The Word on Weightloss

Whole grains, no grains, low-carb, no carb...we've been hearing and reading about carbs and diets for quite a few years now. What’s all the hype and what should I listen to in order to meet my weight loss program goals? What’s the truth about carbohydrates and what do you need to know about them relative to your diet?

Here are the basics. Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for your body and come from the plant-based foods that you eat. The way that carbohydrates work is simple, you can either use their energy right away or your body can convert them into fat to use later.

Carbohydrates are grouped into two categories.

Simple Sugars
Simple sugars are used throughout our body and brain for energy every day. Simple sugars are molecules made of one or two sugar units. Single sugars are:

• Glucose
• Fructose
• Galactose

When these are formed into different combinations they are considered “two sugars” otherwise known as disaccharides. Examples of these types of sugars include:

• Lactose which is milk sugar.
• Sucrose which is the white powdery table sugar.
• Maltose which is produced during the malting of cereals. 

Simple sugars are easily absorbed into the bloodstream via the small intestine.

Complex Carbohydrates
Starch is an example of a complex carbohydrate that made up of long chains of the single sugar unit, glucose. These complex carbohydrates can be in the shape of a long chain or branches. Two examples of complex carbohydrates are:

• Glycogen which is the glucose found in the muscles and livers of animals.
• Cellulose which the structural component of complex plants that helps them keep their shape.

Humans are unable to digest cellulose in its whole form. We are only able to digest it as a component of fiber. Dietary starch and cellulose are the complex carbohydrates that are important to nutrition.
 
How Carbohydrates Work
Your body begins the process of breaking carbohydrates even before we start to eat them. For example, you smell the delicious aroma of home-made, fresh-baked (low-fat) banana bread your mouth begins to water. Since table sugar is water-soluble, it begins to dissolve in the saliva in your mouth. Your saliva also contains a small amount of amylase, which is an enzyme that starts to break starch down into glucose while you are chewing.

The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much the same way—it breaks them down (or tries to break them down) into single sugar molecules, since only these are small enough to cross into the bloodstream. It also converts most digestible carbohydrates into glucose (also known as blood sugar), because cells are designed to use this as a universal energy source.

Once in the blood, the sugar molecules are either

• used for energy,
• stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen, or
• if there is more energy available than you can use, they are converted and stored as fat.

Some popular diets treat carbohydrates as if they are just pure evil and the root of all body fat. There is some evidence that a low-carbohydrate diet may help individuals loose weight more quickly than a low-fat diet. So far, however, the evidence is short term because it’s very hard to sustain a diet with little to no carbohydrates. With any successful diet or weight loss plan, eat in moderation. Include fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grain carbohydrates into your diet every day to stock up on the vitamins and minerals that they contain which are essential to good health and a great weight loss program.