Did You Know About Carbohydrates and Fiber ?

Carbohydrates and fiber are the two words that people usually happen to hear. However only a few of them know exactly what they are as well as their roles in human body.

Carbohydrates

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates or carbs is a group of different kinds of sugar which has single, douple or multiple units. In other words, carbohydrates consists of simple sugars and complex carbohydrates. Single sugars taste sweet while the complex ones taste starchy. People can get simple sugars from milk, juice, honey, syrups, table sugar or fruit while they get complex carbohydrates from grain products and other starchy vegetables as well.

What are the roles of carbohydrates?

After consumed to human body, most of digestible simple sugars get converted to glucose, making blood sugar level rise. Accordingly, human body produces insulin hormone allowing cells in the body to take that amount of glucose out of the bloodstream and use it as energy for living activities.

After used for all living activities, the amount of excess glucose will be stored as glycogen in the human liver and muscle. If there is still excess glucose, it will be stored under the form of fat.

Thus comsuming too much sugar or starches will make people gain weight. The proper intake of sugar is 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men.

Fiber

What is fiber?

Fiber is the complex carbohydrates that human can not digest since human body does not produce any certain enzyme to break apart the links between their sugar units.

There are two types of fiber which are insoluble and soluble. They are catergorized based on their possibility of dissolving in water.

People can get insoluble fiber from bran of grains or cereals, dried bean, brown rice, skin and seeds of fruit, and from vegetables. Meanwhile, they can get soluble fiber from flesh of fruits or vegetables, oats, dried beans/peas.

What are the roles of fiber?

Each fiber type has their own benefit to human body. Insoluble fiber relieves constipation and reduces then risk of diverticulosis while soluble one reduces the straining with excretion, reduces the blood cholesterole level and control the rise of blood glucose level.

The proper daily intake of fiber is 14 grams per 1000 calories. In other words, 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. In that amount, soluble should involve 5-10 grams.

People should have knowledge about carbohydrates and fiber so as to understand their roles and benefit to human health. Moreover, thanks to this, they can build a suitable diet for not only staying healthy but also staying away from medical problems.