Carbohydrates are widely distributed in nature, particularly in the vegetable kingdom. The main exception is lactose, the disaccharide that is found in milk and products made from it. Although glycogen is stored in muscle tissue, is found only in very small quantities in meat.

Carbohydrates are the most important energy available from the human body. Despite receiving strong criticism in the decade of 2000 and are often blamed for the epidemic of obesity in the United States, carbohydrates are an important part of a healthy diet for children and adults.

The two major types are:

Simple sugars (simple carbohydrates), such as fructose, glucose and lactose, and also found in nutritious whole fruits

Starches (complex carbohydrates) are found in foods such as vegetables rich in starch grains, rice, breads and cereals

Despite the recent fashion of reducing carbohydrates, the bottom line shows that not all foods containing carbohydrates are bad, whether they are complex carbohydrates like those found in grains, or simple carbohydrates, such as those found in fruit. If carbohydrates were really that bad, we would be in a serious problem, since most foods contain them. But, of course, some carbohydrate-rich foods are healthier than others.

Some healthy sources of carbohydrates include:

• grains
• brown rice
• integral breads
• fruits
• vegetables
• Low fat milk and its derivatives

When a person wants to lose weight, or maintain it, we must know what are good sources of carbohydrates in foods and continue to limit their consumption. Below there is a chart with the most common sources of carbohydrates in food. You should be aware that dietary fiber is an indigestible carbohydrate type, ie, when consumed it is not digested and this means that it has advantages, non nutritional and nutrition-related mechanical functions of absorption and enhancement of gastrointestinal flora . Recent studies show that thin people eat food with higher fiber content, fiber also lowers cholesterol and prevents some cancers.

Tags: carbohidrates, Diet, Weight

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.