We typically hear the notion that we should steer away from simple carbohydrates, towards complex ones. That very direction implies a question:<\/p>\n
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<\/em> one, depending on how you word it).<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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:)<\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n www.diabetes.co.uk,<\/a><\/p>\n Mader, Sylvia S. Inquiry into Life<\/i>, ninth ed. Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 2000.<\/p>\n