Dare I say it? I'm thankful for carbohydrates

I'm thankful for carbohydrates! I know, carbohydrates have gotten a rather bad reputation. There have been fashionable diets that tried to eliminate them. In fact, this Wikipedia article on carbohydrates says that they are not absolutely needed in our diet -- we can get the energy and nutrients we need entirely from other sources. So why be thankful for carbohydrates?

Well, for one thing, I like sugar and sweet things. Sugars are carbohydrates. So are starches, which are complex molecules made from many sugars. Starches are broken down into sugars as part of digestion. Some of that digestion takes place in the mouth, and mouth-digested starchy foods can taste sweet.

For another, much more important reason, carbohydrates are the first usable food products of the processes that make up photosynthesis, the amazing, and absolutely essential activity that turns water, carbon dioxide, and light into food. Carbohydrates are also turned into almost every other organic molecule in living things, by metabolism. The D in DNA stands for deoxyribose, a sugar. Amino acids, which make up protein, are synthesized, directly or indirectly, from molecules produced in making or breaking down sugars in our cells, or the cells of other organisms. Vitamins, steroids, and other critical cell components are made from carbohydrate raw materials. Plants use cellulose, a carbohydrate, for much of the structure of their cell walls. Lignin, synthesized from carbohydrates, makes up most of the rest. Without cell walls, plants wouldn't have the essential structures that they do, such as roots, stems, flowers and leaves. (Cell walls are also a major constituent of cotton and other natural fibers, and of paper.) In other words, without carbohydrates, life as we know it would be impossible.

Jesus said, in the Lord's prayer, "Give us our daily bread." Bread was an essential part of the diet of people of Bible times. David brought loaves of bread to the army. Bread was put out as a sort of offering in the Tabernacle. Bread contains carbohydrate. However, it also has protein, fiber, important minerals, and other things we ought to take in.

Sure, I can eat too many carbohydrates, and be a sugar glutton, but, all in all, I'm thankful to God for carbohydrates. Thanks for reading.

This post was expanded on November 24, 2018.

I have posted about other things I am thankful for, probably including carbohydrates, at other times. See here and here for links to these posts.

I'm also thankful to you, my reader!