Q. Carbohydrates requirement in dyslipidemia?

As you have already read that carbohydrates provide 4 Kcal/g of energy in our diets. Since we take large amounts of carbohydrates, these provide 60-70% of our total calorie needs of the body. If taken in excess, it is converted to fat in the body. You would recall reading about different types of carbohydrates that form an essential part of our diet. Let us brush up our knowledge about these in this sub-section and find out the role of carbohydrates in heart diseases. The dietary sources of carbohydrates are as follows:

1) Monosaccharides: You are aware that monosaccharides exist mainly as glucose and fructose in our diets. Fruits, vegetable, honey, jaggery are good sources of monosaccharides.

2) Disaccharides: Sucrose (common known as sugar) is the commonest of them all and present in table sugar. Lactose is found naturally in milk and milk products, Maltose is the product of hydrolysis of starch and is found in sprouted wheat and barley.

3) Oligosaccharides: These are found in plant seeds mainly legumes, beans and peas.

4) Polysaccharides: Starch is one of the main carbohydrates found in our diets and comes from cereals, potato, bananas etc.