The human physique needs to keep a definite percentage of carbohydrates intake for a healthy constitution. The World Health Organization recommends that about 55-75% of energy requirements of an adult ought to be met from carbohydrate intake. A physique wants to maintain this level of intake, failing which, there can be complications like muscle cramps, fatigue, poor mental functions and decreased resistance to diseases and ailments. There are two main types of carbohydrates, easy and complicated.

Easy Carbohydrates

These are made up of a single fundamental sugar. Easy carbohydrates supply the sweet taste in our food. Fruit sugar, table sugar or corn sugar are all types of easy sugars. On consumption, these sugars are directly absorbed within the blood as glucose requirements of the body. Glucose provides instant energy as it reaches different parts of your body via blood. Easy sugars are occur in plenty in natural foods like fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products. In addition to these, honey, molasses brown sugar, corn syrup and maple syrup are rich sources of simple sugars.

Complex Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates, as the name suggests, are a combination of different kinds of sugars. These take a longer time for break lower into their elementary form and hence, require more time for digestion. The slow break down procedure, supplies us with constant power for a longer duration. Since these carbohydrates require more time for conversion, they are constantly utilized up by your body. Therefore, sugar converted to fat is not stored in a large quantity unlike the simple carbohydrates. Easy carbohydrates supply immediate power simply because they are broken lower in lesser time as compared to complicated carbohydrates. This increases the storage of broken down fats, which if not burned or used up, may lead to health issues.

Complex carbohydrates are abundantly found in foods like cereals, bread, pasta, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

Carbohydrates can also be classified about the basis of their chemical composition. They are the most effortlessly available and the largest set of compounds on the Earth. Based on the complexity of their structures, you will find five major classes of carbohydrates. They are described in brief as follows.

Monosaccharides

They are the fundamental compounds with a cyclic structure consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen within the ratio 1:2:1. 'Mono' refers to single and saccharides means sugar. Glucose, fructose and galactose are types of monosaccharides.

Disaccharides

These carbohydrates mean 'two sugars', which refer to the commonly accessible types such as sucrose, maltose and lactose. When two monosaccharides bond together by a condensation reaction, they release one molecule of water and a disaccharide is formed. This bond is known as a glycosidic bond.

Oligosaccharides

They are carbohydrates with more than two fundamental kinds of sugar molecules, generally among three and ten fundamental units. Their main function in your body is the storage of glucose. Raffinose and stachyose are the primary types of oligosaccharides which consist of repetitive chains of fructose, galactose and glucose.

Polysaccharides

These are also known as monomers and are composed of thousands of molecules from the fundamental units of glucose. Carbohydrates stored within the form of starch contain these type of compounds. Amylose, which is a straight chain compound and amylopectin, that is a branched compound, are the most frequent types of polysaccharides.

Nucleotides

It's another complex carbohydrate which contains many molecules of cyclic sugar. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are complex five sided sugars classified under this category. The difference among RNA and DNA is that the former has one extra hydroxyl group.

Carbohydrates are the biggest source of energy in your body. Hence, their use within the proper proportion is absolutely essential for the growth and well-being of living beings.