Occurrence

Carbohydrates can be divided into different groups. Sugars include fruit sugar (fructose), malt sugar (maltose), milk sugar (lactose) and mucilage sugar (galactose). These sugars are mainly found in fruits such as bananas, apples, pears, plums and pineapples and are usually a mixture of glucose and fructose.

Lactose, the milk sugar, is found in all dairy products, such as cheese, milk, yoghurt and quark. The household sugar (sucrose) used for baking and cooking is composed of equal amounts of glucose and fructose. Soft drinks such as Cola, Fanta, Sprite and other fizzy drinks usually contain a glucose-fructose syrup, which usually consists of approx.

55% fructose and 45% glucose. This mixture has a high sweetening power and ensures that certain foods taste sweet. Another form in which carbohydrates occur in our food is starch.

These are long chains of glucose molecules that are difficult to digest due to their structure. Starch, for example, can be found in all types of cereals (wheat, oat flakes, corn, buckwheat, rye, etc…) But carbohydrates in the form of starch are also found in nuts and legumes. Especially lentils, white, green and red beans, kidney beans, walnuts, hazelnuts and Brazil nuts contain a high percentage of starch.

But vegetables such as potatoes and sweet potatoes also contain a lot of starch, so these two foods are a good source of carbohydrates. Another group of carbohydrates is fiber, which is not as energy-rich as starch (fiber has 1.5 to 3 kilocalories per gram, starch has 4.1 kilocalories per gram). Fibers therefore hardly serve as a source of energy and are mostly excreted from the body.

One can divide them into soluble and insoluble dietary fibers. The soluble fiber is found in fruits, vegetables and legumes. The insoluble fiber is found in chaff, bran, husks of grains and seeds. The glycemic index tells us something about the absorption rate of carbohydrates through digestion. The foods with the highest glycemic index are dextrose (100), baguette (95), cornflakes (81), mashed potatoes (85) and white rice (87).