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
