Nutrients easily get converted from one form to the other. For example, carbohydrate gets converted to blood glucose (a kind of sugar) easily and refined carbohydrate into blood sugar even more easily. Blood glucose gets converted to glycogen, a kind of starch. Nutrients are equally interchangeable in the plant kingdom as well. For example, raw banana is full of starch and the starch converts into sugar on ripening. Conversely in vegetables like corn and legumes like peas, the raw versions are sweet. They gradually lose their sweetness on ripening and the sugar turns into starch. Old ripened potatoes when cooked taste sweet, sweeter than fresh ones. Again, some of the amino acids that proteins have are broken down to be converted to carbohydrates and thenceforth to glucose in the blood. In our understanding of nutrients, conversion plays a large part.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 08:07:27 +0000