Carbohydrates: the basics

Find out why not all carbohydrates are created equal and to best eat them as part of a healthy diet.

How do carbohydrates impact your health according to Richard Wood

Carbohydrate is the nutritional category for sugars and molecules that your body breaks down to make sugars. They can be classified as simple, or complex depending on their structure and are used as energy by our cells.

Foods high in starch like crackers and white bread, are simple and digested easily and have a high glycaemic index so raise the sugar in your blood like soft drinks.

Related content Glycaemic Index

When you eat foods high in fibre, like vegetables, fruits and whole grains, are complex and have indigestible beta bonds to slow the release of glucose into the blood and have a lower glycaemic index.

When sugar moves from digestive tract to the blood stream it is processed. As blood sugars rise and insulin is released to allow muscle and fat calls to let glucose in, sugar is converted to energy. When insulin sensitivity goes down and the pancreas keeps producing insulin, blood sugars fail to decrease, which is known as insulin resistance.

So, consuming a lot of carbohydrates may then contribute to many serious health effects on weight and heart health.