Carbs Flashcards
(39 cards)
Source of carbs
- Plants convert sunlight into carbohydrates through photosynthesis (process in which green
plants use sunlight to make their own food)
What are simple carbs?
Monosaccharides
-Single-sugar units
- glucose
- fructose
- galactose
What is glucose?
Most important carb
- Focuses on CHO metabolism
-Most cells rely on glucose -> Brain and nervous system
What is fructose?
- Fruit sugar
-naturally in fruits, veggies, honey and part of table sugar
What is galactose?
- Mostly occurs as part of lactose
-Byproduct of digestion
What are disaccharides?
-Pairs of sugar units bonded together
-Combination of pairs of monosaccharides
1. Maltose
2. Sucrose
3.Lactose
How to link two monosaccharides?
Condensation
How to break up into two monosaccharides?
Hydrolysis
What is condensation?
Form a bond between two compounds
-Water is released
What is hydrolysis?
Bond is broken
-Water is required for this reaction
What is maltose
-Plant sugar
-Composed of two glucose units
-Occurs in plants during break down of stored starch and in humans during carb digestion
What is sucrose?
Composed of glucose and fructose
-Table sugar
What is lactose?
Glucose and galactose
What ars complex carbs?
Oligosaccharides & polysaccharides
-More than two monosaccharides (starch, glycogen, fibre)
What are major polysaccharides?
- Starch
- Glycogen
- Fibre
What is starch?
Multiple glucose units
(occasionally branched or
unbranched)
Storage form in plants (grains
e.g. rice, legumes e.g. beans,
tubers e.g. potatoes)
What is glycogen?
Multiple glucose units
Not a significant food source of carbs
Important role in carb storage in the body
What os fibre?
Non-starch polysaccharides
- Indigestible
What are the three types of fibre?
- Dietary fibre: non-digestible of plants (grains, rice, seed, legumes, fruits)
- Functional fibre: non-digestible carbs extracted from plants and added to food (cellulose, pectin)
How to calculate total fibre?
dietary + functional
What is soluble fibre?
absorbed water to form a gel
Fermented and broken down by bacteria in colon producing gasses and short chain fatty acids
Slow GI motility
What are non-soluble fibres?
-Do not dissolve in water and do not form a gel
- Non-fermentable
-Provide bulk and feeling of fullness
-Help with weight management
-Help with constipation
Digestion of carbs in mouth
– salivary amylase
– breaks down starch into small polysaccharides and maltose
Digestion of carbs in stomach
– acid inactivates salivary
amylase, halting starch
digestion