Comment on What purpose do carbohydrates OTHER than sugars serve in the body?
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 day agoFiber is, for the most part, indigestible, your body can’t really break it down into simpler sugars that it can make use of.
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.
Fondots@lemmy.world 1 day ago
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.