Complex Carbohydrate
Everyone knows what glucose is - or at least evenyone thinks they know what glucose is. Glucose is a sugar, a simple sugar that comes in a molecular ring. Glucose in one form or another is the body's major source for quick energy - we all need it, we can't live without it ( actually, we theorhetically could, but for all intent and purpose we can't, so forget about it).
But what is starch, and why are we adding in starch - from potato and noodle fame - beside the great glucose fo sugar? Because starch IS glcuose, it is a complex carbohydrate made up from long chains of the single glucose molecule.
What's so complex about a complex carbohydrate?
The differences between a simple and complex carbohydrate are minimal, and nutritionists agree that a healthy diet will contain equal amounts of each, which makes sense because simple carbohydrates are the fastest to metabolize, whereas the complex carbohydrate is better suited for longer energy use. Our problem with simple carbohydrates is that we really just ingest too much, and when too much of that instant energy is inside - and we don't expend it - that energy has to go somewhere.
But a complex carbohydrate will hang out for a little while longer, it takes some time to break down and its breaks down over a duration of time meaning you can expend the available energy as time progresses. Foods high in complex carbohydrates include:
- vegetables
- breads
- cereals
- pastas
These are the exact foods that are the devil's own in Atkins and South Beach. So the big question is why do we hate complex carbs?
The big lazy
The problem is that the average American human is just too lazy to burn off all the carbs in a single serving of pasta or rice. A diet focused on the complex carbohydrate is great if you move - but we drive everywhere. We drive and we sit and we take elevators up a single flight of stairs and complain about lack of air conditioning - we are not living the same life as the rest of the world, a world that depends on complex carbs for survival.
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