Calories in Carbohydrates

Calories in Carbohydrates

In my post exploring-carbohydrates, I explained a bit about what they were, how they related to other energy sources and how they are used by the body.  In this post I'll compare some common complex carbohydrates  against each other to see how they measure up!

Take a look at the table below; I've highlighted in red the highest values for calorie content and green the lowest values - with two exceptions - potato has one of the lowest calorie counts of the carb food sources that I've identified, but I've highlighted its protein value with amber because good quality protein is essential not only for a variety of structural and enzymatic purposes with in the body, but its also a key weapon for fighting off hunger!  I have highlighted the protein content for Egg Noodles for the same reason.

Surprises (for me at least)
I'm not surprised that egg noodles score so very highly in the calorie table: eggs are high in calories; after all, they have to contain all the ingredients for building chicks!

I've got to say, bread is my hero: I love a good wholemeal roll, but I am disappointed by the amount of fat and sugar in it!  If you're after weight gain (for example, because you want to build muscle or are recovering from illness), then bread is a good food.  Bread does have its place in a calorie controlled diet - because of its higher protein and fat content it will probably help you feel full for longer - and I'll cover off the other benefits of bread in later posts.  I'd say that fat has a good mix of energy sources in it: a little sugar to give you an immediate boost, some fat and more complex carbs for longer term energy provision and protein for building and repair.

If you're after weight-loss, then its going to have to be a plain old baked potato ... as that's mostly made up of water!  Sweet potato may be a problem if you're after weight loss - they contain a lot of sugar which can increase feelings of hunger!  I'll cover this when I get onto glycemic indexes in a subsequent post.

Next Time

I'm going to have a look at the nutrients in the carbohydrate sources listed in the table below - after all, there's more to food and nutrition than calories!

Calorie Table

One word of warning about the table below; its all by weight (100 grams) rather than by portion size.

Its also worth noting that the bread has its crusts on and the potato is baked.  How you cook potato (and rice) enormously changes the calorie composition: roasting or frying your potato of egg-frying your rice will greatly increase the fat content of these two foods.  Bread is usually served "as is" (albeit with butter, cheese or what have you on it) and pasta pretty much has to be boiled - anything you add to these foods has to be taken into account separately.

Food	Total Calories	Calories from Protein	Calories from Carbs (Less Sugar)	Calories from Sugar	Calories from Fat
RDA - 35 year old 65kg male * approx - no RDA exists	2400	360	1320	NA	720
Egg Noodles	376	56	276	8	36
White Bread	293	36	196	20	45
Brown Bread	281	32	188	16	45
Wholegrain Bread	260	52	148	24	36
White Rice	196	16	180	0	0
Sweet Potato	180	16	112	52	0
White Pasta	148	24	120	4	9
Brown Pasta	133	22	103	3	5
Potato	116	8	104	4	0
Brown Rice	113	12	92	0	9

Exploring Carbohydrates

Introduction

I'm going to do a series of blog posts about carbohydrates; what they are and why they are important, how they relate to other sources of energy, their effects on diet and body sculpting and the relative nutritional values of various kinds of carbohydrates.  By which I mean: what are they and which ones are "best"?

What Are Carbohydrates?

The "science": carbs are organic compounds consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (elements they have in common with protein and fat; protein has an added element of nitrogen and fat has a much higher proportion of carbon to its makeup).


Almost every meal with have some carbohydrate element, but the most accessible form of carbohydrate for us to see are sugars.  There are plenty of other examples of carbohydrates, the more complex types are most commonly found in foods derived from grains (eg flour and rice) and potatoes.  

As part of the digestive process, all carbohydrates are converted to glucose in order to be absorbed by the blood - how quickly we feel hungry is can be related to how quickly our body can convert carbs to glucose, absorb and store the glucose.

Incidentally, dietary fiber is actually an indigestible for of carbohydrate - the bacteria in our gut use them for energy.  Therefore, the energy content of fiber is never included in calorie calculations.

In later posts I'll compare the nutritional values of food sources such as potatoes, rice, bread and pasta.

How Are Carbohydrates Used?

Critically, carbs are the body's preferred source of energy, generally more accessible than fat, being stored in in the muscle that's working and requiring only a short time to be prepared for use as fuel.

Carbs are the brain's only source of energy, although the brain stores its carb reserve in the liver - which the muscles can raid if they need to.  When blood sugar levels get low we get feelings of dizziness and nausea.

Energy Content of Carbohydrates

The nutritional professionals use a few rough and ready numbers for calculating the energy content of food:

• Protein - 4KCals
• Fat - 9KCals
• Alcohol - 7KCal
• Carbohydrate - 4KCal

Next Time...

I'll compare the energy content of various common kinds of "complex" carbohydrates