Glycogen is the body's stored form of glucose. Glycogen is broken down by lysosomes—tiny recycling machines inside the cells that have enzymes in them. Acid alpha-glucosidase, also known as GAA, breaks down the glycogen and recycles it, turning it into energy the body can use between meals or when exercising. If glycogen builds up in the body it can cause problems. The extra glycogen stored in the cells damages muscles the most.
Carbohydrates
Starches, sugars and fiber are the carbohydrates in food. Carbohydrates are a molecule that plants make during photosynthesis, combining carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They are very important in your body's metabolism because they are generally the part of food that is digested most quickly. Carbohydrates can give you quick energy, and cause a rise in blood sugar levels.
Diabetics, in particular, need to pay attention to the carbohydrates they eat to help manage their blood sugar. Some carbohydrates, those found in whole grains and leafy vegetables, for example have a much slower impact on blood sugar than carbohydrates in fruits or candy.
It's easy to consume a lot of carbohydrates, as foods like breads, pasta, cake, cookies and potatoes are loaded with them. Nutrition experts suggest that you should only get 45 to 65 percent of your daily nutrition from carbohydrates.
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Healthy Humans answeredSee All 4 AnswersOne of the most amazing facts of biology is that all cells are built from the same building blocks. Whether it is bacteria or an ant, algae or a tree, a crab or a fish, a dog, a cat or even a human being, all living things have the same chemical building blocks from the same four categories: proteins, carbohydrates, fats and nucleic acids. All of these chemical building blocks are long chains of smaller simpler molecules. Carbohydrates are one such chain of simpler molecules called sugars, and glucose is a sugar.
There are many common sugars in our diet. The sugar in fruit is fructose. Lactose is the sugar found in cow's milk. Table sugar is sucrose, a type of sugar called a disaccharide, which means it is composed of two simpler sugars: fructose and glucose. The main function of sugar in its simplest form is to supply a ready source of energy for the cell. Our bodies have evolved a very close relationship to sugar, and we know its taste intuitively as something we like. This is because to our ancestors, the taste of sugar was a sign that something was good for us. It meant that the food we were tasting was full of nutrition and energy. In its naturally occurring form, sugar is typically accompanied by fiber as it occurs in fruit and certain sweet vegetables. The problem with our modern diet is that sugar now is a signal for highly refined foods,usually low in fiber and often with very high and unnatural amounts of sugar. We're tricking our bodies and ourselves. We (or the food industry) have taken a naturally occurring food (sugar) that we've had 40,000 years of evolution to get to know and like in its natural state, and turned it into something very toxic. -
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American Diabetes Association answeredSugar alcohols are one type of reduced-calorie sweetener. Examples of sugar alcohol are:- erythritol
- hydrogenated starch hydrolysates
- isomalt
- lactitol
- maltitol
- mannitol
- sorbitol
- xylitol
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dLife - It's YOUR Diabetes Life! answeredWhen figuring net carbs, you can subtract carb grams depending on how much fiber a food contains, not protein. The general rule is that if a food has 5 or more grams of fiber, you can subtract half of those fiber grams from the total carb count. However, it's always a good idea to test your blood sugar after eating and see what kind of effect fiber has on your own metabolism. -
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Boston Women's Health Book Collective , Administration, answeredSee All 3 AnswersTo better understand how the body uses foods, it is helpful to know how the various components of food function to keep us going. Macronutrients -- namely proteins, carbohydrates, and fats -- are our bodies' basic building blocks. We need them in large quantities simply to survive. -
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Debra Fulghum Bruce PhD , Healthcare, answeredSee All 2 AnswersFor weight loss, be cautious when selecting foods high on the glycemic index, such as:- Potatoes
- Refined grains
- Sweets
- Vegetables high in starch (corn)
- Candy
- Pastries
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Dr. Vonda Wright, MD , Orthopedic Surgery, answeredEasily digestible foods containing high levels of simple sugars cause a rapid spike in circulating blood sugar. This signals the pancreas to release insulin in order to absorb the glucose. This works well unless the pancreas overshoots insulin secretion, which it commonly does, providing too much transportation of the glucose out of the blood. This causes the blood glucose to fall rapidly and leaves you feeling tired, cranky, shaky, and sometimes lightheaded. This precipitous drop spurs a carb crave three to four hours after a high-carb meal and sends you straight to the refrigerator for more carbs that are high on the Glycemic Index (a measure of the effect of carbohydrates on blood glucose levels and insulin production). Usually, high-index foods also contain a lot of fat and calories, which can set you up for a cycle of overindulging. -
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National Kidney Foundation answeredSugar is not a problem for the kidneys unless your blood sugar level gets too high. This commonly occurs in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Once the blood sugar level gets higher than 180 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), the kidneys start to spill sugar into the urine. The higher the blood sugar, the more sugar comes out in the urine. If your kidneys are normal, this usually isn’t a problem, but if you have diabetes, too much sugar can cause kidney damage.
A common blood test used to detect diabetes and monitor blood sugar levels over time involves the hemoglobin A1C (HgbA1C) protein. The higher the blood sugar gets, the more sugar gets attached to this protein. Determining the levels of hemoglobin A1C helps to give an estimate of the average sugar level in the blood for the past three months and provides an indication of how much damage the sugar may be causing in the body, including to the kidneys. A normal HgbA1C is less than 6% for someone who doesn’t have diabetes. As the HgbA1C gets higher, more damage is done.
Uncontrolled diabetes can damage the blood vessels of the kidneys and destroy their filters. When the blood vessels in the kidneys are injured, the kidneys can’t clean the blood properly, resulting in more water and salt being retained and waste materials building up in the blood. -
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dLife - It's YOUR Diabetes Life! answeredSee All 2 AnswersThe most recent recommendation for how to deal with fiber in foods is if a food has more than five grams of fiber, you can subtract half the grams of fiber from the total number of carbohydrate grams in the food.
For example, if a food contains 17 grams of total carbs and 12 grams of fiber, you can subtract 6 grams, which would result in 11 grams of carbs for your body to digest and absorb.