Complex Carbohydrates and Its Benefits

Every morning we wake up and find that our hearts are still beating, brains are still in good functioning condition, and we still have the ability to pick up things whenever we want to. Do we realise that these entire simple daily chores actually require energy to perform?


An author of a nutrition book once said this (which I agree very much with): “Most people would like to feel good all the time. No matter what each day may bring, the potential enjoyment available can be tremendous when a person‘s body and mind are in tune for it. The feeling of wellbeing that comes from energy, alertness, clear thinking and confidence is so rewarding that if you know how to produce it … .. Part of the secret of feeling well is keeping your energy supply going with food. “ By Cataldo

Among the three key macronutrients of carbohydrate, protein and fat; CARBOHYDRATE is the preferred energy source, fat ranks next and protein is normally spared for body cells building and repair purposes. You would be amazed that our body functions depend so much on carbohydrate; as long as carbohydrate is available, our brain cells depend exclusively on it as an energy source. Fat is not used by the brain and nervous system and a diet high in fat are associated with many diseases.

Complex carbohydrate Vs Simple carbohydrate
There are different types of carbohydrate that exist in our diet, and they are classified based on the molecular structure of carbohydrate œ monosaccharides.

Simple carbohydrate is made up of a shorter molecular chain of monosaccharides, normally in the number of one to two molecules of monosaccharides. You may want to know some real life examples of simple carbohydrates that are that present in our daily lives. The following are some example:

- Monosaccharides (present as one molecule) :glucose, fructose (fruit sugar)and galactose

- Disaccharides (present in two molecules chain): sucrose (table sugar, honey), lactose (milk sugar) and maltose (normally used for pastry making).

Complex carbohydrate food is made up of more than two monosaccharides chain and scientist normally term it as Polysaccharides (literally means made up from many monosacchrides). Some of the following examples may be of familiar to you, such as:

- Starch: present in rice, bread, and noodle, tuber vegetable such as potato, bean or lentils. Most human societies have staple grain on which their people depend for much of their food energy: rice in Asia, wheat for the western communities and barley and corn in the South America.

- Dietary fibre that is present in our foods such as fibre from cereals and brown rice

Impacts of different carbohydrates on body
Now that we understand the different types of carbohydrate, we can now look into the different effects they have on our body. As the name suggests and the structure of the molecule, you would guess that simple carbohydrate needs less effort by the digestive system to be fully digested and absorbed by the body due to its nature of it having a shorter chain; therefore, if we require quick energy especially during endurance exercises, when our blood sugar running too low, simple carbohydrate will serve the purpose . However, if we consume excessive simple carbohydrates at one time, our blood sugar will surge very high in a short period of time and if simple carbohydrate constantly occupied the major percentage in our daily diet, this high blood sugar phenomenon will persist. This reflects the scenario in today‘s world, whereby chronic disease such as diabetes is prevalent and is on the rise.

Benefits of complex carbohydrate
Although almost all body cells use glucose as their chief energy source, our body cannot recognise complex carbohydrate molecules as their energy source. Having said that, our body is an intelligent system, it can convert complex carbohydrate to the form that our body can absorb and then be utilised by the cells. This process normally requires longer time as our body w ill have to break the longer chain of carbohydrate to shorter ones before the actual absorption take place

Added benefits of Complex carbohydrate
Not only does complex carbohydrate provide energy to us at a steady pace, but it is also the source of many other nutrients. Many complex carbohydrates also a good source of B Vitamins which are required during the release of energy in body cells. Moreover, natural and minimally processed carbohydrate foods are generally low in fat and high in fibre.

Star of Complex Carbohydrate
Fibre, also called ”roughage‘, has been receiving much attention both from the public and scientists due to its contribution to human health. Research has shown that a diet high in dietary fibre and low in fat are associated with reduced risks of chronic diseases. Fibre is found in plant source foods such as vegetable, fruits and legumes; it is not digestible by human digestive enzymes. Although some fibre can be digested by bacteria in the digestive tract, energy contributed by fibre is negligible.

Fibre can be classified into 2 categories according to their characteristics in the human body;

Insoluble fibre :
This fibre does not dissolve in water and normally found in the external part of fruits, vegetable and grains. Insoluble fibre will help to increase the intestinal movement and this will be helpful for people w ho face constipation problem .

Souble fibre :
This fibre is readily dissolved in water and often impart gummy or gel like to foods. A good example of this is oat, if we make a bowl of oat cereal for breakfast in the morning, it often thickens if we leave it for awhile.

Soluble fibre indeed plays an important role in maintaining health. Due to its “gel like” formation in the stomach, it slows down the pace of food being emptied from the stomach and therefore it enhances our satiety and delays the feeling of hunger. Moreover, due to its slow releasing pace of food into intestinal tract, it help to regulate blood sugar from rising too fast and too high after a meal.

Our body require both types of fibre to keep our digestive tract healthy and to optimise health. It is recommended to consume 25g of dietary fibre a day. To achieve this, one should choose fibre rich food in their daily diet, for example: instead of plain biscuit, why not change to high fibre biscuit.

Recommended actions
Health authorities all over the world still recommend that carbohydrate be the key component of diet; it should account for about 50% of the total energy contribution, with an emphasis on sources from complex carbohydrate and fibre rich foods. Many people have the misconception that carbohydrate is ”fattening". On a gram-for-gram basis, carbohydrates contribute similar amounts of calories as protein (4kcal/gram), but contributes fewer calories to the body than dietary fat (9kcal.gram). Although protein contributes a similar amount of calories as carbohydrates, protein rich food are normally accompanied with a considerable amount of fat as well; for example, meat. Next time when you think of what you should put on your plate, you should place half of your desired amount with complex carbohydrate with high fibre (brown rice, vegetable) followed by a lesser portion from protein rich food such as meat if possible. Choose fibre rich protein food like legumes, and whenever possible choose food with less oil or fat.