What's that other carbohydrate besides sugar and fiber?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I often look at the nutrition labels and see something like this:

This is for Quaker Oats:

Total Carbohydrate: 27g
- Dietary Fiber: 4g
- Soluble Fiber: 2g
- Sugars: 1g

What's the other 20g? The typical carbs that we think of when we're talking about refined carbs that quickly get turned to sugar? But what determines if the carbs will the quickly converted to sugar or not?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

The "other" is any form of carbohydrate - could be straight starch, could be a complex carbohydrate, whatever. The nutrition label is there to give you a general idea about calories and such. It doesn't give you much information about the quality of the carbohydrate you're taking in (other than fiber and sugar content).

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The "other" is any form of carbohydrate - could be straight starch, could be a complex carbohydrate, whatever. The nutrition label is there to give you a general idea about calories and such. It doesn't give you much information about the quality of the carbohydrate you're taking in (other than fiber and sugar content).

Oh, I see.

So if you have two products, each with:

Total Carbohydrate: 27g
- Dietary Fiber: 4g
- Soluble Fiber: 2g
- Sugars: 1g

One product could still have way better carbs than the other? How would you tell at this point? I guess I don't even know what the types of carbs are.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Oh, I see.

So if you have two products, each with:

Total Carbohydrate: 27g
- Dietary Fiber: 4g
- Soluble Fiber: 2g
- Sugars: 1g

One product could still have way better carbs than the other? How would you tell at this point? I guess I don't even know what the types of carbs are.

Well, if one's mainly made from bleached wheat flour compared to being made from sweet potatoes, there's a huge difference in quality. That's where knowledge of the ingredients is important.