamins and minerals. Donatella
