On every nutrition label (on the ones i’ve seen at least) there’s a section called “Carbohydrates”, and right under it is “of which sugars”
For example, this pack of chips I have lists that in 100g there’s 61g of carbohydrates, of which 2.4g are sugars (speaking of which, what sugars are these, even? monosaccharides? polisaccharides? both?)
And that made me wonder - what makes up the other 58.6 grams, and what purpose do those carbohydrates serve in the body? I’ll admit that I’m really inexperienced when it comes to stuff like this, so apologies in advance if this is something really obvious.
And just for clarity, just because humans can’t break those down doesn’t mean the entire animal kingdom can’t. So its fiber to us, but usable carbs for lots of other creatures.
True, I did think about mentioning that but decided to skip over it to keep things simple.
Animals like cows for example, can get by almost entirely on fiber. Stuff like grass doesn’t have much in the way of carbs we can use, but it contains a ton of fiber, and cows digestive systems are set up to actually do something with them.
The extra “stomachs” they have allow for some extra fermentation and such to happen so they can break down that fiber into simpler carbs.