1

Diploma in Nutrition, food

science and menu planning

Carbohydrates
Summary Notes

Diploma in Nutrition, food science and menu planning

2

Contents
3 Introduction

Objective 1: Understanding macronutrients and energy

Macronutrients:

Energy

4 Total energy expenditure (TEE)

Objective 2: Structure and properties of carbohydrates

5 Gelatinisation

Retrogradation

6 Objective 3: Sources of carbohydrates

Starchy vegetables

7 Grains

Milling process

Long vs short patent flour

8 Pulses and Legumes

Carbohydrate recommendations

Conclusion

References

Diploma in Nutrition, food science and menu planning

3

Lesson outcomes
Introduction
Carbohydrate rich foods form the basis of many dietary patterns around the world. Not only do they provide energy, but also
a variety of nutrients vital for good health. From potatoes in Ireland, to rice in many Asian countries and tubers or grains in
Africa. The word starch is derived from the Germanic root word meaning ‘stiff’ and many starchy foods live up to this name
and are used as a thickening product in food processing. As we will learn over the next when 30 minutes, carbohydrate
containing foods don’t only include pizza, pasta and bread and can in fact, be a valuable source of important nutrients if you
make the right choices.

Objectives:
• Understanding macronutrients and energy
• Carbohydrate metabolism
• Sources of carbohydrates

Objective 1: Understanding macronutrients and energy

Macronutrients:
With medical terminology being one of the core skills I want to teach you- Let’s explore what the meaning of macro (and
conversely micro) means in a biological sense. The prefix-word macro means large and micro means small. Whilst a nutrient is
a substance that provides nourishment essential for the maintenance of life and for growth. (Mahan & Raymond, 2017)

What this means to us, is that macronutrients are nutrients needed in large quantities (usually grams) and include
carbohydrates, protein, fats, and water. While micronutrients are nutrients needed in much smaller quantities (usually
milligrams or micrograms) and are more commonly known as vitamins and minerals. (Mahan & Raymond, 2017)

The food we eat is made up of a combination of macro and micronutrients. We know that our body digests these
macronutrients into their smallest components to be used by our body cells for energy and various processes. Food contains
varying proportions of macronutrients. This takes us back to lesson 1 where we spoke about healthy eating patterns.
Remember, we don’t eat single nutrients, we eat food which contains varying amount of each of the 3 macronutrients.
Macronutrients are caloric (which means that they contribute energy to our diet) whereas water, vitamins and minerals are
non-caloric, which means they are not a source of energy.

Energy
A calorie is a measurement of energy and represents the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1 ml
of water at 15°C by 1°C. Because the amount of energy involved in the metabolism of food is large, the kilocalorie (or kCal),
which is equal to 1000 calories, is used to measure it. A popular convention is to call a kCal a Calorie (with a capital C) or a
food calorie. Thus, throughout my lessons, when you hear me refer to Calories or using the abbreviation kCal you know I
am referring to the same thing. Many people ask me what the difference between a calorie and a kilojoule. They essentially
measure the same thing but have different names. Just like kilometre and miles and both a measurement of distance and
kilogram and pound are both a measurement of weight. (Mahan & Raymond, 2017)

Diploma in Nutrition, food science and menu planning

4

Just as you would have a conversion for these measurements:

If 1 kCal = kilocalorie = 1 food Calorie

1kCal = 4,184kJ
kCal to kJ (x 4,184)
i.e. 272 kCal x 4,184 = 1138,04kJ
kJ to kCal (÷ 4,184)
i.e. 1138kJ ÷ 4,184 = 271,99kCal

With regards to energy expenditure, what I want you to understand for now is that the total amount of energy we expend in a
day varies from person to person but essentially the calculation is as follows:

Total energy expenditure (TEE)

Basal energy expenditure/ BEE (or how much energy you expend to live) +
Thermic effect of food/ TEF (how much energy is used to digest certain foods) +
Activity thermogenesis (how much energy you expend doing your daily activity)
(Mahan & Raymond, 2017)

Energy is defined as ‘the capacity to do work’. As we said in lesson 1, without food and water we would literally die and one of
the reasons for this is because without enough energy, our body cells literally don’t have the energy to do their work (and their
work is essentially, to keep us alive). Each one of us have different energy requirements and depending on your weight and
activity levels can range anywhere between 20-50kCal/kg ideal body weight per day.

Our age and gender can also play a role with regards to our energy requirements with some research showing that females
over the age of 65 years need 19-22kCal/ kg and males need 20-24kCal/kg per day.

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding your energy needs increase because you are growing a little person or producing milk. In
people who are sick or injured, they may need more energy to repair their body or fight infections.

A person’s body weight is one indicator of too much, enough, or too little energy and we know that if you are in an energy
deficient that you will lose weight. Remember that weight loss is due to an energy deficient and does not tell you anything
about a person’s health, macronutrients, or micronutrients status. (Mahan & Raymond, 2017)

Let’s link energy together with our macronutrients. There are 4kCal or 17kJ in 1 gram of both pure carbohydrates and protein
with fat containing more than double that at 9kCal or 37kJ. AT this point, I do want to highlight again, that food is made up of a
combination of macronutrients and there are very few (if any) foods that are 100% a single macronutrient. When determining
the amount of energy in a food item, you must consider the number of grams of each macronutrient present in that food item.
(Mahan & Raymond, 2017)

Objective 2: Structure and properties of carbohydrates

Just like bricks build up to form a house, so sugars build up to form more complex starches.
• The most basic carbohydrate is called a monosaccharide (mono means one and saccharide means sugar). Examples are
glucose, fructose and a sugar called galactose.
• Disaccharides (di means two) are made up of two monosaccharides (e.g. sucrose is made up of glucose and fructose).
• Lastly, a polysaccharide is made up of many sugars (poly means many), examples are the most known, starch. When a

Diploma in Nutrition, food science and menu planning

5

person talks about any carbohydrate containing food, it will contain one or more of these sugars.
• Monosaccharides are the shortest and most easily absorbed and don’t need much digestion to be absorbed.
• Disaccharides need to be digested a little (a good example is lactose which is also known as milk sugar).
• And Polysaccharides are the most ‘complex’ sugars and need the most digestion (often people refer to these as complex
carbohydrates).
(Mahan & Raymond, 2017)

Let’s understand starch a little better. When a plant photosynthesises it converts sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into
glucose and oxygen. This glucose is then stored as starch. As the plant matures, it not only provides energy for its own needs,
but also stores energy for future use in starch granules. Amylose and amylopectin are two major forms of starch found in these
granules.
• Amylose is a straight-chain structure of repeating glucose molecules. There can be anywhere from 500-2000 glucose units
linked together.
• Amylopectin on the other hand is highly branched and usually contain many more glucose units.
•

Image 1: Amylose and amylopectin structure (Brown, 2004)

Gelatinisation
What is interesting about amylose is that it will gel whilst amylopectin will not. A gel is a semi-solid state which occurs when
amylose starch granules are heated in liquid until peak thickness is reached. Thus, if you want to thicken a food item, you will
want to choose a starch with a significant amount of amylose (for example corn-starch).
There are many factors that influence gelatinisation such as water, temperature, timing, stirring and the addition of an acid,
sugar, fat, or protein. (Brown, 2004)

Retrogradation
As a gel cools, bonds continue to form and tighten between amylose molecules and retrogradation occurs. Due to this
contraction, water seeps out. If you have ever made a pot of oats and allowed it to cool, you will have seen this happening in
action. Retrogradation is accelerated by freezing, so frozen food products usually use low amylose starch sources.
Retrograded starch can become resistant to digestion. Resistant starch is not digested in the small intestine and does not
contribute calories. The amylose and amylopectin are rendered inaccessible to enzymatic hydrolysis. Therefore, diabetics are
recommended to cool their starches prior to eating them, this decreases the amount of carbohydrates available and thus may
have a less profound effect on blood sugar levels. (Brown, 2004)

Diploma in Nutrition, food science and menu planning

6

Objective 3: Sources of carbohydrates

Starches are the most widely known carbohydrate food sub-group, but it is not limited to bread and pasta. Starches can be
split into starchy vegetables, grains and pulses and legumes.

Starchy vegetables
Starchy vegetables include foods like peas, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes

Interestingly, the ripening process converts vegetable sugars to starch, this means that the vegetables (like corn, carrots, and
peas) are naturally sweeter if they are harvested early whereas in fruits, it is the other way around. Where ripening converts
fruit starch to sugar. Thus, a ripe banana or melon will taste sweeter than an unripe one. (Brown, 2004)

Sweet potato vs regular potato:

Here we have a comparison between the two (according the USDA food database), as you can see, 100g of raw potato contains
58kCal, 12.44g CHO, 2.57g protein and only 0.1g fat. So, the main macronutrients here is carbohydrates. Compared to sweet
potato, which has 86kCal energy, 20.12g CHO, 3g protein and only 0.05g fat. (Food Data Central, n.d.)

This means that the sweet potato, is higher in energy and CHO and slightly higher in protein, but it is also slightly lower in fat.
So, the truth is that they are not significantly different and are both healthful and minimally processed carbohydrates foods.
My advice is to beware of unhealthy cooking methods (like deep frying- for example when you do chips or fries) and to be
aware of additional calories added as toppings in the form of butter or sour cream.

One thing to possibly take note of is the type of starch in the potato you choose. Theoretically amylose is digested quicker
than amylopectin. Remembering that amylopectin is a branched starch molecule. Thus, choosing a potato with high
amylopectin content like red skinned potato, new potatoes or fingerling potatoes may be digested more slowly than higher
amylose potatoes keeping you feeling fuller for longer. (Brown, 2004)

Grains
Grains include foods like oats, barley, rice, wheat, corn, millet, sorghum, rye etc as well as any flours and food products made
from these.

Wholegrains vs refined grains

Wholegrains are exactly that, the whole plant with little or no processing. This means that you are getting everything from the
plant including the endosperm, germ, and bran.

The endosperm is the plants food supply, it is rich in starchy carbohydrates which provides valuable energy to the young
plant. The endosperm is the largest portion of the kernel (approximately 83%) and is what is left after a grain has been refined
(but more on that in a few moments). It is not particularly nutrient dense but does also contain a little bit of protein, vitamins,
and minerals. (Brown, 2004)

The germ is the part of the kernel that will sprout into a new plant. It is the smallest part of the grain. It contains many B
vitamins, some protein, minerals, and healthy fats. (Brown, 2004)

The bran is the multi-layered outer skin of the edible kernel. It contains important antioxidants, B vitamins and fibre. (Brown,
2004)

Diploma in Nutrition, food science and menu planning

7

Milling process
Breaking: The first part of the milling process is when the grain is broken down. Special machinery equipped with
break rollers removes the bran & the germ. The result is called break flour. Break flour still has some bran attached to the
endosperm.

Purifying: To further remove the bran, the flour is moved through containers where blowing air currents removes any
remaining bran. The endosperm on its own is now known as middling’s.

Reducing: The middling is now passed through 10-15 smooth surfaced reduction rollers which grind them into flour.

Sifting: The flour is then sifted into streams; this determines how the flour is classified

Classifying: The flour streams range from fine to coarse and the types of flour range from patent flour (from individual
streams) to straight flour (which are a mixture of the streams).
(Brown, 2004)

Long vs short patent flour

Patent flour is divided into long, medium, or short patents, with their classification being determined by how much of the total
endosperm was milled. Long patents originate from the outer portion of the endosperm and contain more protein while short
patents originate from the centre of the endosperm and typically contain more starch.
To build on the concept of wholegrains vs refined grain- Refined products have been stripped of some especially important
nutrients. “Refined grain” is the term used to refer to grains that are not whole, because they are missing one or more of their
three key parts (bran, germ, or endosperm). (Brown, 2004)

White flour and white rice are refined grains, for instance, because both have had their bran and germ removed, leaving only
the endosperm. Refining a grain removes about a quarter of the protein in a grain, and half to two thirds or more of a score of
nutrients, leaving the grain a mere shadow of its original self.

Refined grains are frequently enriched. Enrichment adds back fewer than a half dozen of the many missing nutrients, but
it does this in proportions different than they originally existed (often in much higher quantities like with B1, 2, 3, iron and
folate). ([Link], 2019)

Out of all the flours available on the market, the most popular flour is wheat flour. This is largely due to the protein found
naturally in wheat (namely gluten) which facilitates the rising of baked goods. The only other flour that comes close to wheat
for baking is rye (which also contains a type of gluten). (Brown, 2004)

Gluten is made up of two distinct types of proteins namely gliadin and glutenin. Gliadin influences the fluidity and stickiness
of the dough while glutenin influences the elasticity. Both contribute to the structural strength of the final baked product and
the ability of the product to rise is directly related to its gluten content. (Brown, 2004)

Knowing these kinds of facts can help you next time you want to do some baking. Cake flour has less gluten than bread flour
and more starch (and all-purpose flour has an intermediate amount). This is because cakes don’t need to rise as much as
breads and the higher starch content gives the finished cake product a finer crumb. (Brown, 2004)

Diploma in Nutrition, food science and menu planning

8

Pulses and Legumes

These choices are high in fibre and contain protein as well as a good hit of vitamins and minerals. They include examples like
beans, all forms of peas and lentil.

The reason why pulses and legumes are some of my favourite starches is due to their fibre content. Pulses and legumes really
do pack a big punch with between 6-8g per 100g cooked product. Wholegrains like corn, rice, oats, and barley (or pearled
wheat) are also great minimally processed choices. These pack a little less of a fibre punch with between 1.7 – 3.8g/ 100g
cooked but every little bit counts towards you meeting your daily goals. (Food Data Central, n.d.)

Carbohydrate recommendations
Let’s start wrapping up this lesson with carbohydrates recommendations for the general healthy population.
It is generally accepted that a diet comprising of 45 – 55% of total calories is acceptable for most or 3-5g/kg/ d for active
individuals or athletes. From a fibre perspective, most people should aim for between 25 – 38g/ d. (Mahan & Raymond, 2017)
In terms of carbohydrate content of food, in general there are approximately 15g carbohydrates in ½ cup cooked
carbohydrates containing food or 1 slice of bread. ([Link], n.d.)

Conclusion
Don’t forget to join us next time for lesson 3 where we will be discussing proteins in more detail. It will be a fact filled lesson
and I know that you will walk away with an increased appreciation for this incredibly important nutrient.

References
• Brown, A., 2004. Understanding Food. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
• [Link]. n.d. [online] Available at: <[Link]
pdf> [Accessed 1 July 2020].
• [Link]. (2019). Canada's Food Guide. [online] Available at: [Link]
[Accessed 13 Aug. 2019].
• Mahan, L. and Raymond, J. (2017). Krause's food & the nutrition care process.
• [Link]. (2019). Food Composition Databases Show Foods List. [online] Available at: [Link]
[Link]/ndb/search/list [Accessed 23 Aug. 2019].

Diploma in Nutrition, food science and menu planning