Wanna understand the roles and responsibilities of Carbohydrates. Then this article is for you.
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You might have come across Websites or a YouTube Video which mentions what Carbohydrate is.
Most of them would probably mention that carbohydrates make you Fat.
But let me tell you, That's not the complete story.
Carbohydrate is one of the macronutrients which is abundantly available and significantly responsible for our development.
I would highly recommend my new readers to check out, "All about Nutrition - Part I".
For a better understanding of this article.
Carbohydrate is the macronutrient which is extensively available in our Indian Diet.
Carbohydrate is a combination of words Carbo and Hydrate.
Carbo means carbon and Hydrate mean water.
It is a biomolecule which consists of Carbon(C), Hydrogen(H) and Oxygen(O) in which the atom ratio of Hydrogen to Oxygen is 2:1.
Carbohydrates can be classified as follows:
Simple Carbohydrate:
Glucose.
Fructose.
Galactose.
Erythrulose.
Complex Carbohydrate:
Disaccharides include sucrose, lactose, maltose etc.
Polysaccharides include glycogen, cellulose, starch etc.
To avoid complexity, We will further be talking only about glucose.
Whenever we have a meal or a slice pizza which is dense in carbohydrates, Our saliva has a digestive enzyme called, "Amylase" which breaks the carbohydrates into small chains of glucose.
Later our body processes and converts these small chains of glucose into a single unit of sugar.
Now the glucose is ready to enter into our bloodstream. And will be used to perform activities for the day.
Fun Fact: The first organ to receive a single unit of sugar is the Liver.
Glycemic Index (also called GI) is a numeric index which mentions how fast a particular food will increase glucose levels in the blood after 2 hours of consumption.
Lesser the GI value, You are less likely to gain weight, have Type-2 diabetes and Cardiovascular disease.
Here is the table of which mentions the GI value of a particular Food.
Roles of Carbohydrates:
Due to high levels of glucose in our bloodstream, Our body releases a hormone called insulin which mobilizes the water and the nutrition into our muscle and also store excess glucose as fats.
Glucose in our bloodstream is primarily used by our body as fuel for energy.
It prevents the breakdown of muscle and promotes muscle building.
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