Ill just say now I am by no means an expert on the subject, Im simply trying to learn things myself. And unfortunately I dont have the memory to remember all the things I read and see so relaying my learnings will lack specific detail.
There have been A TON of write ups lately and comments from people all over the internet on how all carbs break down into sugar the same as each-other causing the same amount of bodyfat regardless of where they come from, and there is no difference between eating oats/brownrice/whole grains and drinking a can of pop or eating table sugar.
Carbs all break down into glucose to some degree. Glucose is the fuel for all life on earth from cells and bacteria to humans. Glucose is mostly used up by your body before it hits your liver.
Table sugar is Surcose which is glucose-fructose and the sugar in a can of pop is not glucose, it is HFCS (we have all heard of High Fructose Corn Sirup). Fructose is NOT burned by the body, it goes directly to your liver for processing.
quiz: what do we call things that go straight to your liver without any prior processing? answer: poison
Here is what happens when you eat 2 slices of white bread roughly 120 calories vs a sugar sweetened drink (fruit juice, gatorade, coke, etc) which is also worth roughly 120 calories.
Glucose:
-80% of the glucose will be used by the body.
-About 20% of the glucose will hit the liver and get stored as glycogen (for future physical activity).
-A very small fraction of the glucose will be made into ATP which, if not burned, will go through a number of biochemical processes, turning into citrate, and may be stored as fat.
Sugar:
-60 calories from glucose will break down similarly to the white bread (48 calories to the body, 12 calories to the liver to be stored as glycogen). (not important)
-60 calories from fructose will all go to the liver.
-In total, 72 calories reaching the liver will need to be phosphoralated (turned into energy–ATP–adenosine tri phosphate). That is a lot–three times the amount, when compared to white bread.
-You lose a lot of phosphate in this process, and so the body provides a rescue molecule, and the end waste product from the metabolism of these calories is uric acid (which causes gout and hypertension, among other things).
-Uric acid blocks the your body’s chemical–endothelial nitric oxide synthase–for maintaining low blood pressure.
-Citrate, again, arises from the metabolism of all these calories, which promotes fat retention, dyslipidemia, VLDL, and high blood triglycerides.
-When its all said and done 30% of it will end up as fat.
Here is a
long video on why glucose and fructose ARE NOT THE SAME and how your body deals with each one. Its a lot to handle, especially the middle part, but you can pull some good points out of it. I hope at least someone watches.
in the end, a calorie is not a calorie regardless of where it comes from, and not all carbs and sugars are equal.