Nutrition: Complex Carbohydrates

Happy New Year to all of you! Hope you all are staying true to your resolutions, I sure am trying my best with mine.

Let's get started:

Complex carbohydrates are made up of many sugar molecules joined together.  Complex carbohydrates are also known as polysaccharides or oligosaccharides. (depending on how many sugar molecules are joined together)

The three types of complex carbohydrates are starch, glycogen, and dextrin.

Starch is a plant's storage form of carbohydrates.  Two types of starch are amylose and amylopectin, which are produced in different proportions.  There are many types of amylose and amylopectin which have different characteristics such as flavour, solubility, and the tendency to thicken a substance.

Glycogen is humans' and animals' storage form of carbohydrates.  Our bodies contain approximately 500g of glycogen.  A fifth of this is stored in the liver and the rest is stored within our muscles.  When our body needs glucose the glycogen in our liver is broken down to glucose and then released into the blood.

Dextrin is formed when starch is digested with acid or heat.  For example, when we toast bread in the toaster, we create dextrin.  Dextrin is sweeter than starch so bread tastes slightly sweeter when toasted.

Fibre can also be categorized as a complex carbohydrate, but since it doesn't get digested within our bodies, I'll be talking about fibre as it's own category.

Keep commenting so I know you're reading!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Food Item: Whole Wheat Bread
Food Group: Grain Products
Serving Size: 1 slice (35g)
Calories: 85
Fat: 1g
Fibre: 2g
Walking: 21 min
Swimming or Jumping rope: 10 min
Cycling: 12 min