Comparing complex and simple carbohydrates

Prob­a­bly, every per­son inter­est­ed in their health and fig­ure knows that it is very impor­tant to con­trol the ratio of pro­teins, fats and car­bo­hy­drates in the diet. Only in this case, you can save or improve your forms.

But as soon as you start to under­stand the diet more deeply, it turns out that every­thing is not so sim­ple. Nutri­ents dif­fer in speed of action, effect, metab­o­lism, and oth­er para­me­ters. For exam­ple, the same car­bo­hy­drates exist in the form of sim­ple and com­plex. And this is also very impor­tant to take into account in diet plan­ning.

Let’s fig­ure out how com­plex car­bo­hy­drates dif­fer from sim­ple ones and how to prop­er­ly plan your diet.

What are carbohydrates in general and what are they for

Car­bo­hy­drates are organ­ic sub­stances based on car­bon (which, in prin­ci­ple, is clear from the name). They are one of the most impor­tant com­pounds nec­es­sary for the exis­tence of life on earth. Absolute­ly all liv­ing cells, regard­less of their ori­gin — plant, ani­mal, fun­gal or bac­te­r­i­al — con­tain car­bo­hy­drates.

And most of them are in plants. Up to 80% of the dry mass of “greens” con­sists of car­bo­hy­drates. The max­i­mum amount of these sub­stances is con­cen­trat­ed in the “fruit” parts of the plant, includ­ing the fruits them­selves, veg­eta­bles, root crops, seeds, grains, and so on.

This is due to the fact that car­bo­hy­drates are sources of ener­gy for life. Dur­ing metab­o­lism, they break down, turn­ing into sim­ple sub­stances, which are lat­er need­ed to start all meta­bol­ic process­es inside the cells. With­out car­bo­hy­drates, peo­ple would phys­i­cal­ly be unable to live, and with a reduced amount of these nutri­ents, we feel weak, tired and lethar­gic. And not only mus­cu­lar, but also psy­cho­log­i­cal.

The human brain also works thanks to car­bo­hy­drates. Going on a low-carb diet can soon make you feel… well, not very smart. In addi­tion, men­tal fatigue will increase, and emo­tions will become less vivid. Such a restric­tion of the diet can even lead to depres­sive states!

Thus, the body needs car­bo­hy­drates with­out fail. And plant foods are the best source of them. That’s just a car­bo­hy­drate car­bo­hy­drate strife.

There are two types of these sub­stances — sim­ple and com­plex. And, as the name implies, they dif­fer in the struc­tures of their mol­e­cules. The for­mer con­tain a rel­a­tive­ly small num­ber of atoms and bonds, while the lat­ter con­tain a large num­ber. For exam­ple, D‑glucose, a sim­ple car­bo­hy­drate, has 24 atoms. And glyco­gen — com­plex — is about 210.

But the dif­fer­ence lies not only in the num­ber of atoms, but also in the effect on the body. And also in taste.

simple carbohydrates

Sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates, also called “fast” car­bo­hy­drates, are basi­cal­ly var­i­ous sug­ars. They are char­ac­ter­ized by almost instant absorp­tion. That is, they enter the blood­stream soon after inges­tion — in some cas­es as ear­ly as 20 min­utes — and also have a ton­ic effect.

The ton­ic effect is due to the fact that these sub­stances increase blood sug­ar lev­els. Once digest­ed, they “awak­en”, ener­gize and improve sta­mi­na.

How­ev­er, rapid assim­i­la­tion leads to the same rapid dis­in­te­gra­tion. After a cou­ple of hours, they are com­plete­ly metab­o­lized, as a result of which the ton­ic effect dis­ap­pears.

The sec­ond prob­lem with fast car­bo­hy­drates is that the body needs to absorb them some­how. This can hap­pen in two ways. The first is to ful­ly devel­op them, that is, spend them on phys­i­cal activ­i­ty. The sec­ond is to put aside “in reserve” in the form of accu­mu­la­tions of adi­pose tis­sue.

Fast car­bo­hy­drates do lead to obe­si­ty, but only with a seden­tary lifestyle. The body, receiv­ing a sup­ply of ener­gy, must use it. Usu­al­ly it is spent on phys­i­cal activ­i­ty — walk­ing, exer­cis­ing, just any move­ment. If the ener­gy has nowhere to go, it is metab­o­lized and accu­mu­lat­ed in fat cells. Actu­al­ly, that is why when play­ing sports, fat is burned.

In gen­er­al, sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates are char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. They are quick­ly digest­ed. On aver­age, they begin to be processed by the body with­in 20 min­utes after inges­tion, but the actu­al speed depends on the indi­vid­ual body traits;

2. Are quick­ly processed. With­in a cou­ple of hours after tak­ing them, they should be com­plete­ly used up. Or in the form of actu­al ener­gy spent on phys­i­cal or men­tal activ­i­ty, or in the form of reserves from the deposits of adi­pose tis­sue;

3. They have a ton­ic and psy­chos­tim­u­lat­ing effect. In addi­tion, they improve mood, as they direct­ly affect the plea­sure cen­ters in the brain;

4. The down­side of fast carbs is that they can cause obe­si­ty or high blood sug­ar when tak­en in excess on a reg­u­lar basis. In addi­tion, with con­stant use, they cause some­thing akin to addic­tion — with the rejec­tion of these sub­stances, a drop in vital, psy­cho-emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal tone is observed.

How­ev­er, the neg­a­tive side effects of fast car­bo­hy­drates occur only with exces­sive and reg­u­lar use. In a healthy per­son, from a piece of cake, kilo­grams of fat on the sides will not grow, no mat­ter how much one wants. After all, the body always needs ener­gy, even if it is at rest — no one has yet can­celed breath­ing and men­tal activ­i­ty.

But it is impor­tant to strike a bal­ance and con­sume sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates only when nec­es­sary — and when there is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­pen­sate for the increase in sug­ar lev­els in the body with exer­cise.

Fast car­bo­hy­drates include:

1. 
   glu­cose and fruc­tose — mono­sac­cha­rides of plant ori­gin. Found in fruits, berries, seeds, leaves and stems of plants;

2. 
   Galac­tose is a mono­sac­cha­ride of ani­mal ori­gin. Found in milk and dairy prod­ucts;

3. 
   Sucrose and mal­tose plant dis­ac­cha­rides. Com­posed of glu­cose and fruc­tose. Char­ac­ter­ized by a pro­nounced sweet taste;

4. 
   Lac­tose — ani­mal sac­cha­ride. Con­sists of galac­tose and glu­cose. Con­tained in milk.

Sug­ar, in the vast major­i­ty of cas­es, is a com­bi­na­tion of glu­cose and fruc­tose. That is, in fact, a sim­ple car­bo­hy­drate. And there­fore, all sweet foods con­tain a large amount of these sub­stances.

Fast car­bo­hy­drates are con­tained not only in sweets. They can be found in almost all plant foods, includ­ing cere­als and cere­als, pas­ta, pas­tries, or even sal­ads.

Thus, it can­not be unequiv­o­cal­ly said that sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates are harm­ful or ben­e­fi­cial. They are impor­tant for peo­ple who engage in active phys­i­cal or men­tal activ­i­ty, but it is extreme­ly impor­tant to use them in mod­er­a­tion or irreg­u­lar­ly.

Sources of sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates include baked goods and pas­ta, any foods with sug­ar, glu­cose or fruc­tose in their com­po­si­tion, dish­es from over­ly processed fruits and veg­eta­bles.

Complex carbohydrates

Com­plex carbs work a lit­tle dif­fer­ent­ly than sim­ple carbs. Due to the larg­er scale struc­ture of their mol­e­cules, the diges­tion and absorp­tion of these sub­stances is much slow­er. Thanks to this, they are absorbed by the body “grad­u­al­ly”, and there are no prob­lems with the accu­mu­la­tion of ener­gy in the form of body fat.

But to cheer up, hav­ing break­fast with pota­toes or corn, will not work. On the con­trary, they will metab­o­lize extreme­ly slow­ly, not ener­giz­ing, but feed­ing it as need­ed.

As a result, many diets and diets aimed at los­ing weight involve the use of com­plex car­bo­hy­drates, and not sim­ple ones. At the same time, such a refusal does not lead to a decrease in vital­i­ty, since the ener­gy sources do not dis­ap­pear any­where. Unless their “pow­er” becomes some­what less — but the dura­tion of the action increas­es.

They also do not lead to an increase in blood sug­ar lev­els. Of course, most of these sub­stances con­tain a glu­cose residue, but in min­i­mal quan­ti­ties. That is why foods that con­tain most­ly com­plex car­bo­hy­drates are unsweet­ened.

In gen­er­al, com­plex car­bo­hy­drates are char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. Slow­ly digest­ed. Until the diges­tive sys­tem “gets” to the glu­cose residue, it can take up to sev­er­al hours. At the same time, dur­ing all this time, they feed the body a lit­tle with ener­gy;

2. Slow­ly stop work­ing. It may take up to half a day for the full assim­i­la­tion of these sub­stances. There­fore, by the way, they also slight­ly dull the feel­ing of hunger, unless, of course, it is aggra­vat­ed by any exter­nal fac­tors;

3. They do not have an addi­tion­al ton­ic effect. They feed the body grad­u­al­ly, being, in fact, a means of life sup­port. But at the same time, these sub­stances are of lit­tle use if you want to wake up, cheer up or pre­pare for exhaust­ing phys­i­cal or men­tal activ­i­ties;

4. Dif­fi­cult to digest. The diges­tive sys­tem needs to expend quite a lot of “effort” on their pro­cess­ing. That is why, in some peo­ple with func­tion­al diges­tive dis­or­ders, con­sum­ing them in exces­sive amounts can cause con­sti­pa­tion.

It is also worth not­ing that some com­plex car­bo­hy­drates are not com­plete­ly digest­ed. The rest is not absorbed by the body and there­fore is excret­ed from it nat­u­ral­ly. In most cas­es, this has a pos­i­tive effect on the diges­tive sys­tem, but in some sit­u­a­tions it can lead to an exac­er­ba­tion of its func­tion­al dis­or­ders.

Com­plex car­bo­hy­drates include:

1. 
   Starch. A plant poly­sac­cha­ride con­tain­ing amy­lopectin. It is found in pota­toes, corn, some grains and legumes. It is the main “stor­age of ener­gy” in plants;

2. 
   Glyco­gen. A poly­sac­cha­ride that is most com­mon­ly found in ani­mal prod­ucts. It con­sists of glu­cose residues and is rapid­ly metab­o­lized if nec­es­sary. Adi­pose tis­sue is made up of recy­cled glyco­gen, which is then decom­posed back into its “pure” form;

3. 
   Fiber and oth­er non-starch poly­sac­cha­rides. The body is not ful­ly absorbed, but nec­es­sary for the nor­mal func­tion­ing of the diges­tive sys­tem. In par­tic­u­lar, they are respon­si­ble for the microflo­ra and intesti­nal motil­i­ty. They are found in veg­eta­bles, fruits and grains of cere­als.

Even indi­gestible poly­sac­cha­rides are nec­es­sary for a per­son. Reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of veg­eta­bles and fruits is a guar­an­tee of nor­mal diges­tion.

So, let’s sum up.

In gen­er­al, com­plex car­bo­hy­drates are not a panacea. They are use­ful, yes. But it can­not be said that by eat­ing only them, you can lose weight or some­how improve your well-being. It is desir­able that most of the car­bo­hy­drates in the diet are com­plex, and the small­er part is sim­ple.

Sources of com­plex car­bo­hy­drates are unprocessed cere­als (oat­meal, buck­wheat, mil­let, wheat), legumes, veg­eta­bles with a high con­tent of starch, root veg­eta­bles, oth­er fruits, veg­eta­bles and berries in an unprocessed or min­i­mal­ly processed form.

Product refining

If you remove fiber (fiber) from com­plex car­bo­hy­drates, you get a residue that is sim­i­lar to sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates. And not only along the path of metab­o­lism, but also ener­gy val­ue. This process is called refin­ing.

So, refined prod­ucts are corn syrup, white flour, processed (not fresh­ly squeezed, but, for exam­ple, restored) fruit juice and much more. There­fore, the car­bo­hy­drates includ­ed in the mass of these “dish­es” are “fast”. Of course, white bread, pas­ta and sim­i­lar pre­pared foods are also refined.

Comparison

So, sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates are sources of fast ener­gy with a side effect in the form of obe­si­ty with insuf­fi­cient phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, and com­plex car­bo­hy­drates are “accu­mu­la­tors” that share their ener­gy with the body very grad­u­al­ly.

But the dif­fer­ence between these sub­stances is not lim­it­ed to this.

Char­ac­ter­is­tic	sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates	Com­plex car­bo­hy­drates
Start time of assim­i­la­tion, on aver­age	20 min­utes after tak­ing	1–2 hours after eat­ing
Com­ple­tion time, aver­age	1.5–2 hours after tak­ing	6–8 hours after eat­ing
End prod­uct of metab­o­lism	Either ener­gy or glyco­gen	Ener­gy
Do they lead to obe­si­ty	Yes, with insuf­fi­cient phys­i­cal activ­i­ty	Usu­al­ly no
Do they raise blood sug­ar lev­els	Yes	Not
“addic­tive”	Yes	Not
Ton­ic effect	Yes	Not

Espe­cial­ly sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates are use­ful when con­sumed before increased activ­i­ty — for exam­ple, short­ly before phys­i­cal activ­i­ty or men­tal work. But it is desir­able that com­plex ones pre­vail in the dai­ly diet.