By Satya Mohapatra
We need three macronutrients – carbohydrates, protein and fat – for the body to energise itself. The carbohydrates and proteins provide 4 calories per 1 gram of protein and fat 9 calories per 1 gram.
We will be discussing each of the macronutrients separately, highlighting carbohydrates first.
Carbohydrates are the most important energy providers to the body for the mental and physical activities. They are differentiated on the basis of their structure – in technical terms differentiation is done on the chain length.
Putting it in simple terms, they are divided in two groups: simple and complex carbohydrates. Glucose, fructose, galactose are simple carbohydrates, whereas polysaccharides and amylopectin are complex carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen around one-third in liver and two-third in the skeletal muscle. These are replenished as you eat carbohydrates in your diet. The daily recommended dosage of carbohydrates should be around 35 percent to 45 percent of the caloric intakes. Taking complex carbohydrates helps in controlling insulin spikes. More complex carbohydrates help in keeping good health of intestine and lower cholesterol.
Some of the complex sources of carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables, legumes, cereals, sweet potatoes and brown rice. On the other hand, simple sources of carbohydrates are sugar, refined flour, sweets, sweetened soft drinks and fruit juices.
At the same time, we should not forget to have prebiotics and probiotics rich food. Prebiotics foods like legumes, artichokes and rolled oats contains fibres, which nourishes the microorganism in the colon. Other probiotics foods like yogurt, chaas and cheese contain living microorganisms that promote gut health.
(Professor Mohapatra is a noted dietitian)
