I have in front of me a box of Nature Valley granola bars - peanut-butter flavor.
Per 2-bar packet, the Nutrition Facts indicate a total carbohydrate content of 28 grams, 2 grams of which are described as “dietary fiber” and 11 grams of which are described as “sugars.”
What are the remaining 15 grams of carbohydrates?
Oligosaccharides and polysaccharides.
Your sugars comprise the other two carbohydrate categories, with smaller molecules that provide energy quickly: monosaccharides and disaccharides.
ETA: I believe the basic sugars are sometimes referred to as “simple carbohydrates” and the bigger ones “complex carbohydrates.”
There are carbohydrates called sugar alcohols rather than sugars.
I’ve seen sugar alcohols are broken out separately – however I’m not sure if it is required or voluntary.
Simplest if not most correct answer: starch.
A carbohydrate is any molecule where carbon and hydrogen have a 1:2 ratio. Sugar, C6-H12-O6, is one of them. If you take the root C-H and slap an H and OH group onto it, it becomes an alcohol, like ethonol (C2-H5-OH).
ETA: Totally misread OP. But why delete a perfectly good post?
Most of the carbohydrates we eat are starches, which are polysaccharides, i.e., lots of sugar molecules joined together in long, and often branching, chains. It is the main dietary component of bread and other grain based foods, and indeed, of most vegetables. Unlike sugars, starches take a bit of time to digest, so the sugar they contain does not all go into the bloodstream in a big rush, but over a period of time.
Dietary fiber is also a polysaccharide (cellulose), but unlike starches it is not very digestible, and mostly passes straight through.
I do not think sugar alcohols are a significant component of most foods. They are used for things such as sweetening sugarless gum, because, although they are sweet and contain about as much energy as regular sugars, they do not promote tooth decay to the extent that regular sugars do.
Usually when labels mention grams or calories of ‘sugars’ they mean added sweeteners, sucrose or HFCS. Technically all carbohydrates are ‘sugars’.
Shouldn’t that be “all sugars are carbs”, not “all carbs are sugars?”
Yes, that’s the correct version.
Sugars are mono- or disacchardies, single or compound sugars, and include sucrose, in all its forms - cane sugar, beet sugar, brown sugar, molasses, etc.; lactose, or milk sugar; fructose, or fruit sugar; glucose aka dextrose, a naturally occurring simple sugar; honey, which is a physical combination of glucose and fructose; agave, which is a different combination of glucose and fructose; corn syrup, which is mostly glucose, though with other sugars included; high fructose corn syrup, which is a mixture of fructose and glucose of varying percentages, most often with higher fructose than honey but lower than agave; maltose, or barley malt, which comes from grains; artificial sugar alcohols like maltitol, xylitol, or mannitol; and artificial sweeteners, which are usually used in such small quantities that they don’t contribute to calories. I’m probably leaving out some specialized products that are used less often.
The rest are oligosaccharides, which are short-chain sugars from 3-10 units, and the longer polysaccharides, which can mostly be thought of as starches, because things get complicated and I don’t want to try to sort it all out.
Fiber is not counted in the calorie count because it is not digested by the body. It has uses, and is usually included in the overall breakdown, but doesn’t contribute calories.
Insoluble fiber is not counted; soluble fiber, which can be absorbed somewhat, usually is.
Sugar alcohols can be found in nature for example xylitol is naturally ocurring in birch.
It can be, but usually? I hadn’t thought so. Do you have a cite for that?
Oops. I went back and inserted the sugar alcohols and accidently left “artifical” there. Sorry for the confusion.