Carbs vs sugars

Sugar is part of the carbohydrate food group so if you were to eat 10g of sugar you are eating 10g of carbs.

Where sugars differ is that they are 'simple carbohydrates' and as such they break down easily and quickly to give you a glucose spike in your bloodstream. Great for treating hypo's but not so good if you want to avoid long term damage apparently..

Carbohydrates such as pasta and bread are 'complex carbohydrates' so they break down less quickly. You get the same amount of glucose in your blood but over a longer time period.

Does that help?

Mike Sixx said:

Is 1g of sugar equivalent of 1g carbs when it comes to total blood sugar increase?
And it is just question of speed, how fast the carbs and sugars are digested into the blood stream?

If the alternative is to eat breakfaat with 9g of sugar or 12 grams of carbs which is better and does it even matter really ?

Click to expand...

If those were my alternatives I'd just skip breakfast entirely...

I agree with bulkbuilder- for me if those were the alternatives I'd stick to coffee with double cream- that is in fact what I do anyway.

An alternative if you have no option- just eat half?

But I'm on very low carb- if you do go ahead- make sure you test- if you start going high an early morning walk might help.

Good luck.

Mike Sixx said:

Is 1g of sugar equivalent of 1g carbs when it comes to total blood sugar increase?
And it is just question of speed, how fast the carbs and sugars are digested into the blood stream?

If the alternative is to eat breakfaat with 9g of sugar or 12 grams of carbs which is better and does it even matter really ?

Click to expand...

Since all sugars are carbs but not all carbs are sugars, there is never going to be less carbs than sugar in a substance . If your question is: for a given amount of carbs, is it better if a lower proportion of them are sugars? Then the answer is probably yes, as your blood glucose is likely to rise more slowly which might mean your body can cope better than with a sudden spike. This is the theory behind eating low GI foods but the effectiveness is debatable.