Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are macronutrients - foods we need to eat in reasonably large quantities, unlike vitamins and minerals, which are micronutrients and necessary in only small amounts. The two other macronutrients are protein and fat. Carbs are easily converted to energy by the body, so they supply most of our energy needs. There are basically two main classes of carbohydrate - simple carbs which contain one or two sugars and complex carbs which contain three or more sugars- although this classification of carb-types has been superseded by the Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL).