Carbohydrates - Real-life applications

Fruits and Vegetables

One of the principal ways in which people obtain carbohydrates from their diets is through fruits and vegetables. The distinctions between these two are based not on science but on custom. Traditionally, vegetables are plant tissues (which may be sweet, but usually are not), that are eaten as a substantial part of a meal's main course. By contrast, fruits are almost always sweet and are eaten as desserts or snacks. It so happens, too, that people are much more likely to cook vegetables than they are fruits, though vegetables are nutritionally best when eaten raw.

Fruits and vegetables are heavy in carbohydrate content, in the form of edible sugars and starches but also inedible cellulose, whose role in the diet will be examined later. In a fresh vegetable,

for instance, water may account for about 70% of the volume, and proteins, fat, vitamins, and minerals may make up a little more than 5%, with nearly 25% taken up either by edible sugars and starches or by inedible cellulose fiber.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE ARTICHOKE.

Every fruit or vegetable one could conceivably eat—and there are hundreds—contains both edible carbohydrates, which are a good source of energy, and inedible ones, which provide fiber. An excellent example of this edible-inedible mixture is the globe, or French, artichoke— Cynara scolymus, a member of the family Asteraceae, which includes the sunflower. The globe artichoke (not to be confused with the Jerusalem artichoke, or Helianthus tuberosus ) appears in the form of an inflorescence, or a cluster of flowers. This vegetable usually is steamed, and the bracts, or leaves, are dipped in butter or another sauce.

Not nearly all of the bract is edible, however; to consume the starchy "meat" of the artichoke, which has a distinctive, nutty flavor, one must draw the leaves between the teeth. Most of the artichoke's best parts are thus hidden away, and the best part of all—the tender and fully edible "heart"—is enclosed beneath an intimidating shield of slender thistles. Whoever first discovered that an artichoke could be eaten must have been a brave person indeed, and whoever ascertained how to eat it was a wise one. Thanks to these adventurous souls, the world's cuisine has an unforgettable delicacy.

THE CARBOHYDRATE CONTENT OF VEGETABLES.

In terms of edible carbohydrate content, the artichoke has a low percentage. A few vegetables have a smaller percentage of carbohydrates, whereas others have vastly higher percentages, as the list shown here illustrates. In general, it seems that the carbohydrate content of vegetables (and in each of these cases we are talking about edible carbohydrates, not cellulose) is in the range of about 5-10%, somewhere around 20%, or a very high 60-80%. There does not seem to be a great deal of variation in these ranges.

Water, Protein, and Carbohydrate Content of Selected Vegetables:

• Artichoke: 85% water, 2.9% protein, 10.6% carbohydrate
• Beets, red: 87.3% water, 1.6% protein, 9.9% carbohydrate
• Celery: 94.1% water, 0.9% protein, 3.9% carbohydrate
• Corn: 13.8% water, 8.9% protein, 72.2% carbohydrate
• Lima bean: 10.3% water, 20.4% protein, 64% carbohydrate
• Potato: 79.8% water, 2.1% protein, 17.1% carbohydrate
• Red pepper: 74.3% water, 3.7% protein, 18.8% carbohydrate
• Summer squash: 94% water, 1.1% protein, 4.2% carbohydrate

Starches

Not all the carbohydrates in these vegetables are the same. Some carbohydrates appear in the form of sugar and others in the form of inedible cellulose, discussed in the next section. In addition, some vegetables are high in starch content. As we noted earlier, starch is white and granular, and, unlike sugars, starches cannot be dissolved in cold water, alcohol, or other liquids that normally act as solvents.

Manufactured in plants' leaves, starch is the product of excess glucose produced during photosynthesis, and it provides the plant with an emergency food supply stored in the chloroplasts. Vegetables high in starch content are products of plants whose starchy portions happen to be the portions we eat. For example, there is the tuber, or underground bulb, of the potato as well as the seeds of corn, wheat, and rice. Thus, all of these vegetables, and foods derived from them, are heavy in the starch form of carbohydrate.

In addition to their role in the human diet, starches from corn, wheat, tapioca, and potatoes are put to numerous commercial uses. Because of its ability to thicken liquids and harden solids, starch is applied in products (e.g., cornstarch) that act as thickening agents, both for foods and nonfood items. Starch also is utilized heavily in various phases of the garment and garment-care industries to impart stiffness to fabrics. In the manufacture of paper, starch is used to increase the paper's strength. It also is employed in the production of cardboard and paper bags.

Cellulose

One of the aspects of fruits and vegetables to which we have alluded several times is the high content of inedible material, or cellulose. (Actually, it is edible—just not digestible.) A substance found in the cell walls of plants, cellulose is chemically like starch but even more rigid, and this property makes it an excellent substance for imparting strength to plant bodies. Animals do not have rigid, walled cells, but plants do. The heavy cellulose content in plants' cell walls gives them their erect, rigid form; in other words, without cellulose, plants might be limp and partly formless. Like human bone, plant cell walls are composed of fibrils (small filaments or fibers) that include numerous polysaccharides and proteins. One of these polysaccharides in cell walls is pectin, a substance that, when heated, forms a gel and is used by cooks in making jellies and jams. Some trees have a secondary cell wall over the primary one, containing yet another polysaccharide called lignin. Lignin makes the tree even more rigid, penetrable only with sharp axes.

CELLULOSE IN DIGESTION.

As we have noted, cellulose is abundant in fruits and vegetables, yet humans lack the enzyme necessary to digest it. Termites, cows, koalas, and horses all digest cellulose, but even these animals

and insect do not have an enzyme that digests this material. Instead, they harbor microbes in their guts that can do the digesting for them. (This is an example of symbiotic mutualism, a mutually beneficial relationship between organisms, discussed in Symbiosis.)

Cows are ruminants, or animals that chew their cud—that is, food regurgitated to be chewed again. Ruminants have several stomachs, or several stomach compartments, that break down plant material with the help of enzymes and bacteria. The partially digested material then is regurgitated into the mouth, where it is chewed to break the material down even further. (If you have ever watched cows in a pasture, you have probably observed them calmly chewing their cud.) The digestion of cellulose by bacteria in the stomachs of ruminants is anaerobic, meaning that the process does not require oxygen. One of the by-products of this anaerobic process is methane gas, which is foul smelling, flammable, and toxic. Ruminants give off large amounts of methane daily, which has some environmentalists alarmed, since cow-borne methane may contribute to the destruction of the ozone high in Earth's stratosphere.

Alhough cellulose is indigestible by humans, it is an important dietary component in that it aids in digestion. Sometimes called fiber or roughage, cellulose helps give food bulk as it moves through the digestive system and aids the body in pushing out foods and wastes. This is particularly important inasmuch as it helps make possible regular bowel movements, thus ridding the body of wastes and lowering the risk of colon cancer. (See Digestion for more about the digestive and excretory processes.)

Overall Carbohydrate Nutrition

A diet high in cellulose content can be beneficial for the reasons we have noted. Likewise, a healthy diet includes carbohydrate nutrients, but only under certain conditions. First of all, it should be understood that the human body does not have an essential need for carbohydrates in and of themselves—in other words, there are no "essential" carbohydrates, as there are essential amino acids or fatty acids.

On the other hand, it is very important to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, which, as we have seen, are heavy in carbohydrate content. Their importance has little do with their nutritional carbohydrate content, but rather with the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and dietary fiber that they contain. For these healthy carbohydrates, it is best to eat them in as natural a form as possible: for example, eat the whole orange, rather than just squeezing out the juice and throwing away the pulp. Also, raw spinach and other vegetables contain far more vitamins and minerals than the cooked versions.

SUGAR HIGHS AND FAT STORAGE.

Carbohydrates can give people a short burst of energy, and this is why athletes may "bulk up on carbs" right before competition. But if the carbohydrates are not quickly burned off, they eventually will be stored as fat. This is the case even with healthy carbohydrates, but the situation is much worse with junk-food carbohydrates, which offer only empty calories stripped of vitamin and mineral content. One example is a particular brand of candy bar that, over the years, has been promoted in commercials as a means of obtaining a quick burst of energy. In fact, this and all other white-sugar-based candies give only a quick "sugar high," followed almost immediately by a much lower energy "low"—and in the long run by the accumulation of fat.

Fat is the only form in which the body can store carbohydrates for the long haul, meaning that the "fat-free" stickers on many a package of cookies or cakes in the supermarket are as meaningless as the calories themselves are empty. Carbohydrate consumption is one of the main reasons why the average American is so overweight. With an in active lifestyle, as is typical of most adults in modern life, all those French fries, cookies, dinner rolls, and so on have no place to go but to the fat-storage centers in the abdomen, buttocks, and thighs. Of all carbohydrate-containing foods, the least fattening, of course, are natural nonstarches, such as fruits and vegetables (assuming they are not cooked in fat). Next on the least-fattening list are starchy natural foods, such as potatoes, and most fattening of all are processed starches, whether they come in the form of rice, wheat, or potato products.

WHY YOU CAN EAT MORE CARBOHYDRATES THAN PROTEINS.

One of the biggest problems with starches is that the body can consume so many of them compared with proteins and fats. How many times have you eaten a huge plate of mashed potatoes or rice, mountains of fries, or piece after piece of bread? All of us have done it: with carbohydrates, and particularly starches, it seems we can never get enough. But how many times have you eaten a huge plate of nothing but chicken, steak, or eggs? Probably not very often, and if you have tried to eat too much of these protein-heavy foods at one time, you most likely started to get sick.

The reason is that when you eat protein or fat, it triggers the release of a hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK) in the small intestine. CCK tells the brain, in effect, that the body is getting fed, and if enough CCK is released, it signals the brain that the body has received enough food. If one continues to consume proteins or fats beyond that point, nausea is likely to follow. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, do not cause a release of CCK; only when they enter the bloodstream do they finally send a signal to the brain that the body is satisfied. By then, most of us have piled on more mashed potatoes, which are destined to take their place in the body as fat stores.

WHERE TO LEARN MORE

Carbohydrates. Hardy Research Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Akron (Web site). <http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/genobc/Chapter_17/> .

Dey, P. M., and R. A. Dixon. Biochemistry of Storage Carbohydrates in Green Plants. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1985.

Carpi, Anthony. "Food Chemistry: Carbohydrates." Visionlearning.com (Web site). <http://www.vision learning.com/library/science/chemistry-2/CHE2.5-carbohydrates.htm> .

Food Resource, Oregon State University (Web site). <http://food.orst.edu/> .

Kennedy, Ron. "Carbohydrates in Nutrition." The Doctors' Medical Library (Web site). <http://www.medicallibrary.net/sites/carbohydrates_in_nutrition.html> .

"Nomenclature of Carbohydrates." Queen Mary College, University of London, Department of Chemistry (Web site). <http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iupac/2carb/> .

Snyder, Carl H. The Extraordinary Chemistry of Ordinary Things. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1998.

Spallholz, Julian E. Nutrition, Chemistry, and Biology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1989.

Wiley, T. S., and Bent Formby. Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival. New York: Pocket Books, 2000.