Main article: CarbohydrateA pack of toasted bread is a cheap, high calorie nutrient (usually unbalanced, i.e., deficient in essential minerals and vitamins, because of removal of grain bran) food source with a long shelf-life.
Carbohydrates may be classified as monosaccharides, disaccharides, or polysaccharides by the number of monomer (sugar) units they contain. They constitute a large proportion of foods such as rice, noodles, bread, and other grain-based products.
Monosaccharides contain one sugar unit, disaccharides two, and polysaccharides three or more. Polysaccharides are often referred to as complex carbohydrates because they are long chains of sugar units, whereas monosaccharides and disaccharides are simpler.
The difference is important: complex carbohydrates take longer to digest and absorb since their sugar units are processed one-by-one off the ends of the chains.
The spike in blood-sugar levels after ingestion of simple sugars is thought to be involved in causing heart and vascular disease. Simple sugars form a greater part of modern diets, leading to more cardiovascular disease in populations. Simple carbohydrates are absorbed quickly, and therefore raise blood-sugar levels more rapidly.
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