Fats and Carbohydrates

Fats and carbohydrates share the primary function of being energy sources for the body, but they also perform various other functions. (Fats, for example, are needed for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.) Fats consist of fatty acids and glycerol, the fatty acids being either "saturated" or "unsaturated." Unsaturated fatty acids are more readily "burned" for energy than saturated ones, and they appear to be connected with lower blood cholesterol levels. Animal fats are generally high in saturated fatty acids, and vegetable fats in unsaturated fatty acids.

Carbohydrates -- which comprise the bulk of most of the world's diet -- are sugars or compounds that break down into sugars in the digestive process. Starch is a common form of carbohydrate found in grains, bulbs, roots, and tubers; the various sugars are common especially in fruits, sugar cane, sugar beets, and milk. (The structural plant material cellulose is also a carbohydrate, but we can't eat trees because our bodies have no digestive enzymes to break cellulose down into usable sugars.) Meats may provide small amounts of stored carbohydrates in a form call glycogen.

Sources of Vegetable Fats: avocados, nuts, olives, seeds, soybeans, vegetable oils (e.g., corn, cottonseed, peanut, soybean, safflower seed, sunflower seed, walnut), wheat germ.

Sources of Carbohydrates: apples, apricots, bananas, beets, blackberries, blackstrap molasses, blueberries, brussels sprouts, carrots, cherries, dates, figs, grapes, Indian corn, kidney beans (dried, all kinds), lentils, lima beans, nuts, oats, parsnips, peas, potatoes, prunes, raisins, raspberries, rice, sesame seeds, soybeans, sunflower seeds, sweet potatoes, wheat, yams, yeasts (edible).

Home Page || Back || Product Index