The word carbohydrate, to the many as well as other carbohydrates, carbohydrate carbon or saccharides, is a term used to describe those molecules that have a structure mainly composed of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. They are bimolecules and their first function in living beings is to provide energy for it to perform all the physical and metabolic tasks necessary to survive. It is together with proteins and lipids the most abundant substances in nature.
The origin of the word is given in the 19th century due to a confusion in the interpretation of a chemical formula, the term is maintained but it is not very appropriate because the molecule is not carbon atoms linked to water molecules but a combination between these and other functional molecules, the most appropriate name being considered that of carbohydrate which comes from the Greek σάκχαρ which means sugar or sweet and is used to describe glucose derivatives due to polymerization and loss of water.
The composition of hydrocarbon molecules has a lower proportion of oxygen, being mostly hydrogen and carbon atoms, and they also have covalent bonds, the strongest between two ions. This type of bond stores a large amount of energy which is released when the molecule oxidizes, giving it to the body, which uses it for its functions.
The hydrocarbons can be divided into four groups, monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides are made up of a single molecule, it is the simplest form of carbohydrates and it cannot be hydrolyzed; disaccharides are made up of two monosaccharides and to this group belong the hydrocarbons that are commonly found in the natural environment such as sucrose (sugar), lactose(milk sugar), maltose (from the fermentation of barley) and fructose; oligosaccharides are composed of three or nine monosaccharide molecules and polysaccharides are structures composed of more than ten monosaccharides, these can be branched or not and correspond to substances such as starch and glycogen among others.
If the energy of a hydrocarbon is not used by the body, it will store it in the form of fat until it is required, being then a very important factor in terms of nutrition, causing this necessary group of foods to be avoided in obesity treatments..
