Episode 42: Macronutrients: Carbohydrates

Today we will turn our attention to the recently most vilified macronutrient, carbohydrates. Currently, carbohydrates provide 40% to 60% of energy in the American diet and usually come from processed packaged foods or foods of convenience as more than 80% of Americans get their meals outside the home. This disordered eating balance has led to many lifestyle diseases such as obesity, heart disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and others. We will discuss why this is so.

Carbohydrates are the most abundant organic components in most fruits, vegetables, legumes, and cereal grains, and they are added as simple sugars to many processed foods to provide texture and flavor. The fundamental basic carbohydrate currency is glucose. Glucose serves as a precursor for synthesis of all other carbohydrates that are important components of body fluids, structural matrix, membranes, and cell surfaces.  Carbohydrates are critical for  human life but not in the overabundant destructive form of simple sugars we are awash in today when eating the Standard American Diet. Let's take a tour of the science, where we are, and  the path away from chronic disease.