IPHY 2420 Lecture 5: Carbs
26 Sep 2017
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Document Summary
Carbs provide essential energy for both your brain and nervous system. Grains and fruits are the biggest sources of carbohydrates. Monosaccharides are one singular sugar unit (glucose, fructose, galactose). If you add a glucose to a monosaccharide, it becomes a disaccharide. Examples include maltose which is found in beer. Maltose is formed by adding a glucose to another glucose. Sucrose is formed by adding a glucose to a fructose. Lactose (milk) is formed by adding a glucose to a galactose. Glucose is the most abundant carbohydrate and is found primarily in plants. Glucose is the preferred energy source for the brain. Fructose is the sugar found in fruit and is much sweeter than glucose. It is also in the notorious high fructose corn syrup. Galactose only occurs in milk as a part of lactose. Polysaccharides are also known as complex carbohydrates (fibers, starches, glycogen). We must break down starches into glucose in order to digest them.
