Carbohydrates – Interesting Facts

Carbohydrates – Interesting Facts

February 23, 2013

Carbohydrate Foods

Carbohydrates foods are the important category of our Coal Foods, others being Fats and Proteins. In many forms, carbohydrates are the important component of our staple foods. Carbohydrates play an important role in promoting our health. Carbohydrates can be taken-up in different forms i.e. in the form of sugar, starch and fiber.

Carbohydrates are known for its important property i.e. they provide instant energy, and because of this, the carbohydrate foods act as the perfect fuel that enable us to carry out our physical activities efficiently and effectively. Fiber does wonders in keeping your bowel function going smooth. Give a chance to as many forms of carbohydrates as possible to nourish you, because if nature has produced it in many forms, then she must be having a reason for that. Apart from this, every nutritionist also advises to go in for distinctive carbohydrate food sources. Read further to explore the major functions of carbohydrates in the body.

  • Carbohydrates as Fuel: The Carbohydrates contain no nitrogen except a mere trace in the framework of the grains or roots they grow in. They burn very clean; that is, almost the whole of them is turned into carbon dioxide gas and water. This burning quality makes the Carbohydrates a capital fuel both in the body and out of it.

Ancient history remind us of the fact that how settlers out on the prairies, who were a long way from a railroad and had no wood or coal, but plenty of corn, would fill their coal scuttles with corn and burn that in their stoves; and “a very bright, hot fire it made”

  • Carbohydrates aid in balancing the blood glucose levels and provide the right amount of energy when consumed in the right amounts. Too much carbohydrate intake can increase surplus mass in the body which, in turn, leads to serious health problems like diabetes, hypertension, etc.
  • The sugars and starches are the two important categories of carbohydrates, Starches and Sugars can not be utilized by the blood until they are changed into other forms of sugar called Dextrose. Sugar existing in fruits is in the form that is ready to be taken us by the blood. Another name for them is dextrose.
  • It is always advised that a good amount of mastication is must while taking in the Starch foods. As starch is only very slowly soluble, or “melt-able,” in water in comparison to Sugar. And good mastication allow saliva to play its role in the process of melting down this Starch. Saliva, from the fact that it contain A Ferment, or Digestive Substance (Ptyalin), which possesses the power of turning the Starch in our food into Sugar or glucose and this is the reason, why bread or cracker, after it has been well chewed, begins to taste sweetish.
  • Carbohydrate in the form of pure sugar, as it appears upon our tables, is an unsatisfied compound. It does not appear in this concentrated and refined form in nature, but mixed with vegetable and mineral matters. Pure sugar is especially hungry for calcium and therefore robs the bones and the teeth when taken in excess. The most noticeable effect is the decay of the teeth. Although if taken in natural form, it poses no harm to the Body. The sugar in these fruits is not concentrated and hence not poses any irritation. Apart from this, Fruits contain the other necessary salts needed by the body.
  • Carbohydrate in the form of Sugar is an irritant of the mucous membrane and hence stimulates the appetite, when taken in excess in its artificial form. When much sugar is taken, it not only irritates the stomach, but it even inflames this organ.
  • Starches need more change than sugars before being absorbed by the blood, but they give better results. Chemically there is, but small difference between starch and sugar. The starch first must be changed into Dextrose, a form of sugar, before it can be utilized by the body.

Sugar eating is largely a habit. Refinement of sugar results in removal of many of the necessary salts and life removed in its refinement. Nature demands of us that we should not get too refined in our habits, because excessive refinement is eventually followed by decay. 

 

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