What are carbohydrates and which ones are healthy?

Carbohydrates or carbs are in the limelight dietary. The recommendation of the World Health Organization is that they provide between 55 and 75 percent of daily calories. The foods rich in carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice or potatoes They should therefore enjoy a generous presence on the menus.

However, many people look at them with suspicion because they have read or heard somewhere that they are related to overweight, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Subsistence allowance what have been done popular among those who want to lose weight, such as Atkins, MonLignac or the Zone, propose that it be restricted its consumption.

Instead, other experts say, based on recent research, that carbohydrates are important for the energy they provide and also because some of their components They favor the proper functioning of the immune system and the body in general.

If the specialists themselves contradict themselves, it is not strange that the rest of the people are lost. However, the current state of knowledge about carbohydrates makes it possible to extract sensible and useful recommendations for designing a balanced diet.

What are carbohydrates

From a chemical point of view, Carbohydrates -also called carbohydrates or sugars- are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Its main function is to provide energybeing, in comparison with proteins and fats, those that they produce it with a cleaner combustion in cells and leaving less waste in the body.

From a nutritional point of view, they can be classified into three types:

monosaccharide

From the Greek sakcharon, which means sugar. Are the simpler carbohydrates.

To this group belong:

The glucose It is found in small amounts in fruits and vegetables, and is relatively abundant in grapes. fructosethe sweetest monosaccharide, is abundant in some plant foods, especially fruits. galactose It is part of lactose or milk sugar along with glucose.

Oligosaccharides

They are made up of short monosaccharide chainss. They are present in fruit, milk, table sugar, honey…

Within the oligosaccharides are also included the maltodextrinsthat industrially obtained from starch and are used in infant formulas.

Monosaccharides and oligosaccharides are also called simple carbohydrates and polysaccharides complex.

polysaccharides

They are made up of long chains of monosaccharides.

They are further classified into two types:

starch, also known as starch, is the energy reserve of plants and is essentially made up of long chains of glucose. Foods that provide it are cereals, legumes or potatoes. to digest starch you need to cook or sprout them first.The fiber it is so resistant to enzymes that the digestive system can barely extract nutrients from it. But beneficial gut bacteria can feed on fiber. is in vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and legumes. Although fiber is important for health, does not provide energy and is usually separated from the category of carbohydrates.

Function of carbohydrates

But whatever the type of carbohydrate or whatever it is called, the digestive system uses it to obtain glucose, which is the main source of energy for cells (each gram becomes four calories).

The blood carries the glucose that leaves the intestine to all corners of the body. passing by the liverthis creates a reserve in the form of glycogen (100 g maximum)which is transformed back into glucose when necessary (between meals, for example).

Glycogen is also stored in the muscles (about 200 g)which use it to produce energy when the body performs energetic movements.

When glycogen stores are at their peak, excess glucose is turned into fat., the long-term energy reserve. And this is where one of the keys to the controversy over carbohydrates lies: the surplus glucose becomes fat.

As the body is also able to obtain glucose from proteins and fats, some authors consider that carbohydrates are not essential nutrients, that is, they are not essential.

Is our body prepared to take carbohydrates?

They usually use the diet of human beings as an example. before the invention of agriculture: the basic nutrients in their diet were the proteins and fats of the animals they hunted and they only occasionally obtained a small amount of carbohydrate from the fruits they gathered or from edible tubers.

Defenders of the call “paleolithic diet” do not eliminate carbohydrates, but they restrict them to 25 or 30 of the calories, and propose to obtain them from fruits and vegetables, not cereals or legumes.

The question to be asked is whether this is the most sensible solution to current health problems. Since the invention of agricultureabout ten thousand years ago, the human being has enjoyed thanks to cereals and legumes a stable energy source.

The grains, easy to store, allowed the development of the great civilizations: wheat in Africa and the Middle East, rice in Asia, corn in America.

On the other hand, experience has shown that with a diet based on carbohydrates as the main source of energy you can keep a optimal health and no overweight problems, diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. Traditional diets in the Mediterranean, Asia or America show it to this day.

What is the problem with carbohydrates?

That now people do not eat the same foods rich in carbohydrates as before and which are accompanied by an abundance of other products.

Today we eat white bread, refined sugar and pastries, when in the past the whole grains or their lightly sifted flour were consumed. In addition, they are ingested meats and fats in notable quantities from animals raised under confinement conditions, while a few decades ago these foods were a luxury and came from animals that lived outdoors.

To complicate the situationtoday much less exercise is done.

To explain the difference between the carbohydrates that are eaten now and those that were eaten before, or what is the same, between the least recommended and the most recommended, reference is often made to the fast-absorbing and slow-absorbing carbohydrates.

The rapids, such as sugar, white bread or white rice, are transformed into glucose in a few minutes and they favor the excess in the blood that turns into fat.

Besides, sudden rises stimulate the secretion of insulin, the hormone that helps metabolize glucose. These insulin spikes cause cells lose sensitivity to its action.

It is a disorder that has been called insulin resistance and that is rrelated to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and the so-called “metabolic syndrome”, which is often accompanied by high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, as well as hypertension.

Are there essential sugars?

Keys to health can be found in carbohydrates that have gone unnoticed.

Some researchers state that just as there are eight essential amino acids, there are also eight other essential sugars. They will play an important role in communication between cells.

These sugars (polysaccharides or simple sugar chains) combine with amino acids and fatty acids to make thousands of glycoforms different cells that act as messengers between cells and that result essential for the immune system to recognize viruses, bacteria and pathogenic cells.

would be the responsibleat least in part, the immunity-enhancing effect of mushrooms such as shitake and reishi or aloe vera.

The glycemic index and carbohydrates

The general rule to prevent all these evils consisted until recently in moderating the products made with refined flour and prefer whole grains and legumes, that is, slow absorption carbohydrates.

But in recent times it is advisable to take into account the tables of glycemic index (GI)which should serve to know exactly the speed of glucose absorption provided by foods rich in carbohydrates.

However, it can actually do more to confuse than clarify things. According to the most popular GI table, cooked carrots are the food that produces the fastest glucose spike and white bread and whole wheat bread have practically the same GI.

So, Were the traditional recommendations wrong? No. Happens that the calculation of the GI is equivocal: indicates the rate of absorption of “carbohydrates from the food”, not “from the food”.

The difference is very important. The GI of carrots, 92, corresponds to the intake of 100 grams of its carbohydrates, which are found in… 1,300 grams of carrots! More useful would be to know the effect of regular servings of whole foods.

That is why they are becoming popular two new indices: the “glycemic load” and the “insulin index”.

The glycemic load is based on the glycemic index but takes into account the entire composition of the food and the size of the serving. It is obtained by multiplying the amount of carbohydrates in the food by the GI and dividing the result by the grams that the ration weighs.

Can compare the difference between GI and glycemic load with carrots, white bread and brown rice, for example.

He glycemic index for carrots is 92, for white bread is 69, and for brown rice is 66.

If we take portions of 50 g of these foods we obtain that glycemic loads are 7.5, 34.5 and 15 units.

I mean, the food that seemed most rapidly absorbed (the carrot) is actually the slowest, because It has a lot of fiber that delays the assimilation of glucosewhile brown rice barely provides half the glycemic load of white bread.

On the other hand, heThe correct use of the concept of glycemic load requires that the entire menu be taken into account. Thus, some baked potatoes that in principle have a high glycemic load, if combined with peas, a salad and an apple for dessert, give an acceptable glycemic load.

The insulin index measures insulin secretion after eating a meal. instead of blood glucose levels.

Pretty close to the glycemic index but highlights certain foods that cause an exaggerated insulin response in relation to its proportion of carbohydrates. It’s about the pastry products, rich in fats and refined flours.

On the other hand, studies on the insulin index have also shown that Certain foods rich in protein, such as cow’s milk, favor the rise in…