Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are made up of two types complex and simple. These include sugars, starches, and fibers. Carbohydrates are necessary to the body to provide energy and assist in lowering cholesterol. Restricting carbohydrates from the body can lead to such things as dehydration.
Carbohydrates   come from a variety of foods such as breads, pasta, fruit, soda, milk, potatoes, and candy. The most common form of carbohydrates are sugars, fibers, and starches. The basic component of a carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple combination of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (Harvard School of Public Health, 2007).   Eventually all carbohydrates are transformed into glucose.
Sugars include those found within plants, for example, fruit or milk. Added sugars are those added to other foods such as soft drinks and candy. Starches are found in foods such as potatoes, bread, rice and pasta and may be referred to as complex carbohydrates. Fibers are a type of carbohydrate found in plants, but unlike sugars and starches it is not absorbed so it does not provide a significant amount of energy.
There are two types of Carbohydrates known as simple and complex (University Hospital, 2006).
Complex carbohydrates such as whole grain breads and starchy vegetables consist of 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. Since this process is so complex digesting complex carbohydrates takes a longer then breaking down simple carbohydrates. The slow absorption of sugars provides people with a steady supply of energy. This limits the amount of sugar converted into fat that is stored.
Simple carbohydrates such as candy, and soda are smaller molecules of sugar unlike the long chains in starch. Two of the most common simple carbohydrates are fructose and glucose. They are digested quickly because the individual sugars are ready to be absorbed immediately plus...