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Carbohydrates
one of the three main nutrients fat, protein and carbohydrates
Index
This is intended to help you navigate to the part you are interested in more easily
What is it?
- they are the major component of food and almost all foods contain carbohydrates
- can be synthesized from fats and proteins
- essentially carbohydrates are saccharide - sugars - seperated into
- monosaccharide such as glucose, fructose (fruit sugar), galactose, xylose and ribose
- disaccharide such as lactose (milk sugar) and sucrose (palm sugar)
- polysaccharides such as starch, glycogen, cellulose and chitin
What are they for?
- they give energy to the brain
- they give energy to the nerve cells
- they are an energy store that can be accessed and made available very rapidly
- blood cells need carbohydrates (glucose) to work
- gives energy to all tissues
What does the body do with the carbohydrates in order to use is?
- the body can only use glucose, so all sugars are transformed into glucose in order to be used
- glycogen is a version of glucose the body is capable of storing
- the pancreas secretes insulin in order for the body to be able to absorb energy from carbohydrates
What happens in cases of a deficiency?
- deficiency is extremely rare and almost unheard off since basically all foods contain carbohydrates and the body of a dog does not
need a lot of them
What happens in cases of overdose?
- overweight
- hinders protein uptake
Which foods contain fat? (this is not an exclusive list, only a few examples of common products)
- potatoes
- grains
- milk
- fruit
- honey
- peas
- beans
- rice
- vegetables
Sources:
- European Union Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection
- subsection "Animal nutrition and feed safety"
- subsection "Labeling and Nutrition"
- subsection "Food safety"
- the German Federal Ministry of Health
- the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection
- U.S. Department of Health and Human services
- subsection "Food and Drug Administration"
- Association of American Feed Control Officials
- The Finnish National Public Health Institute - "Fineli"
- the UK Department of Health
- the UK Department for Enviornment, Food and Rural Affairs - "defra"
NB: the author does not guarantee the accuracy of this information or accept responsibility for harm caused through it
This article may be reproduced freely with proper reference to the author.
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