Different Types of Carbohydrates

There is not just one type of carbohydrate. If there was, then everything would be made too easy for people to lose weight. However, there are only two different types, simple and complex.

Simple Carbohydrates

These carbohydrates have only a one or two sugar molecular structure. They can be quickly digested, which causes blood sugars to rise very quickly. Then there is a fast reaction of insulin that is released to carry the sugar from the bloodstream to the body’s cells to be burned as energy.

Simple carbohydrates are a good source for energy, however, moderation of consumption is needed to make sure that there are no extreme changes in your blood sugar levels. Some examples of simple carbohydrates are: sugars from dairy, natural sugars from fruit, and refined sugars.

Complex Carbohydrates

These types of carbohydrates take a lot longer to digest, because they are made up of many sugar molecules. There are starchy and fibrous complex carbohydrates. Some examples of starchy carbohydrates are: beans, pasta, grains, and potatoes. Although fibrous carbohydrates are not digestible, they are a very important part of anyone’s diet, because they keep your digestive system clean and healthy.

Carbohydrates are Good and Bad

There is always a good and a bad choice for what you should eat. We should have more complex carbohydrates than we do simple carbohydrates, because they can better control the fluctuation of our blood sugar, and the release of insulin to carry that sugar. They also have a better nutritional value (see a list of good carbohydrate sources). However, there is more to just having complex carbohydrates, because some of them, like potatoes, break down into sugar rather fast. This complication has given us another system to go by, the glycemic index (GI).

There are some physicians who, just recently, have began to blame carbohydrates as the cause for people being overweight or obese. However, this is just a simple way to view the problem. Low carbohydrate diets can lack the source of energy and cause the loss of lean muscle mass. This can cause the result in weight loss. So, to help with the problem, health associations, like the American Heart Association, has made recommendations for carbohydrate intake.

Keep Refined Food to a Minimum

There are a lot reasons why refined carbohydrates are so consistent in our diets nowadays. These refined carbohydrates are really complex carbohydrates turned bad, like refined white sugar and bread. This is because all of their nutritional value has been removed. When this happens, their particles are made smaller which will allow them to be digested faster, causing them to act as simple carbohydrates instead. So when you have the choice, natural foods are always the better decision.