Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the fuel for your body – they give you the energy you need every day.  Your body turns the carbohydrates you eat into glucose, which gives you energy.  If you eat lots of carbohydrate and your body makes a lot of glucose, it cannot use it all at one so the glucose is saved as glycogen in your liver and muscles.  This is stored until you need it and once the stores are full, the extra glycogen is turned into fat.

There are two different types of carbohydrates – complex and simple.  Complex carbohydrates are also called starches, and these have lots of nutrients and give you energy more slowly over a longer period of time.  Simple carbohydrates are also called sugars and you can find these everywhere.  Sugar makes food taste nice, which is why people add so much to their food from the sugar bowl or eat foods that have lots of sugar.  These are refined sugars and it’s not a good idea to eat too many foods containing refined sugar.  Simple carbohydrates have lots of calories and give you energy very quickly, but only for a short time so that you feel hungry again soon after.  You are better off getting your simple sugars from foods like fruit or milk because as well as natural simple sugars, they contain fibre, vitamins and minerals like calcium – all of which are very healthy.

When you eat carbohydrates, complex or simple, natural or refined, your body breaks them all down to simple sugars.  The sugars go to your bloodstream and raise the sugar levels in your body.  To move the sugar from your bloodstream to your cells, where it can be used as a source of energy, your pancreas releases a hormone called insulin.  This process happens quite slowly when you eat complex carbohydrates and the amount of sugar in your body stays pretty level.  When you eat simple carbohydrates (natural or refined sugar), this process happens quite quickly so you are going to feel hungry very quickly.  More importantly, the level of sugar in your blood will rise and fall very quickly which puts pressure on your pancreas to produce insulin.  Scientist think that lots of quick changes in the level of a persons blood sugar can lead to problems like diabetes and heart disease when they are older so its best to eat just a little simple carbohydrate and more of the complex carbohydrates.  What does that really mean – eat less sweets and sweet things and more wholegrain foods!

Did you know…?

You have, on average, 4 teaspoons of sugar in your blood!