How much carbohydrates do the body need in a day?

Every food that you consume on a daily basis has a variety of nutrients that are important for the body. Among these nutrients, there are those that function to contribute to the energy needed by the body in large quantities, usually called macronutrients (essential nutrients). One of the important nutrients that you often encounter in your daily diet is carbohydrates. Actually, how important is the role of carbohydrates in the body? How much do you need carbohydrates each day?

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are compounds that provide energy to the body in the form of calories. Carbohydrates are divided into two types, namely complex and simple carbohydrates.

As the name implies, complex carbohydrates contain many sugar molecules and are rich in fiber so they require a longer process for digestion in the body. Meanwhile, simple carbohydrates contain fewer sugar molecules so that the digestion process is faster.

How much carbohydrates are needed per day?

The need for carbohydrates per person every day varies. Your gender, age, level of activity, and health conditions will all affect your carbohydrate needs. To find out how much daily carbohydrate needs should be, you can refer to the Nutritional Adequacy Rate (RDA) by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia.

Thus, the RDA will be used as a reference for the average nutrient required by a group of people based on their gender and age. Here is a breakdown of the carbohydrates needed by men and women by age:

1. Women

Children: 155-254 grams (gr) / day
Age 10-12 years: 275 g / day
Age 13-18 years: 292 g / day
Age 19-29 years: 309 g / day
30-49 years old: 323 g / day
Age 50-64 years: 285 g / day
Age 65-80 years: 252 g / day
Age over 80 years: 232 g / day

2. Male

Children: 155-254 g / day
Age 10-12 years: 289 g / day
Age 13-15 years: 340 g / day
Age 16-18 years: 368 g / day
Age 19-29 years: 375 g / day
30-49 years old: 394 g / day
Age 50-64 years: 349 g / day
Age 65-80 years: 309 g / day
Age over 80 years: 248 g / day

However, you need to remember, you must consider the RDA reference according to your activity, weight, and height. So that you can know exactly what your carbohydrate needs are.

What are the sources?

After knowing how much your carbohydrate needs are every day, it's time to know what food sources can be consumed to meet the body's carbohydrate needs.

1. Starch

Most of the people meet their carbohydrate needs from starch sources. Starch is included in complex carbohydrates, so it takes longer for the body to digest. These food sources include rice, wheat, bread, pasta, beans, potatoes, and corn.

2. Fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are also a source of energy, containing only a few sugar molecules, thus speeding up the digestive process. Such as bananas, grapes, apples, oranges, broccoli, spinach, carrots.

3. Milk

Like fruits and vegetables, milk is also a source of simple carbohydrates. Not only milk, yogurt can also contribute calories in your body.

Benefits of carbohydrates for the body and brain

Carbohydrates are a source of nutrients that benefit the body and brain because they contain glucose. Where glucose acts as the main fuel to produce energy that will be used by body cells to carry out metabolic and biological functions. Glucose is very important for red blood cells, brain, and other body cells.

If there are sufficient carbohydrates in your body not doing its job properly as an energy producer, then this task will be diverted to protein and fat. Where protein and fat should have another important role for the body, protein which has the main function of building muscle and tissue will switch function into glucose if the availability of carbohydrates in the body is insufficient.

What is the effect if you eat too much carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates if consumed in excess can have a bad effect on your body, which can cause problems with digestion, blood sugar, and accumulated calories which can lead to weight gain.

Therefore, Livestrong recommends limiting consumption only to the needs of your body. In addition, it can also be done by balancing carbohydrate consumption by doing physical activity such as exercise.