How do carbohydrates impact your health?

Contents

Types Of Carbohydrates 

Monosaccharide

A monosaccharide is simple sugars. Some famous examples of monosaccharide are fructose, glucose and galactose

Disaccharide

When two monosaccharides are linked together, they form disaccharides. For example, lactose and maltose are disaccharides. 

Complex Carbohydrates

When three to more simple sugars are linked together, they are known as complex carbohydrates. 

Oligosaccharide

When three to ten complex sugars are linked together, they are known as oligosaccharides. 

Polysaccharides

When more than ten complex sugars are linked together, it is known as polysaccharides. 

Carbohydrates In A Human Body

When digestion in our body occurs, the carbohydrates are broken down into their respective monosaccharide building blocks which are hence used as energy by our cells. This explains the fact that why the sugar level goes up a little when carbohydrate-rich food is observed. But the interesting fact is that the digestive tract of a human body responds differently to the carbohydrates. 

Starch And Fiber

Though both starch and fibre have monosaccharide joined together, the manners in which they are joined are different. This arrangement changes the effects they have on the body. The glucose molecules in starches are joined together by alpha links while in fibre they are joined together by beta links. 

These beta bonds are difficult for our body to break down. Resistant starch causes the incident of trapping some starches in fibre which prevents them from being cleaved. 

Activities After The Sugar Move From The Digestive Tract

As soon as the sugar moves from the digestive tract to the bloodstream, your body carries the responsibility of transferring it into the tissue so that it can be used for energy. 

Insulin – It is a tool responsible for sugar management. To be very specific it is a hormone synthesized in the pancreas. After you eat and your blood sugar increases, what insulin does is it gets secreted in the blood which allows the glucose to let in so that it can convert the sugar into energy.

Insulin sensitivity states that the more a given unit of insulin lowers blood sugar, the more sensitive the person is to insulin. When insulin-sensitive goes, it will be known as insulin resistance and consumption of lots of carbohydrates leads to an increase in insulin resistance. 

This will then give rise to metabolic syndrome which revolves around symptoms such as increased waist circumference, high blood pressure and more. This in turn increases the chances of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

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