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Human Nutrition - Y2S1 > Sugars + Carbohydrates > Flashcards

Sugars + Carbohydrates Flashcards

1
Q

What’s the energy source from carbs? (kcal)

A

1g carbs = 4kcal

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2
Q

What’s the key roles of carbs in the body?

A
  • energy for physical + mental activities
  • stimulate insulin reduction + satiety
  • promote digestive health
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3
Q

What are the 2 types of dietary carbs?

A

Naturally occuring - in fruit etc

Added sugars - in sweet desserts etc

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4
Q

What 2 groups are carbs split into?

A

Simple - monosaccharides (glucose, fructose, galactose) and disaccharides (maltose, sucrose, lactose)

Complex - polysaccharides (starches, fibre)

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5
Q

Give examples of where each of monosaccharides are found

A
  • Glucose = sweet confectionary, honey, sugar, fruit (main carb)
  • Fructose = honey, fruit, some veg
  • Galactose = milk sugar
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6
Q

Give examples of where each of disaccharides are found

A
  • Maltose= plants, certain veg, cereal grains
  • Sucrose= honey, fruit, some veg
  • Lactose = milk sugar / dairy products
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7
Q

Give examples of where each of polysaccharides are found

A
  • Starches = potatoes, bread, rice, pasta + cereals
  • Fibres (non-starch) = wholegrains, beans, nuts, F+V
  • fibres are indigestible chains of glucose molecules (cellulose, inulin)
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8
Q

What classifies a monosaccharide?

A

No more than 6 carbon atoms

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9
Q

After absorption, where is fructose transported to?

A

The liver to be metabolised rapidly into products like glucose or glycogen or fat and that depends on metabolic state of individuals

e.g. if got excess glucose, it will be stored at adipose tissue in fat stores

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10
Q

What are the general steps of digestion + absorption of carbs?

A
  1. Mouth - mechanical + enzymatic digestion of starch
  2. Small intestine - enzymatic digestion of starch
  3. monosaccharide metabolism in lover
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11
Q

Digestion + Absorption

Describe what occurs in more detail at the mouth

A

Salivary amylase breaks down starch into shorter polysaccharides + maltose

  • has to be broken down as too large to be absorbed into bloodstream
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12
Q

Digestion + Absorption

Describe what occurs in more detail at the small intestine

A

Pancreatic amylase + disaccharidases from small intestine brush border = disaccharides into monosaccharide constituents

  • these pass through enterocytes and absorbed into blood stream to be taken to the liver
  • any unabsorbed CHO is transported to the large intestine
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13
Q

Digestion + Absorption

Describe what occurs in more detail at the liver

A

Galactose + fructose are converted to glucose then…

  1. Glycogenesis - glucose are stored as liver glycogen + muscle glycogen
  2. Blood glucose regulation - if glucose enters blood stream, its used for regulation
  3. energy production - used in glycolysis for ATP
  4. Conversion to fat - converted + stored as body fat cells (lipogenesis) - only if excess glucose
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14
Q

Where happens with the undigested carbohydrates?

A

(Mainly fibre)

In the large intestine, gut (colonic) bacteria ferments fibre for survival + growth

The fermentation process…
- provides an energy source for bacterial survival
- releases short-chain fatty acids to support gut health
- produces gas as a natural by-product

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15
Q

Why is dietary fibre important?

A
  • relieve constipation
  • reduce risk of CVD + T2D + cancers
  • oral health
  • mental health
  • improve gut microbiome + health
  • weight management
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16
Q

What is a lactose intolerance?

A

The body has an impaired ability to digest lactose adequately

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17
Q

What occurs to the lactose that different to normal?

A

Normal digestion - digested by lactase at intestinal brush border = glucose + galactose

Intolerance - lactose passes to large intestine (not enough lactase ) = GI symptoms

  • abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea
  • hereditary
18
Q

How can a lactose intolerance be managed?

A

Use diary free products (nut-milk)

Lactase enzyme tablet

19
Q

What do Eat-Lancet say is the healthy reference diet of carb sources?

A
  • whole grains
  • fruit + veg
  • minimising intake of added sugars
20
Q

Why is removing wholegrains (e.g. eating white rice, white bread etc) considered worse?

A

It leads to a loss of nutrients + fibre = a increased risk of metabolic diseases + cancer

21
Q

Is there differences in intake of carbs in different continents?

A

Based on research, europe + central Asia are behind greatly on whole-grains

  • the Mediterranean diet aligns well with recommendations (rich in whole-grains + fruit and veg)
22
Q

How is carb quality measured?

A

2 traditional methods…

  1. Glycaemic index - rates how quickly carb foods raise blood sugar
    - Low GI (0-55) - break down slowly during digestion, raising blood sugar slowly
    - Medium GI (56-69) - break + raise moderately
    - High GI (70+) - break + raise rapidly
  2. Fibre content - amount of fibre as a basic indicator as quality
23
Q

What are the limitations of these traditional methods of carb quality?

A

X - too simplistic + reductionist

X - don’t fully capture complexity of carb quality

24
Q

Describe a more holistic approach that can be taken to assessing carb quality

A

It combines traditional indices with other indices (protein quality, environmental sustainability, degree of processing)

  • aims to positively impact both health + environmental outcomes but needs further validation before its used more widespread
25
Q

What are the current traditional indices?

A
  1. Glycaemic index
  2. Wholegrain content
  3. Fibre content
  4. % added sugars
26
Q

Why is it a government focus to improve UK pop. dietary intakes?

A

There is a significant role of diet in the burden of disease

  • this impacts health services
  • also contributes to health inequalities (least deprived has better health etc)

Unhealthy diet is one of largest contributors to overall disease burden

27
Q

How are guidelines formed?

A

A hierarchy of evidence is considered (ranging from non-human studies to systematic reviews)

Non-human studies -> observational studies -> intervention studies -> meta-analyses + systematic reviews

28
Q

Broad classification of non-human studies

What are the 2 types?

A
  1. In-vitro studies - performed on isolated cells or tissue samples
    - less expensive + time intensive
    - cannot assume results will apply to whole living organism
  2. Animal studies (in-vivo)
    - can control food intake
    - less expensive + time intensive than human
    - only preliminary models of disease (different from human diseases)
29
Q

Broad classification of human studies

What are the 2 groups?

A
  1. observational - exposure of participants occurs naturally without any intervention from researchers
  • correlation does not prove causation however
  1. Interventions - experimental group is exposed to treatment while control group is not (exposure is assigned to participants)
30
Q

What are the studies seen in observational research?

describe purpose, whether it’s strong or not and limitations

A

Longitudinal cohort studies

Purpose - follow a group of people over time + measure factors
Design strength - strong as can track changes + associations

Limitations: (1) cannot definitively prove that exposure to a specific diet directly prevents CVD and (2) potential for confounding variables to influence results

31
Q

What are the studies seen in intervention research?

describe purpose, design + how to reduce bias

A

Randomised controlled trials

Purpose - provide evidence of cause + effect between treatment + outcomes
Design - experimental group is exposed to the treatment while control is not
Follow-up - both groups then followed for comparison to be made between respective outcomes
Minimising bias - ‘blinding’ participants + researchers to reduce bias

32
Q

Based on the SACN report (2015), what is the dietary reference value for carbs? (as a % of total dietary EI)

Are carbs good or bad?

A

Roughly 50%

The evidence indicated that total carb intake appears neither detrimental nor beneficial to cardiometabolic health, colorectal or oral health

33
Q

Based on the SACN report (2015), what is the recommended intake of fibre (2-5, 5-11 and 11-16 yrs + adults) that the pop. need to increase to and why?

A

2-5yrs = 15g/day
5-11 yrs = 20g/day
11-16 yrs = 25g/day
Adults = 30g/day

Diets rich in fibre (cereal fibre + wholegrains) are associated with lower incidence of CVD, T2D + colorectal cancer

  • also decrease intestinal transit times + increase faecal mass
34
Q

What’s the benefit of fibres such as oat bran and isolated beta-glucans?

A

They can lower cholesterol, LDL + triacylglycerol conc + lower BP

35
Q

What are free sugars?

A

All sugars that are added to food and drinks by manufacturer, cook or consumer as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups + fruit juices

  • these are sugars that are not contained within the cellular structures inside foods
36
Q

Based on the SACN report (2015), what are SSBs and their effect to an individuals health?

A

SSBs are all ‘non-diet’ carbonated drinks, coffee/tea with sugar, squash, juice drinks + sports / energy drinks

  • high consumptions of sugars within foods + drinks = increased risk of dental caries
  • increased risk of T2D
  • more free-sugars = more energy intake
  • weight gain and higher BMI compared to non-calorically sweetened drinks
37
Q

What is the recommendation of free sugars?

A

Average intake of free sugars should not exceed 5% of total EI from 2yrs+

Consumption of SSBs should be minimised in children + adults

  • because one can of coke = 35g of free sugars! - more than max daily intake in one go
38
Q

What policy actions have been introduced to reduce free sugars intake?

A
  1. Advice to limit foods + drinks high in free sugars as part of national dietary guidelines
  2. SSBs are a key focus - tax
  3. Soft drinks industry levy (2018) - tax rate based on sugar content = encouraging reformulation + decreased volume of sugar purchased via drinks
39
Q

How has the sugar tax been benficial, what other key changes have been seen since intoduction?

A

2015-19 = reduction of over 47000 tonnes of sugar each year from soft drinks sold

£334m in revenue raised in 21-22 alone

40
Q

Describe the Public Health England Voluntary Sugar Reduction Programme…

Objective + success

A

Objective - reduce sugar in 10 food categories by 20% in 2020

Actual reduction was only 3.5%!

  • were larger reductions for yoghurts, breakfast cereals, ice cream + lollies
  • smallest reduction for chocolate + puddings
41
Q

As a result, additional strategies are required to lower free sugars in food + drinks

List 3 of these

A
  1. A widespread mandatory food industry reformulation approach to get consistent reductions in sugar content
  2. Stricter advertising restrictions - especially among young children
  3. Criteria for marketing claims needs to have more rigorous standards + eliminate use of child-friendly characters on packaging
42
Q

If the SACN recommendations to reduce sugar intake to 5% of energy intake is achieved in next 10 years, this could….

A

Reduce the cost on the NHS by $500m per annum by year 10

Human Nutrition - Y2S1 (8 decks)

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