The essential nutrients we need to keep us alive, are usually classified under the category names of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water.
We obtain those nutrients in varying amounts from the foods we eat and drink on a daily basis. The nutrients supply the materials and energy required to sustain life and growth, to build and repair the tissues and organs of our bodies. An unconscious but miraculous process of life when one stops to think about it.
But here we are discussing carbohydrates, let’s abbreviate that name to carbs, it’s all the same as long as everyone understands.
Carbohydrates are the primary source of our blood sugars and perhaps the cause of our higher than normal blood sugar levels, the problem of many people with diabetes.
The carbohydrates obtained from food are further classified as sugars, starches, and fiber, but we can ignore the fiber content as a source of blood sugars because it cannot be digested. And the starches are more complex in their chemical formulation. They are not broken down in the digestive process as easily or quickly as the simpler sugar content of the carbohydrate foods consumed.
The digestive system “breaks down” the components of the carbohydrates and the other nutrients in the food. These then pass through the walls of the intestine into the bloodstream. It is the speed of the delivery of the glucose molecules into the bloodstream that causes the rise in blood sugar levels. The simpler form of carbohydrate provides the fastest conversion to glucose and the fastest rise in blood sugar levels, whereas the more complex and starchier components of carbohydrate take longer to break down, they stay in the stomach and take longer to get into the bloodstream.
From the foregoing it can be deduced that the carbohydrates that take the longest to get into the bloodstream are probably going to be better for the diabetic person than are those that are quickly reduced to glucose and more quickly enter the bloodstream. That deduction is correct.
The Glycemic Index
A very useful index of food items and their related speeds of conversion to glucose and absorption into the bloodstream has been devised, called the Glycemic Index (GI). The Glycemic Index ranks food items numerically in relation to the speed it takes for them to be absorbed into the bloodstream compared to our blood sugar, pure glucose, which is given the value of 100.
Meaning that the lower the glycemic index number assigned to a food, the longer that food takes to have an affect on the rise in blood sugar levels compared to pure glucose.
The Glycemic Load
The Glycemic Load (GL) is an enhancement of the Glycemic Index that takes into account the amount of carbohydrate in a standard serving of food, providing better information than the basic index which only measures the effects of 50 gram amounts of the type of carbohydrate in a food. 50grams may be too large a quantity to actually consume in any one type of food item. For instance, 25 grams of the cereal Shredded Wheat has a GI of 67 whereas its Glycemic Load is 12. That makes Shredded Wheat a good choice because of the smaller glucose portion of the total amount, 25 grams, being consumed. That may be an over simplification but I think you get the principle.
In summary
What is established is that some carbohydrate foods create fewer problems than others. The low numbered glycemic load foods should create fewer blood sugar problems than do the high numbered foods. But personal tastes and preferences, and perhaps nutritional factors, also play a part that might make some higher numbered foods an individual’s first choice.
And the response may not be the same for everyone, it is possible that some people react differently than others to some of the carbohydrate foods.
Why blood sugars are needed
Glucose, which is a simple form of sugar, is needed by all the cells of the body to use as fuel to produce energy for the cellular processes of life. The glucose is carried in the bloodstream where it has to associate with the hormone insulin. The insulin mediates with the receptors of the cells and only in that way can the glucose be taken into the cells that need it. Another of the body’s rather complicated but ingenious processes.
Ratios of carbohydrates to proteins and fats
There are differing views on what should be the ratios of carbohydrates to the other nutrients, the proteins and fats, in a diabetic meal.
Some favor a low carbohydrate approach in order to minimize the amount of glucose that can be produced to enter the bloodstream and thus not create elevated blood sugar conditions. It works well, and some doctors insist that it is the best way for diabetes patients to overcome their diabetic problems.
An opposing view from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), who have shown in their own clinical studies that restricted carbohydrate diets do indeed result in lower blood sugar levels, is that such diets are too difficult to adhere too for any practical length of time. For that reason, the ADA believes it is better to adopt a higher carbohydrate diet that is, they say, more appetizing and for which the diabetic component is manageable. I have discussed those differing views in other articles that can be accessed through the links shown in the Author’s Comments below.
The healthy body can cope with the glucose load
The mechanisms of a healthy body can process the sugars derived from carbohydrates and other nutrients. Some of the glucose is used by the cells, as described above, and the rest is taken up by the liver, converted to glycogen and stored for possible future use at a later time. If needed, it will then be converted back to glucose.
The dual activities involving absorption of glucose by the cells and that of the liver in converting the glucose to glycogen takes place with the aid of insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by a healthy person in an organ called the pancreas. Yet another of nature’s efficient systems.
But the diabetic body cannot cope
However, in the case of the human body with diabetes, the sequence of actions fails as one or another or several of the components become impaired, in some cases the cell receptors become desensitized making them resistant to insulin, sometimes the pancreas fails to produce enough or any insulin and sometimes it is a combination of both of those factors.
This is diabetes
The end result is that the glucose stays in the bloodstream, leading to a condition of much higher than normal blood sugar levels that can create serious consequences for other organs and tissues in contact with the blood as it circulates throughout the entire body.
It is a dangerous condition that cannot be cured, only controlled and managed within a tolerable range by adopting changes that usually include modified dietary intake, weight loss, and physical activity.
There are more than 18 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes and millions more, it is estimated, who have the disease and are not aware of it. The incidence of diabetes is rising to epidemic proportions in North America.
Return to List of Topics
Tags: Explanation by JimR
No Comments »
