Carbohydrate in Human Nutrition

In order to carry out its day to day physiological functions and maintain a constant body temperature (due to invariably in an environment of changing temperatures), the body requires a constant source of energy.

Carbohydrates are an important energy source in the human diet. They generally supply about 45% of the energy requirement in developed countries and up to 85% in developing countries.

Carbohydrate are the cheapest, most efficient and most readily available source of food energy in the world, since they are the main constituents of the foods that are the easiest to produce and that can be obtained throughout the world, namely, grains, legumes and potatoes.

Carbohydrate are the most widely distributed, naturally occurring organic compounds on earth.

Carbohydrates have been considered a fundamental source of nourishment and inexpensive and versatile staple of the diet.

The carbohydrates that are important in nutrition include the sugars, the starches, the dextrin and glycogen.

The functional properties of carbohydrates in food include:
*Nutrition
*flavour and color production
*Sweetening
*Texturing
*Plasticizing action and humectancy

Dietary guidance for consumption of carbohydrates has resemble laboratory analysis of carbohydrates: take way fat and protein and the remainder must to be carbohydrate.

Nutritionist generally accept the fact that humans don’t need more than 10-12% kilocalories from protein, and less than 30% of kilocalories from fat.

Subsequently, intake of carbohydrate should be 55% of kilocalories or more.

Human diets historically have contained 40-80% of their energy as carbohydrate although as income increase, so does the fat content of the diet while carbohydrate content of the diet, especially the starch, decreases.

Starch is the major plant polysaccharide that is readily digested in the intestine and thus serves as a source of carbohydrates.

In human body, carbohydrates support the immune system and assist processes such as growth and blood clotting. Their primary role, however, is to supply energy to every cell of the body.

The major portion of energy requirements of human is met by starch of cereal grains and tubers such as potatoes.

For certain body systems such as the brain and the nervous system, , carbohydrates are the preferred energy source. The brain an nervous system are sensitive to the concentration of glucose in the blood. Normal blood glucose levels are important for a feeling of well being.

What exactly is a carbohydrate? A carbohydrate molecule is made of carbon, hydrogen and water and these building blocks can be joined in countless ways to form different carbohydrates. As the names implies, an empirical formula of CH2O (or CH2O) was often encountered, with molecular formulae of C5H10O5 and C6H12O6 being most common.

It was founded in the nineteenth century that carbohydrates in general have a formula Cn(H2O)n. They were therefore thought to be hydrates of carbon and hence were called ‘carbohydrates’.

The water solubility of these molecules was commensurate with presence of hydroxyl groups and there was always evidence for the carboxyl group of an aldehydes of ketone.
Carbohydrate in Human Nutrition