Keeping It Real

I was talking to my mother today about my blog and she was talking about the importance of eating complex carbs versus simple carbs and avoiding sugars.  As she was talking I realized I knew, in general, what she meant, but not in detail.  Of course I can look for sugar on the label and I know that it comes by many different names.  But in planning a healthy menu could I really pick healthier carb choices?  Since I wasn’t sure I looked it up.  Part of my journey back to health is admitting that I thought I knew it all, and I really knew nothing at all.  And let’s face it, even the stuff I did know didn’t make that much difference if I wasn’t willing to look at the label to begin with. 

What are carbs?

Carbohydrates are made up of sugars. There are a bunch of different types of sugar, but in our body converts them all to glucose, which we use to create energy.  Glucose is the main sugar present in many foods but some contain different sugars, such as fructose in fruit, lactose in milk, and corn syrup which is a combination of sugars. There are 4 calories in a gram of carbohydrates. 

What are complex carbohydrates?

Complex carbohydrates or starch are simply sugars bonded together to form a chain. Digestive enzymes have to work much harder to access the bonds to break the chain into individual sugars for absorption through the intestines. For this reason digestion of complex carbohydrates takes longer. The slow absorption of sugars provides us with a steady supply of energy and limits the amount of sugar converted into fat and stored.  Some foods that are high in complex carbs are:

•  Pasta
• Brown rice
• Potatoes
• Whole meal breads
• Wholegrain cereals
• Corn
• Oats
• Peas
• Beans
• Lentils

 What are simple carbohydrates?

Simple carbohydrates are smaller molecules of sugar unlike the long chains in starch. For example the individual sugars themselves – glucose, fructose and dextrose.  They are digested quickly because the individual sugars are ready to be absorbed immediately plus digestive enzymes have easy access to the bonds in the paired molecules. You could say most of the work has been done!

Their rapid absorption increases the chances of sugar converting to fat but only if there is an abundance of energy absorbed. Foods like cake, pastry, biscuits, chocolate and too much table sugar to name a few contain lots of “empty” calories. Because our cells usually do not require that amount of energy at that time, the sugar must either be converted to glycogen (sugar storage within cells ) or converted to fat. The cell can only store a limited amount of glycogen so in many cases simple carbohydrate loaded foods may contribute to body fat stores. This rule can change if the glycogen levels are low such as after anaerobic exercise!

Other natural foods like fruit contain naturally occurring simple sugars, however because the amount of energy is low there’s less chance for sugar to be converted to fat. Plus many fruits are high in fiber which helps slow digestion again limiting the flood of sugar energy into cells when it’s not needed!  Some simple carb foods:

• Table sugar
• Candy
• Soda
• Cakes
• Jam
• Gums
• Honey