Our third installment of the macronutrient series is about Carbohydrates. Last month, I wrote about fat, and how important it is to vitamin absorption, hormone production and simply our experience with food. Fat promotes satiety (i.e. feelings of fullness) and adds flavor and texture to foods—don’t go fat-free!
Last, but certainly not least, is carbohydrates. Just like fat, please don’t go stop eating carbs! (Honestly, even if you say you aren’t eating carbs, you’re probably still eating carbs…you’re just not eating bread, right?)
Believe it or not, about half of our daily caloric intake each day should come from carbs! Note, I didn’t say that half of our daily caloric intake should come from bread. Or cheese crackers. Or pretzels. More on that later.
Carbohydrates are so important because they provide the quickest, easiest way for our bodies to produce energy. Digestion of carbohydrates begins in the mouth, as your saliva starts mixing with your food. Think about placing a Saltine cracker on your tongue and letting it sit there for a moment—it gets soft and sweet almost immediately. That’s the simple sugars being broken down and absorbed into your bloodstream as glucose, which is then available for use or stored as glycogen in your liver and muscles. Glucose can be made from protein and fat, but additional steps are necessary.
Glucose is critical for energy production in our bodies, and carbohydrates are the primary source of glucose. So, let’s not give them up completely, shall we?
Even more importantly, glucose is the main source of energy for our brains. In fact, our brains use 20% of our body’s glucose. Our brains are very sensitive to glucose, and the levels are closely regulated to maintain a consistent supply to the brain. Both high (as in diabetes) and low (as in ketosis) blood sugar levels are detrimental to brain health and function. Because carbs provide the best source of glucose for our bodies AND our brains, it’s important to eat sufficient amounts each day.
There are three types of carbohydrates:
-Simple Sugars: made of 1-2 sugar units; fructose (fruit and honey), sucrose (fructose + glucose; also known as ‘table sugar’) or lactose (galactose+ glucose; found in dairy products)
-Complex Cabs; aka ‘starch’: these are made of multiple sugars, found in vegetables, grains, beans and peas; broken down into simple sugars through digestion
-Fiber: found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and peas; doesn’t break down to simple sugars; used by bacteria in our gut and helps waste move through our digestive tract.
Carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram.
The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for carbs is 130 grams per day. However, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that carbohydrates make up 45-65% of our daily caloric intake, which would equate to 225-325 grams per day, based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Why the disparity? Reminder that the RDA is a recommended daily MINIMUM, and those 130 grams reflect only the approximate number of carbs necessary for our bodies to function, which does not include exercise or other movement throughout the day. So, the majority of those 2,000 calories you eat each day are simply allowing your body to function: your brain to work, your blood to pump, your organs to function.
So, if you aren’t supposed to be eating half your daily calorie intake in bread, cheese crackers, or pretzels, what kinds of carbs SHOULD you be eating?
FRUITS and VEGETABLES, first. Then, whole grains, beans and peas. Then maybe an Oreo for dessert.
But in all seriousness, aim for the vast majority of your carbohydrate intake to come from whole, real foods, and not highly processed crackers found in a box. (I’m preaching to myself; we keep a steady stash of Goldfish in our house, too.)
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