Lifestyle: carbohydrates, part 0: simple vs complex, from an eater’s point of view

Nutrition involves constant self-tutoring. The tutor brings up carbohydrates.

We typically hear the notion that we should steer away from simple carbohydrates, towards complex ones. That very direction implies a question:

  • What is the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates?

I did some research today and found that, from a common point of view, a simple carbohydrate – aka a sugar – has two or less rings, while a complex carbohydrate has three or more. Sucrose, for example, has two rings, while glucose has one (or is one, depending on how you word it).

Thinking of a complex carbohydrate as many glucose molecules strung together is a useful way to understand it, but the specific molecules may not all be glucose necessarily. Fructose is also a single-ring sugar.

Starch is a complex carbohydrate. It’s a chain, possibly branched, that can contain hundreds of rings, or more. Starch is the carbohydrate found in vegetables such as beans, as well as grains.

When people talk about complex carbohydrates from a dietary point of view, they usually mean starch. However, that’s not the end of the discussion. I’ll be talking more about carbohydrates from a nutritional point of view:)

Source:

www.diabetes.co.uk,

Mader, Sylvia S. Inquiry into Life, ninth ed. Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

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