Once eaten, carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, which is a readily available source of energy for your body. Glucose is then converted into glycogen. Seventy-five percent of this is stored in your muscles and the remaining percentage is in your blood or stored in your liver where it’s broken down into glucose on demand. It then moves to your blood stream to supply your brain with fuel, whilst ensuring some glucose remains in the blood to supply your central nervous system. Muscle glycogen is broken down during exercise. Any excess is stored as fat.

There are different types of carbohydrate. Simple carbohydrates comprise sugars such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose and maltose. As they’re quickly broken down and released into your blood stream, you might feel hungry soon after eating. Once they’re released, you undergo a burst of energised activity during which insulin is produced to control your sugar levels. This leaves you feeling drained and craving your next energy burst, and is why you end up craving sugary snacks to resume your high.

Note: If you eat like this, you’re not only liable to put on weight, have poor nutrient quality, and be more prone to illness; your insulin process will also start to deteriorate. This means that you’ll become susceptible to type two diabetes, as your pancreas is struggling to produce enough insulin to contain your body’s rise in blood sugar.

Complex carbohydrates are better for you as they take longer to breakdown and are drip fed into the blood stream keeping our sugar levels stable which keeps us feeling full for longer. Porridge, oats, brown rice are in particular excellent sources.