Diet Diary: Carbohydrate as a Nutrient

The year 2024 is still fresh and Brand New. Part of your Resolutions should be to eat healthy. It's not too late to be right as you can start making changes, adapting, and adjusting the kind of deals you take into your Body.

Part of your Resolutions should be embracing healthy meals to keep fit and reduce the risk of suffering even in old age.

With this said, you could still make amends on your Diet if you have probably been feasting on junk for these past years.

Health is Wealth. Good health can be achieved by maintaining a good and inadequate diet even with less money. I'll like to be sharing with you facts about diets, nutrients, good and bad diets and its effects
the body.

In this article today we explore CARBOHYDRATES, it's compositions, how it is being taken into to the body, etc.

        Nutrients

Nutrients are chemical components of food that supply nourishment to the body. They are required by the body in the right amount and they must be eaten regularly. Each nutrient comprises protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water that perform a specific function in the body. Cellulose though they are not nutrient itself, plays an important role in the physiology of digestion. Hence it is considered a vital nutritional factor.

Source

Classification of Nutrient

Nutrients are classified as essential and non-essential. None essential nutrients are manufactured in the body and do not need to be obtained from food e.g. cholesterol, while essential nutrients must be obtained from sources e.g. carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water.

Chemical structures, Sources and function of Carbohydrate.

Carbohydrates are organic substances that contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen with the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen the same as in water. The General formula can be depicted as (CH2O)n=3:6

Sources of Carbohydrate

The major sources are plants and also animals. The plant sources include grain or cereals, sugarcane, fruits, tubers, and vegetables. Fructose is found in honey and some fruit juices. Maltose in germinating seeds, for example, cereals and grains. Starches are found mainly in cereal or grains in roots, tubers, and leaves. The animal sources include milk which is a source of lactose and meat which is a source of glycogen. Carbohydrates are also found in whole grains, proteins yam, luminous seeds (peas and beans), nuts, fruits, tubers and vegetables

Function of Carbohydrate

• The primary function of carbohydrates is to serving

• It provides our kilo calories(16 kilojoules of energy when used up in the body)

• It provides a bulk diet

• They satisfy hunger

• Fermentable carbohydrates serve as sources of alcohol and organic acid

• The lens of the eye, brain, nerve, and red blood cells use only CHo as a source of energy for various functions.

Classification of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates may be grouped based on their structures into mono, so, tri, oligo, or polysaccharide depending on the number of mono sugar residues making up the Molecule.

Digestion and Absorption

Digestion of carbohydrates starts in the mouth with the medication of food, breaking it into fine particles and mixing with saliva where the enzyme ptyalin begins the conversion of starch into maltose. The food then passes to the stomach where hydrochloric acid inactivates ptyalin(stops the action of ptyalin) when the food reaches the upper part of the small intestine, amylase in the pancreatic juice converts all the starches into maltose. Lower down in the intestine, the enzymes sucrose, maltase, and lactase complete the conversion of sugar into glucose, which is the end product of carbohydrate digestion.

Glucose is absorbed into the venous capillaries of the villi in the small intestine and conveyed via the portal circulation to the liver.

Metabolism of Carbohydrates

Glucose combines with oxygen in the cells and produces energy and heat. Excess glucose is converted into glycogen by the liver and stored in the muscles for use in times of Need.

Carbohydrates are good sources for energy that is why it is known as Energy giving Food.
It is essential in appeals and mostly in moderate Amount.

What Sourev of Carbohydrate have you taken Today???

Happy New Year❤

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