What is the difference between fast carbs and slow carbs?

Car­bo­hy­drates are a het­ero­ge­neous con­cept, since they are divid­ed into two large groups, known to most as fast and slow, although there are also med­ical terms: “sim­ple” and “com­plex”, respec­tive­ly. What is the dif­fer­ence between them, and how do they affect the body? Our experts have found answers to all ques­tions.

About carbohydrates and the glycemic index

First you need to under­stand what fast and slow car­bo­hy­drates are. Sub­stances that come with food are poly­sac­cha­rides (com­plex sug­ars — starch, glyco­gen) and mono­sac­cha­rides (sim­ple sug­ars — glu­cose, fruc­tose).

Car­bo­hy­drates are impor­tant for both nor­mal phys­i­cal and full-fledged men­tal activ­i­ty of a per­son. If you use them in excess, this is fraught with the appear­ance of fat reserves, and with insuf­fi­cient intake of sac­cha­rides in the body, dis­rup­tions in meta­bol­ic process­es occur.

Due to the dif­fer­ence in struc­ture, sim­ple and com­plex car­bo­hy­drates are digest­ed dif­fer­ent­ly, so experts made a link to the con­cept of “glycemic index”. In sim­ple terms, GI is a mea­sure of the rate at which blood glu­cose ris­es after inges­tion of sac­cha­rides. The high­er this indi­ca­tor, the faster the increase in glu­cose will be.

ON A NOTE. The amount of sug­ar con­tained in foods is not iden­ti­cal to the glycemic index. Some dried fruits, such as apri­cot and date, are equal­ly sweet, while the GI of the for­mer is much low­er than the lat­ter.

Comparison of simple and complex carbohydrates

Fast ones have a sim­ple struc­ture: they are rep­re­sent­ed by 1 (mono­sac­cha­rides) or 2 (dis­ac­cha­rides) mol­e­cules. All with­out excep­tion have a high GI — more than 70, very sweet and water-sol­u­ble. Sim­ple sac­cha­rides are quick­ly bro­ken down (this process begins already in the oral cav­i­ty) and are absorbed into the blood no less quick­ly.

Mono­sac­cha­rides are able to sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase the lev­el of glu­cose in a cou­ple of min­utes after enter­ing the body, but after half an hour it decreas­es. Fast car­bo­hy­drates are suit­able for restor­ing ener­gy after sig­nif­i­cant phys­i­cal exer­tion or a stress­ful sit­u­a­tion.

ON A NOTE. You should not abuse sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates, since the con­stant inges­tion of this sub­stance leads to an over­load of the pan­creas, the reserve of which, as you know, has its lim­it, and then it is almost impos­si­ble to restore its work­ing capac­i­ty.

What are fast car­bo­hy­drates? These include:

1. Glu­cose is the basic form of sac­cha­ride that is always present in the human body and serves as a mus­cle and liv­er source of ener­gy. Con­tained in car­rots, grapes, oranges, berries, etc.;

2. Fruc­tose — sim­i­lar in action to glu­cose, but not absorbed so well. Con­tained in sweet vari­eties of fruits, veg­eta­bles, hon­ey, etc.;

3. Galac­tose — found in large quan­ti­ties in dairy and sour-milk prod­ucts (cheese, cot­tage cheese, whey);

4. Sucrose — found in molasses, sug­ar (beet­root, brown, cane) and in small quan­ti­ties — in veg­eta­bles / fruits;

5. Lac­tose — is of ani­mal ori­gin, plays an impor­tant role in the prop­er nutri­tion of all body sys­tems (con­tained in milk);

6. Mal­tose is formed dur­ing the fer­men­ta­tion of grapes. Con­tained in baby food, oranges, beer.

Slow (com­plex) car­bo­hy­drates are rep­re­sent­ed by a large num­ber of mol­e­cules. They have a low GI (no more than 40). They break down much longer than fast ones and are actu­al­ly absorbed in the intestines. They pro­vide a long and con­tin­u­ous process of glu­cose enter­ing the blood. It is slow car­bo­hy­drates that give a feel­ing of full­ness, pro­vide emo­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty.

ON A NOTE. Com­plex sac­cha­rides allow you to reduce the num­ber of calo­ries con­sumed. Thus, they help to effec­tive­ly fight excess weight with­out los­ing sig­nif­i­cant ener­gy reserves.

What are slow car­bo­hy­drates? These include:

1. Starch — split­ting in the diges­tive tract into enzymes, it is con­vert­ed into glu­cose. Found in legumes, grains, pota­toes.

2. Glyco­gen — when bro­ken down in the liv­er, it is also con­vert­ed into glu­cose. Con­tained in the liv­er of ani­mals, cells of marine life (in par­tic­u­lar, crabs and cray­fish);

3. Fiber — prac­ti­cal­ly not absorbed by the body, but at the same time it helps to nor­mal­ize peri­stal­sis, cleanse the intestines of tox­ins, and also stim­u­lates the out­flow of bile. Con­tained in veg­eta­bles, fruits, cere­als (in small quan­ti­ties);

4. Insulin is a poly­sac­cha­ride — a fruc­tose residue. Found in arti­chokes and chico­ry;

5. Pectin and its com­pounds — found in large quan­ti­ties in fruits (usu­al­ly still unripe).

How to use carbohydrates for good

Since car­bo­hy­drates are the main source of ener­gy, the body can­not do with­out them. But this does not mean that for the nor­mal func­tion­ing of the sys­tems it is nec­es­sary to eat every­thing in a row. Not all sac­cha­rides pro­vide the same ben­e­fits. The empha­sis should be on a num­ber of prod­ucts rich not only in sac­cha­rides, but also in oth­er nutri­ents, valu­able fibers. These are cere­als, veg­eta­bles and fruits.

You should not intro­duce a large amount of sweets and bak­ery prod­ucts into the diet, since this is an excess of fast car­bo­hy­drates that sharply increase and just as sharply low­er glu­cose lev­els, which gives a sud­den feel­ing of hunger after a short peri­od of time.

But slow car­bo­hy­drates can be intro­duced into the diet in larg­er quan­ti­ties: they will give a long feel­ing of sati­ety and pro­vide the body with ener­gy.

Summary

It’s safe to say that fast and slow car­bo­hy­drates have sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences.