What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are organic compounds containing usually one or two sugar molecules. Each carbohydrate has a particular number of sugar units, which correspond to its name. For example, the term "sucrose" means that there is one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose.

Carbohydrates play an important role in the biochemical process that takes place within cells, called glycolysis. Carbohydrates are also found in many food products, although they are not all considered to be healthy carbohydrates.