Carbohydrates in Dieting.

Dieting for an overweight person is a process of restricting the energy providing nutrients such as fats and carbohydrates, as these nutrients are known to get stored in our body causing obesity.

Poatao (Polysaccharide)

Out of the two energy providing nutrients, Carbohydrates play a vital role in dieting and exercising as this nutrient can be converted into fats and stored in our body. It is a well known fact that only fats gets stored in our body causing overweight and overweight related problems. In spite of the fact that excess of carbohydrates can be stored in our body, we cannot totally eliminate it in our diets as it is essential in performing various other activities in our body in addition to providing energy for the day to day functions.

On digestion and absorption Carbohydrates will be broken down into simple glucose molecules to enter the blood stream. The simplest type of carbohydrates is that which produce less number of glucose molecules on digestion and absorption; they are found in fruits and soft drinks. They are called as Monosaccharides, and these are safe to people on a diet plan when consumed in justified quantity.

Starch and cellulose are carbohydrates that release a high number of glucose molecules in the blood stream on digestion and absorption. This type of carbohydrates has to be avoided at any cost as most of these molecules will be converted into fats and stored in our body after initially meeting the requirements of energy and storage in the liver in the form of glycogen. This type of carbohydrates is called as polysaccharides. Such carbohydrates are present in potato chips, white bread, white rice, pastries, donuts, cookies, candy, cake, snack crackers and certain ice creams.

A third type of carbohydrates called as disaccharides is found in sugarcane juice and maple sugar which will produce twice the number of glucose molecules in the blood stream on digestion and absorption when compared with the monosaccharides. This type of carbohydrates may be occasionally taken by people on a dieting plan.

Finger Chips (Polysaccharide)

Fibre is a carbohydrates which can be consumed to a large quantity by people on a dieting plan as this carbohydrates will not enter our blood stream because it cannot be digested by our system so they serve as fillers as are used as natural laxative.

Since carbohydrates provide us energy and energy is basically measured in terms of calories, the diets with low carbohydrates are called as low calorie foods or low calorie diets. If the calorie restriction is on a slightly higher level the diet is called as crash diets. Since there isn’t any level of demarcation between crash diets and normal dieting we may not conclude that all crash diets are injurious to our health but instead it would be wiser to check the level of calorie restriction before choosing a diet plan.

For more information please also read Crash Diets to Lose Weight Fast and also get to more about Role of Fats in Fat Loss