The first food substance — carbohydrates

At my last post I mentioned that carbohydrate are the food substance we encounter the most, today, I'll go through carbohydrates deeply.

Carbohydrates are actully what we usually called as sugar and separated into 3 big categories, monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides. It means sugar that made from 1 monsaccharide molecule, 2 monosaccharide molecule and multiple monosaccharides molecule respectively.

Monosaccharides are the simplest form of carbohydrates. There are 3 common types of it which are glucose, fructose and galactose.

Glucose is the most common type of all sugars. Glucose are sweet and soluble im water. Sugars are used in this form as our body can only manage to convert glucose to energy for human metabolic reaction. Our body is so amazing that it can convert other kinds of sugar into glucose for respiration.

Fructose is usally found in fruit, like apples oranges etc. Fructose are sweet and soluble to water. However excess consumption of fructose will causes several body diseases such as metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Galactose is found in milk and dairy products, such as cheese ad yoghurt. It is also tastes sweet and soluble in water. Some studies shows that galactose in milk may causes ovarian cancer, nevertheless analysis from Harvard School of Public Health refuted this statement, more studies are needed to learn more about galactose.

Disaccharides are sugar that made up of 2 monosaccharides, there are 3 common types which are maltose, sucrose and lactose.

Maltose are made up from 2 glucose, it is usally found in germinating barley, beer, potato… . Maltose taste sweet and soluble in water. People usually join glucose or hydrolysis of starch to produce maltose.

Sucrose are made up from 1 glucose and 1 fructose, it is usally found in sugar cane or sugar beet. Sucrose taste sweet and soluble in water, however it isn't a reducing sugar due to it's spacial properties.

Lactose is formed by 1 glucose and 1 galactose, it is usually find in milk and dairy products. It also taste sweet and soluble in water. People who suffering from lactose intolerance will cause diarrhea, as the digestive juice doesn't contain lactase to digest lactose.

Polysaccharides are sugar made up of multiple monosaccharides, there are 3 common types of it such as starch, cellulose and glycogen. All of these are made up of glucose molecules. They have different sorting of glucose causing different sugar formation.

Starch is the major form of carbohydrates storted in plants, this is also the kind of food substance we always eat to fill our bulks, starch are found in all food that are plant.

Cellulose is the major form of cell walls, as human cells doesn't have cell walls so we don't have it. Moreover, cellulose can't be digested by human digestive system as we don't have the right kind of enzymes to break it down, however it have a importantant role to us. Cellulose enhance the peristalsis of intestine so we can have a more healthier life.

Glycogen is a special kind of sugar that stores in the liver or muscles as emergy reserve, they will be formed when we intake excess amount of other carbohydrates. They will be also be break down when we are starved.

In a nutshell, there are more kinds of sugars then I have mentioned about, I've just mentioned the most common type of all.

In the coming post I will talk about the second food substance, lipids. Feel free to upvote and leave a comment below.

PS sorry for the late post!!!

Wish you all the best

TMDnightmare