How does the body use carbohydrates?

[GENTLE MUSIC] At a cellular level, your body cares whether you're giving it some other nutrients, like vitamin C for your tissues, or its fruit, which

is going to carry in vegetables, which is going to carry all of these other wonderful nutrients.

The body uses carbohydrates for several different functions. To begin with, your body, actually, when you first eat it, at its most basic level

doesn't really care if you're eating jelly beans or stir fry. But I'll get back to that later-- why it does matter in the end.

When you first take in that carbohydrate, your body's going to digest it into its most basic component-- a glucose molecule.

And that can either then get stored in your liver as glycogen, it gets used for fuel for your brain,

or it can get stored in your muscles as glycogen. That's only going to be utilized if you're exercising and moving. As you utilize it, you need to replace it.

And so that's the different ways in which your body uses the carbohydrate at a very basic level for energy.

The way the body cares as to whether it is simple or complex or nutrient rich is the most important because then

at a cellular level your body cares whether you're giving it some other nutrients, like vitamin C for your tissues, or it's fruit, which is going to carry in vegetables,

which is going to carry all of these other wonderful nutrients. [AUDIO LOGO]