Posted on 01/05/2012 7:50:58 AM PST by Brookhaven
I had a bit an epiphany yesterday, but it seems so contray to what I've been told about eating all my life, I'm having a hard time believing my analysis is corret.
I've been working on changing my diet. One of the things I ran across was the fact that eating carbohydrates spikes your blood sugar. Then I heard someone make the comment (and it was almost a throw-away side comment) "of course, carbohydrates are just complex forms of sugar." Really?
The following lines are pulled from here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/161547.php, my insertions are in brackets [my comment].
Saccharides, or carbohydrates, are sugars or starches.There are various types of saccharides:
Monosaccharide - this is the smallest possible sugar unit. Examples include glucose, galactose or fructose. When we talk about blood sugar we are referring to glucose in the blood; glucose is a major source of energy for a cell. In human nutrition, galactose can be found most readily in milk and dairy products, while fructose is found mostly in vegetables and fruit.
Disaccharide - two monosaccharide [simple sugar] molecules bonded together. Disaccharides are polysaccharides - "poly…" specifies any number higher than one, while "di…" specifies exactly two. Examples of disaccharides include lactose, maltose, and sucrose. If you bond one glucose molecule with a fructose molecule you get a sucrose molecule.
Sucrose is found in table sugar, and is often formed as a result of photosynthesis (sunlight absorbed by chlorophyll reacting with other compounds in plants). If you bond one glucose molecule with a galactose molecule you get lactose, which is commonly found in milk.
Polysaccharide - a chain of two or more monosaccharides [simple sugar molecule]. The chain may be branched (molecule is like a tree with branches and twigs) or unbranched (molecule is a straight line with no twigs). Polysaccharide molecule chains may be made up of hundreds or thousands of monosaccharides.
So, carbohydrates are made up of sugar or starch. Monosaccharide, disaccharide, and polysaccharide are all forms of sugar. But, what is starch?
Starch - these are glucose polymers made up of Amylose [short chains of glucose] and Amylopectin [long chains of glucose]. Rich sources of starches for humans include potatoes, rice and wheat.
So, startch is a form of glucose. And, what is glucose? Remember the paragraph above about monosaccharides?
Monosaccharide - this is the smallest possible sugar unit. Examples include glucose, galactose or fructose. When we talk about blood sugar we are referring to glucose in the blood;
So, if carbohydrates are made up of one of the three saccharides (mono, di, or poly--all a type of sugar) or starch (which is made up of glucose--a type of sugar), doesn't that mean carbohydrates are--at the end of the day--just a complex type of sugar?
That's a hard fact for me to accept, because it contradicts everything I've been taught about nutrition. The current recommendation is that at least 50% of a person's calorie intake each day come from carbohydrats (as can be seen in the food pyramid).
But, if carbohydrates are just complex forms of sugar, does that mean 50% of my calories should come from sugar (a complex form of sugar, but sugar none-the-less)?
Given sharp rise in not just childhood obesity and diabetes, but obesity and diabetes in general (all commonly called an epidemic by the medical community), I'm starting to wonder if we just didn't make a mistake. By emphasizing grains (carbohydrates) so heavily in our diets, did we unwittingly emphasize sugar in our diets and cause these epidemics?
I concur with what Jack and Alloy say in their posts above - read up on the Glycemic Index.
Your mileage my vary, but for testimonials: attentiveness to the Glycemic Index on my father-in-law’s diet for 5 years led to his diagnosis of diabetes disappearing (doc said “he no longer appears diabetic”), and after that convinced me to modify my own diet, I lost 40 lbs over 12 months.
For your ref —> http://www.glycemicindex.com/about.php
What about my potato vodka?
Yes but the glucose in fruits and veggies are complex carbs and so are digested more slowly and the fruits and veggies at least are not junk foods.
A friend of mine said her doctor told her she was boraderline diabetic and to give up sugar and flour,and gluten. She did. She was not overwt but dropped about 25 lbs and has kept it off and is now a wee bit too thin but has energy, looks good, feels good and is 78 yrs young.
Then again, there are a lot of people that believe that they somehow violate the Law of Mass/Matter Conservation...
Juice is mostly sugar water. Best avoided other than as a treat - or as a treat with a shot of grain alcohol (for adults)! ;)
Chewing is part of feeling sated - so it is probably best to avoid any major caloric intake through drinking.
As a Californian I can assure you that Avocados are a GREAT snack!
Was and still is.
Yes. The only thing slowing down the sugar absorption is the amount of fat and fiber that is in/on it.
There is a sucker born every minute.
And nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of general public.
Looking at this...
http://onco.img.cas.cz/rhodo/results/pathway/kegg/rhodo-metabolism.png
It is hard for me to become convinced that I can somehow “fool” my body into not making fat out of excess calories from ANY source.
It goes round and round - and at no time does it violate the law of mass/energy conservation. If you take in excess energy - from whatever source - your body can and will turn it into lipids and store it as fat.
All protien and fat here with just a touch of carb once a week or two.
I saw the following video earlier this year about sugar and calories and it blew me away. Since I saw this, I consider the food pyramid to be a blatant attempt by the government to decrease our life expectancy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ZIKOQkTiM
While all carbohydrates are made of sections, which broken apart and completed with hydrogen atoms would be sugars, that does not mean “Carbohydrates are just sugar by another name”. Starch is metabolized very differently than simple or “complex” sugars (the latter being two bits each of which, again completed with a hydrogen atom on the broken bond) would be a simple sugar, and have very different effects on blood sugar, weight gain and the like. Some carbohydrate molecules are so large as to be indigestible by human beings (for instance cellulose) and are a major part of “dietary fiber” that, while not digested as food, apparently has various health benefits by virtue of absorbing substances in the digestive tract and helping food and food waste transit the digestive tract more efficiently.
The assertion “carbohydrates are just sugar by another name” is analogous to “polystyrene is just styrene by another name”: polystyrene is a non-toxic odorless solid plastic; sytrene is a mildly toxic, possibly carcinogenic liquid with a sweet smell, but the former is a string of the latter (stuck together by bonds where hydrogen atoms got knocked off).
ROTFLOL!
WAIT!
Simple Carb’s are the subject of your ire.
Complex Carb’s are differnet!
Think “vegetables”, which are “complex carb’s”
Cut the “simple” breads and starches, and increase the “complex”!
Who are you referring to?
FWIW, the 3-month test is the HbA1C, or the glucoselated hemoglobin test. Basically, hemoglobin in your blood “turns over” every 3 months - it’s all replaced naturally. The level of sugar is your blood is “recorded” by gloucose residue on the created hemoglobin. So, by checking the level of residue, one can determine the average blood sugar levels for the last 3 months.
At least, that’s what memory tells me - LOL.
Diabetics have high and lows with blood sugars the perfect food combos are proteins and complex carbohydrates, think glycemic load.
It was a huge diet fad in 2002. As many as one in eleven Americans was on the diet during that time.
Interest has wained dramatically over time because this fad diet was about as successful as other fad diet plans - i.e. for most people it didnt’ work more than temporarily if that.
I am absolutely AMAZED that you never heard of it!
The food pyramid brought to you by Archer-Daniels- Midland and Con-Agra. Back in 50’s and 60’s it was common knowledge that carbs were side dishes not the main course. Your main dishes were protein/fats, food the stuck to your ribs and filled you up.
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