Catherine Saxelby's Foodwatch | Q. Is sugar absorbed more rapidly than starchy foods?

Q. Is sugar absorbed more rapidly than starchy foods?

A. It all depends on which type of starchy food you're comparing sugar to.   We used to think that starches were long ‘complex' molecules that took longer to be broken down by the body. Sugar was viewed as ‘simple' and considered to be easy and quick to digest and absorb.

Now thanks to years of research about the Glycaemic index or GI, we realise this view of simple vs complex is over simplified.

Although all carbohydrate foods are ultimately broken down to sugars (glucose, fructose, maltose), their effect on the body's blood sugar levels varies quite significantly from food to food.

This is largely influenced by:

• the type of starch in the carbohydrate eg amylopectin takes longer to be digested than amylose
• how processed or cooked the food is and
• whether there is any fat or fibre accompanying the carbohydrate.

 

Comparing a few GI values, take a look at these values

 

Remember that the GI is a measure of the quality of the carbohydrate and how slowly or quickly it's absorbed.

From the figures, you can see that some starchy foods (potato, rice) have a high GI and so are absorbed mush faster than sugar. While other starches (grainy bread, pasta and legumes) havea a low GI take longer to get into the system.

So it's hard to generalise. The important thing to take home is that sugar has a medium GI so it's absorbed slower than potatoes or white bread or white rice but not as slowly as beans or pasta. This is not permission to overdo the sugar - it's still a low-nutrient food that should be used sparingly, just enough to sweeten and that's all.

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