Carbohydrates - How To Use Them It is easy to avoid blood sugar overloads by modifying certain (bad) eating habits.
Drink water instead of sweet drinks and avoid soft drinks containing large amounts of sugar.
Consumption of these drinks is playing a key role in the obesity epidemic currently sweeping the nation.
Beware of the many energy drinks flooding the market that is targeting adolescents and young adults who don't understand the consequences of consuming these sweeten drinks that have as much as 100 mg of caffeine per can, this is the equivalent of a very strong double espresso.
We need to pay special attention to breakfast cereals, most of them containing too many simple sugars.
When two single sugars link up chemically, a double sugar is formed.
Double sugars are known as sucrose or table sugar.
Sucrose is a combination of glucose and fructose and is one of the sweetest of all sugars.
Fructose is found in sugar cane and sugar beets and refined to provide the many sugar products found on the grocery shelves: table sugar, candy, cakes, cookies etc.
A combining of galactose and glucose yields the milk sugar lactose, found in dairy foods.
Another double sugar (maltose) is made from two units of glucose and is found in plants in the early stages of germination.
Sugars are very quickly and easily digested in the body.
Starches are created when three or more glucose molecules hook up.
Most plant foods, Cereals, whole grains, pasta, fruits and vegetables are starches.
Starches are complex carbohydrates and take longer to digest than sugars.
Fibre is found in starches and less starchy vegetables such as lettuce and is the indigestible remains of plant food.
Fibre provides bulk and is very necessary to aid in intestinal action.