Carbohydrate how does it help the body

When you eat starch, the process of breaking it down into glucose happens over a longer period of time, because of its complex structure, Linsenmeyer explains. Amazingly, your body actually gets to work digesting some complex carbs before you even swallow them. In fact, Tewksbury says, if you let a starchy food like white bread sit on your tongue for a while, it will start to get sweeter as the salivary amylase starts converting it into sugar.

After you swallow those carbs, they get churned up with gastric juices in your stomach that contain various acids and enzymes. Then, the stomach passes this appetizing mixture on to the small intestine, where the real work of digestion happens, Tewksbury says. Here, more specialized enzymes and acids are introduced to break it down into even tinier bits.

Again, how long digestion takes depends on the kinds of carbs involved. Simple sugars have the greenlight to speed through the process we just described. Starches and everything else have to hang around for much longer at each point while they get broken down into smaller and smaller pieces, so the process is more gradual.

As carbs are converted into nice little bits of glucose, they become ready to enter the bloodstream. First, the glucose molecules travel from the small intestine to the liver via the portal vein, Linsenmeyer explains.

The liver then dispatches most of that glucose throughout the body via the bloodstream. Once it hits the bloodstream, some glucose will immediately get used by cells in need of energy—say, those in our brain or our muscles—thanks to the vital hormone called insulin. When we eat carbs, the pancreas automatically secretes the perfect amount of insulin to help the cells use glucose and keep our blood sugar levels nice and steady.

But we usually consume more carbs than we need at that exact moment. Rather than letting that excess glucose pile up in the bloodstream, the body stores it in a few ways. The rest of the excess glucose gets stored in our fat cells as body fat, again with the assistance of insulin. It can be accessed down the road when we have an energy deficit i. The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice.

Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health. Carbohydrates Also called: Carbs. On this page Basics Summary Start Here.

Learn More Related Issues Specifics. See, Play and Learn No links available. Research Clinical Trials Journal Articles. Resources Find an Expert. What are carbohydrates? What are the different types of carbohydrates?

There are three main types of carbohydrates: Sugars. They are also called simple carbohydrates because they are in the most basic form. They can be added to foods, such as the sugar in candy, desserts, processed foods, and regular soda. They also include the kinds of sugar that are found naturally in fruits, vegetables, and milk. They are complex carbohydrates, which are made of lots of simple sugars strung together. Your body needs to break starches down into sugars to use them for energy.

Starches include bread, cereal, and pasta. They also include certain vegetables, like potatoes, peas, and corn. It is also a complex carbohydrate. Your body cannot break down most fibers, so eating foods with fiber can help you feel full and make you less likely to overeat.

Diets high in fiber have other health benefits. They may help prevent stomach or intestinal problems, such as constipation. Double-unit sugars are called disaccharides, among which sucrose table sugar and lactose milk sugar are most widely known. Monosaccharides and disaccharides are usually referred to as simple carbohydrates.

Long-chain molecules, such as starches and dietary fibres, are known as complex carbohydrates. In reality, though, there are more distinct differences. Table 1 gives an overview of the major types of carbohydrates in our diet. Carbohydrates are also known under the following names, which usually refer to specific groups of carbohydrates 1 :.

The different names come from the fact that carbohydrates are classified depending on their chemical structure, but also based on their role, or source in our diet. Even leading public health authorities have no aligned common definitions for different groups of carbohydrates 2. Simple carbohydrates — those with one or two sugar units — are also simply known as sugars. Examples are:. Polyols, or so-called sugar alcohols, are also sweet and can be used in foods in a similar way to sugars, but have a lower calorie content compared to normal table sugar see below.

They do occur naturally, but most polyols that we use are made by the transformation of sugars. Sorbitol is the most commonly used polyol in foods and drinks, while xylitol is frequently used in chewing gums and mints. Isomalt is a polyol produced from sucrose, often used in confectionery. Polyols can have a laxative effect when eaten in too large quantities. The World Health Organization WHO defines oligosaccharides as carbohydrates with sugar units, although other definitions allow for slightly longer chain lengths.

The most well-known are oligofructans or in proper scientific terms: fructo-oligosaccharides , which consist of up to 9 fructose units and naturally occur in low sweetness vegetables such as artichokes and onions. Raffinose and stachyose are two other examples of oligosaccharides found in some pulses, grains, vegetables, and honey.

Most of the oligosaccharides are not broken down into monosaccharides by human digestive enzymes and are utilised by the gut microbiota instead see our material on dietary fibres for more information. Ten or more — and sometimes even up to several thousand — sugar units are needed to form polysaccharides, which are usually distinguished in two types:.

Carbohydrates are an essential part of our diet. During digestion, carbohydrates that consist of more than one sugar get broken down into their monosaccharides by digestive enzymes, and then get directly absorbed causing a glycaemic response see below.

The body uses glucose directly as energy source in muscle, brain and other cells. Some of the carbohydrates cannot be broken down and they get either fermented by our gut bacteria or they transit through the gut without being changed. Interestingly, carbohydrates also play an important role in the structure and function of our cells, tissues and organs. Carbohydrates broken down to mainly glucose are the preferred source of energy for our body, as cells in our brain, muscle and all other tissues directly use monosaccharides for their energy needs.

Depending on the type, a gram of carbohydrates provides different amounts of energy:. Monosaccharides are directly absorbed by the small intestine into the bloodstream, where they are transported to the cells in need.