Thursday, March 30, 2017

THE STORY OF SUGAR AND STARCH




 

Plenty is being said about sugar and carbohydrates these days with diabetes, heart disease and obesity being the problem.  We can easily get confused: is sugar bad or are carbohydrates bad?

 

BASIC:
UNDERSTANDING SUGAR AND CARBOHYDRATES.
1.
Carbohydrates:
·         Body require carbohydrates because they are main source of energy
·         45%-65% of our calories should came from carbohydrates. (United States Department of Agriculture)
·         Are more easily broken down by body for energy compared to protein and fats
·         Important for maintaining smooth order of our heart, muscles, central nervous system and others.
·         Why carbohydrates getting a bad reputation.
-       Because we tend to consume in excess
-       Because we fail to consider the types of carbohydrates we’re taking.
2.
Sugar
·          Is a type of carbohydrate
·         Can be further divided into
-       Simple sugars
-       Complex sugars:
Ø   Include rice, pastas, potatoes and also grains
Ø  Also known as starch
-       Fructose is found in fruits
-       Simple sugars:
o   Sucrose is the table sugar
o   Both fructose and sucrose are broken down by our bodies into glucose, our source of energy
-       Complex sugar:
o   Includes rice, pastas, potatoes, and also grains
o   Also known as starch
-       Starch usually doesn’t taste quite as sweet as simple sugars.
Ø  That’s why we don’t really think of “sweet” when we’re eating rice or pastas.
-       Our body break down complex sugar such as starch into glucose  (just like they do with the simple sugars)

Both simple sugar and starches are broken down into glucose:

Why:          i.       some starches have a stellar reputation

ii.       Some starches get a bad come

iii.      Simple sugars are considered villains

 

Answer:              depending on how fast the body breaks down these sugar and and get them into our bloodstream.

 

Glycaemic index (GI).

  • An index used to measure how fast body breaks down the sugars.
     
  • 2 types

  • Low GI foods

  • Foods slowly broken down by the body so that the sugar gets into our system gradually

  • High GI foods

  • The exact opposite.

 

  • Simple sugars are usually high GI Foods.

  • Are easily broken down by the body and quickly get into the blood stream.

  • Causing spikes in the body’s blood sugar level.
  • The body then respond to this spike by releasing a flood of insulin, which transports this glucose from the blood stream intro our cells where the glucose in converted into energy.
  • Problem :

  • When so much insulin is released; our body thinks we’ve got too much glucose and stores this as fat to be burned off later.
  • Resulting:

  • Because there’s a lot of insulin in the blood stream, the glucose depletion happens pretty fast.
  • Causing our blood sugar dropping drastically and suddenly
  • When these happen, we feel lethargic and hungry.

 

Avoid simple sugars vs stick to complex sugars or starches

  • Starches do not break down as easily as simple sugar. (Slow Digestible starch-SDS).
  • Different types of starches do get digested faster than other (Rapidly digestible  starch-RDS)
  • Foods are typically a combination of both
  • Rice = combination of amylose and amylopectin
  • Smart move would be to stick to foods with a higher amylose-to-amylopectin ratio because these promote slower digestion and more gradual release of glucose into the blood stream.

 

Shared From article by:

The story of sugar and starch.

www.grayoos.com

Body, mind and soul

The Star, Tuesday,

02 February 2016

 

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