I tried looking into it but couldn’t quite understand. Carbohydrates are complex molecules that ultimately break down at the lowest level into glucose and similar monosaccharides; so, why does eating bread not do the same thing to a diabetic person that eating sugar does?
In: 1
The difference is in how fast the sugar content can get from your stomach to your bloodstream.
Simple sugars can move fast – because they’re already in a form that’s close to what your body uses.
While complex carbs have to be taken apart (disassembled) before their sugar content is made available to move on to the bloodstream.
Not a health professional – answering based off of basic understanding of metabolic biochemistry/biology from studies.
Complex carbs take longer to break down into usable components whereas simple sugars are processed much quicker. A big bolus of simple sugars will cause a larger/quicker spike in blood sugar.
They do, but at a slower pace, the carbs have to be broken down and usually these food include fiber, proteins and fats so they are not 100% carb, but after an hour or so they spike the books glucose in a similar manner
Not all carbs are the same and depending on that food items rating in the glycemic index it can have the same affect as sugar. Simple carbs that are high in the glycemic index will spike blood sugar. Chips, fries, white bread all seem to raise my blood sugar quickly. More complex carbs like whole grains take longer to break down and do not spike blood sugar as quickly.
As a diabetic, my go to is a peanut butter sandwich if my blood sugar is low.
I think everyone nails how the body digests simple and complex carbs differently. what is missing is *why* that difference is bad for you. You want to have a gradual increase and decline in blood glucose, not a sharp spike and drastic plummet, because that causes less stress on the pancreas which has to squirt out insulin to carry that glucose from the blood to cells. The sharper the increase the more insulin it releases. Which can in turn lead to low blood glucose if it has overcompensated.
If you do this often enough and long enough you eventually becomes resistant to your body’s insulin–that’s Type II Diabetes. Not only does higher static blood glucose damage organs, it also forces your pancreas to work harder to produce even more insulin to compensate. Eventually your pancreas wears out and doesn’t produce its own insulin any longer and you become (injectable) insulin dependent.
TL;DR – limiting simple carbs helps keep blood glucose levels stable, fights insulin resistance and helps prevents damaging to the pancreas.
Complex carbohydrates are basically sugar with extra steps. The extra steps make it take longer for sugar (glucose) to reach your blood and make it easier for the body to keep up and keep your blood sugar at the right level.
Basically, the problem is having too much sugar in your blood, and complex carbs are slow-release sugar that’s easier to manage.
Complex carbs are generally starches, which are big chains of glucose molecules. The body is very good at breaking starch down quickly, which means functionally it’s similar to just eating a whole bunch of glucose.
“Sugar” generally means “sucrose”, and that means both glucose and fructose. To overgeneralize, fructose is more problematic because it is metabolized in the liver and is associated with fatty liver disease.
That means that fructose is worse for diabetics but it’s not like a lot of complex carbohydrates are any good for them anyway.
They do. Especially simple carbs like white flour and refined corn which are broken down and enter the blood stream quickly.
Latest Answers