What is starch?
Plants store their energy by stringing together many glucose molecules into a long complex of several hundred to several thousand glucose molecules. Plant foods that have stored energy, for example seeds that must provide energy for the young plant when it starts growing, are high in starch. When the young plant starts growing, the starch is broken down to form glucose for energy. Starch is found in food as amylose starch, which is a straight chain starch, and amylopectin starch, which is a branched chain starch. When you eat foods with starch, like corn or potatoes, your body digests this very large carbohydrate in much the same way as it digests protein. Your body uses a number of enzymes to cut down a large, linear starch chain into the small individual units that are linked together, the glucose molecules, which can then be absorbed in the intestines. The enzymes that breakdown starches are called amylases. Amylases are very important because starch is prevalent in our diet and a m
